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Talk about having a blast--Joshua Nemith writes about how in a Memorial Day Concert he played the cannon part of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture...on a DX7 synthesizer. I can just imagine the jokes from the brass section:
A staff member at Belvoir Terrace in Lenox, Massachusetts sent the following note:
Belvoir Terrace has an opening for a collaborative pianist to play for musical theater in an all arts exciting summer program. Martin Katz has sent his students to us and they have enjoyed our program and done well. We have one of his doctoral students with us this year and Martin will come by as well. We have an opening that just occurred so if you want to gain great experience coaching singing and playing for musicals apply on the website at www.belvoirterrace.com or call us at 413 637 0555. Thanks and collaborative piano is a great and important field.Sounds like an interesting opportunity. Lenox is a wonderful community in western Massachusetts and is also home to the Kripalu Center and Tanglewood.
Earlier today, Rebekah asked the following question on the Degree Programs in Collaborative Piano comment thread:
Just wondering if you know of any good schools that have undergraduate degrees in collaborative piano?..
Nope.
My opinion is that pianists should get a Bachelor of Music degree either as a piano major or piano concentrator, then major in collaborative piano at the Master's Degree.
My main concern with undergraduate collaborative piano degrees: there is a perception that pianists in these programs are merely cheap labor pools for voice and string departments, with a very real danger that they will complete their degrees without adequate skills to prepare them for either graduate programs in the field or professional life.
Outside the Mississauga campus of the Royal Conservatory of Music, this flute-wielding skateboarder was recently sighted.....wait a minute......looks........familiar.....
Yes, it's none other than Jamie of Urban Flute Project in the middle of a guerilla flute performance, complete with awesome Doppler effect as he passes the camera.
This is one of the busiest weeks of the year for me, with precious little blog time until later in the week. In the meantime, here are some recent articles from around the blogosphere on practicing, networking, and using technology:
What some people wouldn't do to satisfy their Hello Kitty obsessions...and yes, it's a customized Yamaha.
(via Xenia Potter)
Another Hello Kitty piano (unknown make)
Hello Kitty miniature grand piano
Hello Kitty Fender Statocaster guitars
A big thanks to Karen, who left a comment on the Degree Programs List about the University of Maine's Master of Music Degree in Collaborative Piano, run by Dr. Phillip Silver.
The number of collaborative piano programs on the degree programs list now stands at 93. One of my summer projects will be to create links (either from the original list or from a series of follow-up posts) to relevant university, college, and conservatory sites so that the list will be even more useful for those searching for information in the field.
What a lot of people don't know about Jascha Heifetz is that he was also a fine pianist, as well as a one-hit wonder as a songwriter under the pseudonym Jim Hoyl. Here he is playing an audio-only piano version of "When You Make Love". Check out the second to last paragraph of this short Heifetz bio to see a small photo of the sheet music's cover art.
Chelsea London Pianos are available in black, white, mahogany, and pink. Another color soon to be offered: blue.
(Via London Pianos' photostream on Flickr)
More cool pianos:
M. Liminal, NYT Line's Custom Fazioli
The Schimmel Pegasus
Video of Piano-flinging Trebuchet
Jazz Garden w/ Piano Fountain
After a couple of previous tries with other services, I finally took the plunge and created the real thing--a studio site that offers my students and collaborators a one-stop website where they can view their upcoming sessions, lesson notes, lesson history, repertoire, items on loan, and files, as well as information on upcoming events and music-related resources. This architecture is all courtesy of Music Teacher's Helper, which allows teachers to create a centralized space where they can manage their studio and have their students or students' parents view their progress. In addition to the links in this post, you can also get there via the navigation bar just below the header.
One of the trickiest things about managing my professional life involves the sheer diversity of the types of events that I need to schedule:
Here are some interesting finds from around the blogosphere:
Oops.
(Via Piano's Place in Public and Adamo W. Jr. II's photostream on Flickr)
Update: Michael Vincent's take on this image
My recent post about The Growing Pains of Collaborative Pianists has generated some interesting discussion, including this comment by JY, reprinted here in its entirety:
I love this post! It presents a foot in the grey areas of the careers of the collaborative pianists in their early stages. I think the lines of right and wrong are crossed by both the soloist and the collaborative pianist, at the same time. It is true, sometimes, that instrumentalists/ vocalists don't give their counterparts enough time with the music, thus creating a disconnect when time comes to put together. Oftentimes, certain things that are worked upon during rehearsals go out the window onstage (which, I find, happens with young performers quite often). I find these to be the significant moments where collaborative pianists find their reputation (and mental health) at risk, and feel that they are left to take the blame.
