Margaret (Maggie) Hinchliffe is a pianist, vocal coach, and educator with interests in collaboration and creating unique experiences through classical music. As an opera pianist, Maggie has worked as a repetiteur and coach for productions including Hänsel und Gretel and The Rake’s Progress with Lakes Area Music Festival, The Bartered Bride and Die Fledermaus with SFA Opera, Il Trovatore, Le Nozze di Figaro, La Bohème, and L’enfant et les sortilèges with Boulder Opera Company. Maggie was on faculty at Stephen F. Austin State University (SFA) as a Collaborative Pianist for both instrumental and voice areas, where she accompanied student recitals, competitions, and collaborated with guest artists, and she was previously a vocal and choir accompanist at University of Colorado Boulder. Beginning in 2026, Maggie joins the Vocal Studies Area at University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory as a collaborative pianist and the UMKC Conservatory Academy as a piano teacher.
Maggie is an advocate for new music, especially works that engage with poetry and local causes. She has received grants from the Puffin Foundation, Texas Commission on the Arts, Stagetime, the Composers Guild of New Jersey, and the Paul R. Judy Center at Eastman to commission pieces by poets Marissa Davis, Bri Griffith, karla k. morton, Mark Sanders, and S. Yarberry, and composers Martin Blessinger, Alexa Canales, Theo Chandler, Baldwin Giang, Clare Glackin, Nevada Lozano, Ben Morris, Alex Molina Shawver and Nicky Sohn. Her recent recital projects include “Cowboy Songs” for the classical stage with soprano Leah Hollingshead, programs of new works for flute and piano and works by women composers with flutist Michael Alampi, and “No More Walks in the Wood,” an interdisciplinary collaboration of music about trees and nature in Texas with soprano Rose Kearin. Her recital projects are family-friendly and encourage audience participation.
In addition to performing, Maggie writes prose and poetry on musical topics from collaborative piano advocacy to musicology research which have been published by Sparks & Wiry Cries, the International Keyboard Collaborative Arts Society, Sigma Alpha Iota, and more. Her article, "Trees and the Anthropocene in Art Song," was published in the Art Song Magazine, and she has given lectures at University of Minnesota Morris, Source Song Festival, University of Arkansas Fort Smith, and Stephen F. Austin State University. Maggie’s awards include the Career Performance Grant from Sigma Alpha Iota, the Virginia Allison Collaborative Piano Award from the National Federation of Music Clubs, the Grant Achievement Award from Stephen F. Austin State University and 2nd place at the 2025 Central Texas SongSLAM competition along with her team, Ben Morris and Rose Kearin.
Maggie received her MM in collaborative piano from the Eastman School of Music and BM in solo piano and pedagogy from Vanderbilt University. Additional studies include summers at the Aspen Music Festival and School, AIMS in Graz, Classic Lyric Arts, Deutsche Liedakademie, Roger Vignoles Mentorship Program, and Songfest. Outside of music, Maggie enjoys reading, traveling, and exploring the outdoors with her husband, composer Ben Morris.
