Dr. Peng Krol has served as a teacher and scholar in Illinois since 2015. She was the recipient of the Longford Keyboard Fellowship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she received her Artist Diploma and Doctor of Musical Arts. She was often invited as a guest artist to give lectures and masterclasses in the Guangzhou Opera House and the Steinway Gallery in Guangdong (China). Her students have been awarded prizes in the Champaign-Urbana Music Competition, the Illinois State Piano Competition and the American Protégé International Piano Competition, to name a few. Her thesis, The Combination of Diverse Musical Styles – the Research on Samuel Barber’s Piano Sonata Op. 26, has been published on the China Knowledge Resource Integrated Database. MTNA e-Journal published the abstract of her doctoral thesis in 2022. A chapter of her doctoral dissertation, The Whimsical Character in Beethoven’s Piano Variations WoO 73, is published in Beethoven The European: Transcultural Contexts of Performance, Interpretation and Reception By Brepols (Belgium) in 2023.

    Dr. Krol has performed internationally as a soloist and collaborative pianist. Her musicianship has been recognized in many competitions, including the Grand Prize Virtuoso International Music Competition of Paris, the Golden Key International Music Festival, the Deutscher Irmler Piano Competition, the Asian Yamaha Scholarship Competition and the Germany Wiesbaden International Piano Competition. Her performance venues include the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York, the Foellinger Great Hall at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts in Illinois, the Artist Presentation Society at St. Louis in Missouri, Steinway Hall in the Guangzhou Opera House, the recital halls at North Texas University, Texas Christian University, La Sierra University, China Conservatory of Music, Shanghai Normal University, Wuhan Conservatory of Music, Tianjin Conservatory of Music and the Xinghai Conservatory of Music, as well as the Xinghai Concert Hall in Guangzhou, Hongtai Concert Hall in Xiamen and the Parsons Music Centers in Shenzhen and in Hong Kong. In 2011, she played Brahms D Minor Piano Concerto with the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra at the Shenzhen Opera House. In 2016, she gave performances as a young artist in the prestigious PianoTexas International Academy and Festival and the Montecito International Music Festival. In 2020, Her recordings of Brahms’ Klavierstücke (Op. 76 and Op. 117) were selected and published through the National Young Piano Teacher Support Project by the People’s Music House in China. Her mentors include William Kinderman, Timothy Ehlen, Tamas Ungar, Christos Tsitsatos, Qifang Li and Songwen Li.

    Dr. Krol joined the faculty at the Illinois Summer Youth Music Festival and Piano Laboratory Program as of 2018. She was appointed as a collaborative pianist at the Xinghai Conservatory of Music (Guangzhou, China) and Carroll University (WI), and the Coordinator and Lead Instructor of the Piano Laboratory Program at the University of Illinois. Currently, Dr. Krol works at Harper College Community Education Program as a Piano Instructor. 

    Dr. Krol shares her passion for Classical music with her husband Jack and her son Max. In the spare time, she enjoys yoga and running.