“Listen to the Long Notes”

Five words resonated profoundly through a Masterclass given by Pianist, Andras Schiff at the Juilliard School. They framed a myriad of movements in Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras. Three students offered selections by Bach, Schubert and Schumann. (The event was Live-streamed) While Beethoven did not grace the program, Maestro Schiff's mentoring had far-reaching implications for…

Alessandro Deljavan is a uniquely gifted pianist

Sometimes winners of piano competitions are not true messengers of great musical artistry. They might succeed in pleasing a panel of judges who often reward interpretive conformity and convention bundled in pyrotechnical displays, bestowing the Gold medal upon the least offending contender. Yet such a career launch may be short-lived once the round-by-round environment is…

Mirrors and piano playing

As we age, we're reluctant to look at our reflection in the mirror, but as we grow over time as musicians, the mirror of our playing in recorded "reflections" can foster quality adjustments in phrasing and interpretation. If we nudge ourselves to step back and be "objective" about what we're hearing, we may try to…

When Your Song Breaks the Silence: A book about Franz Schubert

One of the fruits of forming a Short Story Book group, is meeting people who not only share an embrace of fine literature, but who might also enjoy a strong connection to the music world. Judith and Stan Jacobs fit nicely into this dual universe, having become members of my shrinking degrees of separation literary…

Our Global-wide Skype Music Sharing: Triumph over Tragedy

I posted the following on my Facebook page after my adult students played for their peers yesterday over Skype. Their performances were beamed from London, England; Sydney, Australia; near Asheville, North Carolina; Prospect, Kentucky; Chico, California, and Berkeley, home of the esteemed university. "Heartfelt music sharing in the wake of a tragic loss of Parisian…

Medici TV presents FREE LIVE stream of the XV INTERNATIONAL Tchaikovsky Competition from Moscow

http://tch15.medici.tv/en/live/piano This is a unique opportunity to savor performances by a roster of international contestants, one of whom is our very own, pianist, George Li, a loyal Facebook Friend to so many of his avid fans. We're tracking his global-wide performances with great interest. Li's scheduled opening Recital is THURSDAY, JUNE 18: 3:50 PM Piano:…

A SKYPE/LIVE Adult piano student recital!

It Finally Happened! My students taking lessons by Skype or FaceTime finally met their LIVE piano-connected peers in an hour-long, music-love ONLINE exchange. The emphasis was sharing in a compassionate setting with a spirit of unconditional support for participants of varying levels and abilities. Introductions preceding the program proved as engaging as each player's musical…

Theory embedded in phrasing/musical expression

What am I doing up at 2 a.m.? To put it simply, answering an adult student's inquiry about the theoretical analysis of J.S. Bach Invention 13 in A minor. At our last lesson, I had tweaked her curiosity about the harmonic dimension of the last two pages where modulations abound (especially measures 9-18) Yet as…

Piano Technique: Practicing 4 varieties of detached notes

This evening Big Mike, whose hands are impressively large, finessed various types of staccato. He proved that elasticity is more influential than finger length (and related) in producing clearly articulated notes in diverse colors. We started with a B minor (Natural form scale) enlisting a forearm FORTE staccato, then continued to a soft range, still…