Pianist Regan Russell is driven by a passion for musical collaboration, storytelling and scholarship, and joyful creativity. Raised in the Pacific Northwest and spending her graduate school years in Boston, Dr. Russell relocated with her Air Force husband to Los Angeles, California, in September of 2021. She currently works as a staff pianist in the voice departments of El Camino College and Santa Monica College, as pianist for the Joanna Medawar Nachef Singers, and as a freelance accompanist, vocal coach, and private piano teacher. She is also pianist, secretary, and website manager for the Gena Branscombe Project.

During her years in Boston, Dr. Russell regularly collaborated with Boston University choirs, vocal and instrumental degree students at Boston University, the BU Opera Institute, MassOpera, and Opera on Tap. In January 2019, she coached and played for t.b.d.opera.projects’ production of Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers; the Boston Musical Intelligencer described her performance as “spectacular, full of subtlety and fire.” For three seasons, she served as pianist for VOICES Boston children’s choir, spent three summers as a vocal coach and pianist at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI), and taught private piano lessons at the Cambridge Music Consortium in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Dr. Russell holds degrees from Washington State University (BM Piano Performance, Phi Beta Kappa) and Boston University (MM Collaborative Piano Performance, Pi Kappa Lambda; DMA Collaborative Piano Performance). Her doctoral dissertation, presented in November 2022, catalogued Gena Branscombe’s nearly 150 art songs for voice and piano, tracing their compositional characteristics and suggesting recital sets for performers.