Revered piano teacher honored, to festival’s gain

Agnes Reichardt Arnett

Imagine the gratification of hearing from a stranger that your loved one deserves such an honor.

That’s how Emporia State University’s annual piano festival became the Agnes Reichardt Arnett Spring Piano Festival, named after a piano teacher who taught more than 1,000 piano students in Emporia. She passed away in April 2005.

Agnes’s children, Don Reichardt (BSE 1960), Delores Brown (FS) and Marlene Niemann, were considering a scholarship in their mother’s name when Dr. Martin Cuellar, an associate professor of piano at ESU, called with the idea of naming the annual festival after Arnett.

Reichardt said he and his sisters loved the idea. Said Reichardt, “I told (Cuellar) we’d been trying to figure out how we could keep her legacy alive.”

Cuellar said he knew Arnett to be a “remarkable” teacher. “I felt that we needed to honor her memory in some way.”

Honoring Arnett comes with more than the festival’s name. The Agnes Reichardt Arnett Piano Fund has been established at the ESU Foundation. Earnings from the fund will support the festival first, followed by scholarships for deserving students and “Agnes Reichardt Arnett Excellence in Teaching” award stipends. Only the fund’s interest will be allocated, so the fund itself will live on.

“We think that there’s never enough support for good teaching,” Reichardt said. “We believe that this festival and events like it, to help students showcase their talents, are very important.”

Arnett moved to Emporia in 1948. She studied music for two years at the College of Emporia and took eight years of college-level private study at ESU, later becoming a charter member of the National Guild of Piano Teachers and a member of its Hall of Fame. She embraced the annual festival, which is organized by the ESU piano department and the Emporia Area Piano Teachers association.

Reichardt said that the fund, supporting the festival, students and teachers,

exemplifies the qualities Arnett cherished.

“It’s a small way, but it’s our way of being able to support that,” he said.

Cuellar spoke to the incredible piano talent in the Emporia area.

“Piano teachers are usually people who sacrifice a great deal,” Cuellar said. “Anything we can do to recognize outstanding teaching, it’s really a wonderful thing.”

The third annual festival is set for Sat., April 8, 2006, at Beach Music Hall.

For more information on the fund and the festival, contact Don Reichardt at (770) 518-1151, or Martin Cuellar at (620) 341-5230, or the ESU Foundation at (620) 341-5440.

Last Updated July 2, 2007>