Paola Savvidou’s life has always been filled with music, and through teaching and mentorship as an associate professor of piano pedagogy at MU, she has aimed to share the music with others.

Savvidou’s dedication to mentorship has not gone unnoticed. Two students nominated her for the 2015 Purple Chalk Teaching Award, which she received from the College of Arts and Science.

The award has been given since 1974 and recognizes teaching excellence in faculty members who students nominate.

Senior Haley Myers, a music major, was one of the two students who nominated Savvidou for the award. Savvidou has been her mentor since freshman year and Myers said that she is an excellent teacher, mentor and friend to her. She said she nominated Savvidou because she “wanted to try to find a small way to return these favors.”

“Dr. Savvidou is energetic and highly creative, both as a musician and educator,” Myers said. “Dr. Savvidou gives so much for her students; it was impossible not to feel compelled to nominate her.”

Born in Nicosia, Cyprus, Savvidou came from a very musical family. Her father first inspired her and her three older sisters to appreciate the art by teaching them how to play the accordion.

Savvidou had a busy childhood. Her parents encouraged her to pursue many artistic opportunities including piano, flute, ballet and contemporary dance.

When it was time to attend college, she faced a rather hard decision in choosing which one to major in. Eventually, she chose to venture abroad.

“I decided to come to the States because I really liked the idea of a holistic education for me to be able to study music as a major and dance as a minor,” she said.

Savvidou landed the opportunity to study piano performance at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Even though there was no language barrier because she had gone to an English-speaking high school, her new life on a distant land far from home faced many challenges.

“Family is such an important thing, it was the primary support system,” she said. “The hardest thing was to move away from that support, for me.”

Coming into a foreign country, she had to find her way to adapt to the various cultural differences. Savvidou also had to adjust herself to a new life in the university where academic work was intense.

She said thanks to the “thriving international community,” she was able to build friendships with other students. This is also where she first met her future husband, School of Music professor Jonathan Kuuskoski.

After graduating from North Carolina, Savvidou went to pursue higher education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she attained both master’s and doctorate degrees in Musical Art in piano performance and pedagogy, as well as a dance minor.

“I was very lucky to be able to combine two of my greatest passions into my education,” she said.

Seeking more teaching experience, she eventually found a job in piano pedagogy at MU, where she remains to this day.

“I never went away from academia,” Savvidou said. “It feels like I’m forever a student. My life still goes by semesters and breaks; that’s never changed.”

Savvidou said she has felt a passion for teaching ever since she taught her first student, her little niece, when Savvidou was in high school.

“I really love connecting to people,” she said. “Interacting with students is really energizing to me. I find it really satisfying to see students grow and become more mature musicians. It’s a beautiful thing to see them become more self-confident and grow into their unique selves.”

As an assistant professor, Savvidou’s duty revolves around teaching and training students across age groups in different settings. She combines her expertise in dance with music performances, through which she attempts to impose analytical approach on both alignment and body movement in order to establish a more communicative engagement with the audience.

“I look at the body as a very expressive tool … I think a lot about how my whole body communicates, not just my fingers,” she said. “I try to find a movement that communicates the music and find a way to physically embody that.”

Savvidou’s endeavor in her field has gained international recognition as well, such as her New Muse Piano Duo tour around the globe with Kuuskoski. They toured through the U.S., Norway and Greece while performing at different venues for different audiences including at the European Piano Teachers’ Association conference and at Ionian University on the island of Corfu.

She said that her goal for the tour was to speak through music, even to untrained ears, to allow different audience members to grasp on the emotions while trying to find a balance between different foci.

“As a pianist, she has a strong sense of lyricism and harmonic timing,” Kuuskoski said. “She is very detail-oriented and a great complement to my ‘big picture’ approach.”

Savvidou said she views the School of Music as “one big family” where she gains the benefits of a closely knit group as well as access to resources and funding of a larger institution.

“I always tell her we won the jackpot with the opportunities we have at Mizzou,” Kuuskoski said.

Savvidou now has her eyes set on the future. With a CD project on its way, she said she intends to broaden her horizon.

“I want to continue to explore the territory of new music and engage with new audiences,” she said.