Wendy Webster Ardizzone
About Wendy
Wendy Webster Ardizzone founded the Joy of Music Program (JOMP) in the fall of 1986 and served as the school’s Director for the next 36 years. She earned her B.M. degree in Piano Performance in 1965 from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she studied piano with Jack Radunsky and Emil Danenburg, viola with William Berman, chamber music with Jack Fraser, Dalcroze Eurhythmics with Inda Howland, and piano pedagogy with Janet Owens. Piano studies with Martin Canin her junior and senior years of high school and her father, Beveridge Webster, at the Aspen Festival and Music School the summer of 1964 had a profound impact on her growth as a pianist.
A born collaborator, Wendy’s life-long love for chamber music (piano and viola), orchestral playing (viola), and choral singing was kindled during her summers at Kinhaven and Greenwood music camps and continued being nurtured at Oberlin and Aspen. These ensemble experiences were so vital to her own growth she began adding them to JOMP’s offerings as early as 1991.
Collaborative Piano wasn’t offered for credit at Oberlin at the time. But, with the blessing of both her piano professors, Wendy was able to gain extensive experience while fulfilling her solo performance degree requirements. She served as accompanist for many professors, including Peter Howard (cello), Robert Willoughby (flute), Stuart Canin (violin), George Waln (clarinet), Jacques Possell, (double bass) and William Berman (viola). Wendy still draws on the fantastic coaching she received from them during their students’ lessons while preparing for Student and Senior Recital performances.
Jobs Wendy held throughout her five years at Oberlin in the Conservatory Library and the College Development Office were life changing for her. They gave her amazing learning opportunities and she got to know and work with administrators, faculty, staff, and other students she wouldn’t have otherwise met. Seeds were planted in both fields. Volunteering in the May Street Elementary School Library (WPS) during the seven years her three children were students there was a perfect match. She was especially drawn to learning about Development, never dreaming that fundraising campaigns and donor relations would become a significant part of her life’s work.
Her love for teaching children led Wendy to do graduate work in Early Childhood Ed at Tufts University, where she studied music for preschoolers with Beatrice Spaulding. During the years her own children were very young, she was a home day care provider. After moving to Worcester in 1977, she resumed piano and chamber music studies privately with Victor Rosenbaum and her study of Eurhythmics at the Longy School of Music with Lisa Parker and Anne Farber. From 1978 to 1985 she taught piano, chamber music, and Eurhythmics at the Performing Arts School of Worcester, and served as staff accompanist, recital coordinator, summer Director and Interim Music Director.
During Joy of Music’s first three years, Wendy was still collaborating in performance with many musicians, including Arturo Delmoni, violin; Leone Buyse, flute; Michael Webster, clarinet; Kevin McGinty, piano; Beth Pearson, cello and George Seaman, cello. In 1989, with JOMP blossoming by leaps and bounds, she chose to focus her energy on developing the school instead of being a full-time accompanist that would include concertizing and traveling.
As the school continued to grow, she gradually passed her piano, recorder, and music & movement teaching on to other JOMP faculty. The 2011 launch of JOMP’s $2.3 million 25th Anniversary Campaign, which included the construction of Shapiro Concert Hall, required Wendy to devote more time to fundraising. By 2019 she had also passed much of her administrative work along to her staff so she could concentrate on Development and Leadership Transition fundraising. In August of 2022, she turned over management and decision-making to new leadership, assisting with donor relations and grant writing during the one-year transition, as planned. Wendy continued to work half time through August 2024 on a consultant basis. Since her retirement in September 2024, she’s been sorting through three and a half decades of files.
Accompanying students and collaborating with faculty members in chamber music concerts throughout her tenure was a joy she will always treasure. Working so closely with them was a constant inspiration that strengthened her resolve to keep the JOMP community thriving through its many challenges, especially after the fire at the First Unitarian Church and during the pandemic. She’s happy to be continuing to accompany students when she’s needed.
Wendy was the 2002 recipient of the YWCA of Central Massachusetts’ Katharine Erskine Award in the Arts and Humanities. She is a Corporator for Music Worcester and the YWCA of Central Mass. Since the fall of 2023, Wendy has enjoyed sharing her love for music as an Artist-in-Residence at the First Unitarian Church in Worcester.