Dr. Barbara Fast, professor emerita of piano at the University of Oklahoma, is the recipient of Bethel College’s Erwin C. and Verna Kaufman Goering Music Award.
Fast, a 1975 Bethel graduate, accepted the award May 3 in a presentation made during Bethel’s annual Masterworks concert, a performance of Haydn’s oratorio The Creation, featuring orchestra, soloists and a 100-voice choir.
Dr. Christina Liu, Bethel associate professor of music, presented the award. She described it as an honor that “celebrates not only musical excellence, but a life shaped by dedication, character and a deep commitment to the art of music.”
The Goering Music Award recognizes a Bethel music alumnus of outstanding character for distinguished achievement and recognition in music. It is named for two Bethel alumni whose lives, Liu noted, were “woven into the fabric of this institution.”
Verna Kaufman Goering was a pianist, accompanist and choir member who later taught and mentored Bethel students, while Erwin C. Goering’s connection to the college began through its musical ensembles and continued through 20 years of service in public relations.
“Together, their legacy reminds us that music is not only something we perform — it is something we nurture in others and sustain across generations,” Liu said.
A pianist herself, Liu first met Fast over Zoom in January 2024 during a West Central Division meeting of the Music Teachers National Association, where Liu was serving as president-elect and Fast as the association’s vice president of membership at the national level.
Fast has devoted her career to excellence in teaching, performance and research. Her most recent honor is the 2025 Frances Clark Center Lifetime Achievement Award — the center’s highest honor, celebrated at The Piano Conference: NCKP 2025, the biennial meeting of the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy. The award recognizes individuals who have made substantial and enduring contributions to the field of piano pedagogy.
Her lifelong interest in effective teaching led Fast to research the practical applications of sports, brain and educational research for practicing and teaching in group piano classes and private lessons. That work culminated in the book iPractice: Technology in the 21st-Century Music Practice Room (Oxford, 2018), and she contributed a chapter to the forthcoming The Cambridge Companion to Piano Pedagogy from Cambridge University Press.
At the University of Oklahoma, she received the David Ross Boyd Professorship for excellence in teaching in 2020 and the Regents Award for Superior Teaching in 2014. Her earlier faculty appointments include the University of Northern Iowa, Hesston (Kan.) College and Woodstock International School in Mussoorie, India.
Fast’s broad interests were evident from the start of her career. At Bethel she completed a double major in piano and flute paired with a minor in English, graduating in 1975.
“I remain deeply grateful to Bethel for its liberal arts education, which supported me as an undergraduate while I was still discovering my path,” Fast said in accepting the award.
She recalled exploring music, sociology and literature before settling on her double major, describing an environment in which music was central to campus life.
“The curiosity that was encouraged at Bethel gave me both the freedom to explore and the support to complete the training that shaped my career,” she said. “It’s especially meaningful to receive this recognition, because it shaped my career as a musician and teacher, but also my lifelong belief in and love of learning.”
Bethel is a four-year liberal arts college founded in 1887 and is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. Bethel is ranked #25 in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Regional College Midwest for 2026. Bethel was the only Kansas college or university to be named a Truth, Community Healing and Transformation (TCHT) Campus Center, in 2021. For more information, see www.bethelks.edu.
Photo of Dr. Barbara Fast, left, and former president Jon Gering by Ava Broxterman
