Connor Austell

Based in Mobile, AL, pianist and musicologist Connor Austell is a versatile musician equally at home in the performance hall and in the lecture hall. A firm believer that scholarship and musicianship go hand-in-hand, Dr. Austell’s teaching philosophy holds that decisions made in musical performance should be grounded in a historical, theoretical, and pedagogical understanding of the score. His debut album Blind Tom’s Creative Vision is available on all major streaming platforms, and his recent scholarly publications include “Exploring the Piano Compositions of Thomas ‘Blind Tom’ Wiggins” (American Musical Perspectives, upcoming 2026) and “The Piano Sonatas of Jan Ladislav Dussek as Precursors to Beethoven and Musical Romanticism” (Ad Parnassum, upcoming 2026).
      Dr. Austell holds degrees from the University of Georgia, the University of Michigan, and Grand Valley State University, where he studied with David Fung, Arthur Greene, and Sookkyung Cho. He studied chamber music under the tutelage of Katherine Collier, Helen Marlais, and Pablo Mahave-Veglia, and has participated in masterclasses with world-class artists such as Jonathan Biss and Martin Katz. His enthusiasm for Baroque music was fostered by a study of harpsichord and organ technique with Gregory Crowell. Austell currently serves as Instructor of Music History at the University of South Alabama and Adjunct Instructor of Music at the University of South Carolina Lancaster.