Noel Benkman - concert pianist, music professor, eLearning developer - is on the music faculty of Chabot College where he has taught music since 1989. He will begin teaching concurrently at Foothill College in fall 2011. Since 1998 he has pioneered the development of online education at Chabot College developing and teaching completely online versions of academic music courses. For four years he was Production Manager of Web Course Development at Teacher Universe and later Riverdeep Interactive Learning. During that time his team received two Codie Award nominations for Best K-16 Education Administration Solution 2003 and Best Online Training Program 2001. He continues to work as an elearning consultant.

Pianist Noel Benkman has performed four concert tours throughout China - most recently in 2008. In 2006 he was awarded Honorary Visiting Professor of Music by Shanxi Art College in Taiyuan, China. He was first invited to China in 1996 as the "American Olympic Pianist" because he performed the Rhapsody in Blue with the New American Orchestra in the Opening Ceremonies of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles . In 1996 he performed for 60,000 people at the Qingdao International Festival.

In addition to recitals in Asia and the United States, he recently performed in “Music in the Mountains” in Yosemite National Park. Mr. Benkman’s CD Yosemite Suite on the Lushtone Records label has received excellent reviews and has been featured numerous times on American Public Radio. He has composed and recorded music for several independent films and the theme music for the television series Culture Shock News.

Noel Benkman holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as a student of Thomas LaRatta and Adolph Baller and a Master of Music degree from Stony Brook University as a student of Gilbert Kalish. He lives in Orinda, California with his wife Valerie and has two grown sons: Matthew and Mark.