On the contrary, there are many young collaborative pianists who are at fault - ones who don't know how to coach, and feel that they are there just to "play the piano part" (which is counterproductive, as this deters from the musical learning experience, as well as doesn't give a proper frame of reference, other than the notes for the other musician), and also those who don't speak up for themselves when they aren't given enough time (rehearsal or prep) to invest upon the music.
The success of collaborative pianists are not warranted by whose career they hitchhike upon (in which here, I will say, I strongly disagree with the author of the last quote from PEToA). I think they produce an equally brilliant career by presenting themselves as artists who work together, sharing the limelight with other musicians (be it an instrumentalist, vocalist, or even artists or dancers), and producing an illustrious musical presentation.
It's ultimately a two-way street - no matter if it's success or failure. As we all fall back onto the true reason for being there in the first place - that is, the music making. The outcome will be the creation of a memorable collaboration, and a reputation built upon three important factors - as Dr. Foley reminds us - dignity, professionalism, and, most of all, the music.
(Via sugarpacketchad's photostream on Flickr)
More composer action figures:
-Beethoven with a certain Viennese friend
-I never would have known
-At what appears to be a Liederabend of some sort
-I don't think these two get along!
"Do I hafta?"
That's the response from legions of pianists who are required to learn mountains of scales, chords, arpeggios. Like oatmeal, technique is supposed to be good for you, but many pianists think that daily doses of it are bland, uninteresting, and merely a preamble to the real business of being a pianist--playing repertoire.
Yet the study of technique is a discipline that can yield much from the fruits of its labor. Here are some of the ways that you can benefit from the regular practice of technique.
1. Learning the building blocks of music. Most Western music is based on a small number of scales and chords. Isolating these elements and making them a part of your daily routine can help you to better understand your repertoire, whether it be classical, pop, rock, jazz, broadway, or country music.
2. Fingering. Humans are equipped with two hands, each of which has a strong second and third fingers, a weak and interdependent fourth finger, a small but spry fifth finger, and an opposable thumb with a completely different manner of operation than the other fingers. Learning the ins and outs of knowing which fingers to use and how can help you tear up and down the keyboard in most spectacular fashion.
3. Sound. Do you actually listen to the sounds you make while practicing those scales and chords? Having a discerning ear for qualities of sound can make those hours become a workout for the ear as well as the fingers.
4. Memorization. The ability to play music from memory is an extremely valuable skill. And where better to learn it than in the workshop of technical exercises and their weird keys, black vs. white notes, fingerings, patterns, and forms.
5. Velocity. Once you're able to slowly and carefully play through a scale, broken chord, or arpeggio, the time is ripe to increase the speed and get through it quicker. I always like to tell students that in order to achieve velocity, they should be thinking faster in addition to playing faster.
6. Warm-up. There is a certain regularity to technical exercises. Many pianists are comforted by having a daily regimen of warm-up exercises that feature technique in order to help them warm up their fingers, hands, wrists, and arms and achieve a sense of grounding at the keyboard before venturing into the minefield of repertoire.
7. Detail. I've lost count of the times I've written that a student's scales were "almost" perfect or "nearly" accurate. Taking that final step to excellence demands hard work and dedication and what better way to get there than by ironing out the details.
8. Focus and Concentration. Everyone says that practicing technique is good for your fingers and overall playing mechanism. That's only part of the story--technique is also a workout for the mind, building mental focus and clarity that can also be put to use no matter what you play.
9. Weird keys. Part of becoming comfortable playing piano is the art of making friends with distant keys. These unlikely friendships (I'm particularly enamored with D flat major) can often spill over into the discovery and enjoyment of new and unexpected corners of the repertoire.
10. Identifying keys. Before you play a technical exercise, it helps a great deal to be able to understand and visualize what it consists of. Dominant and diminished 7ths in particular require some thought as to their layout before embarking upon playing them.
11. Feel the power. What many pianists discover at some time in their development is that playing fast and loud can be incredibly fun. Once you make this discovery, playing technique can be an exercise in power, command, and control of your playing. Rock out, dude.
12. Get those hands playing together. Left vs. right fingering patterns in parallel motion can be entirely different from each other in many scales. And let's not mention that left hands are often more sloppy and inaccurate than right hands. Spending time with the hands apart as well as together can sometimes be a useful fix for this common problem.
13. Keyboard geography. One of my teachers once compared playing piano to sitting in the press box watching a football game. Technique can help you greatly with learning the lay of the land and help you get from end zone to end zone in the heat of battle.
14. Let loose. Practicing technique isn't just about correctness and rigidity, but a lesson in practicing performance as well. Being able to play technique with sparkle and elan is an important step in transforming from student to artist.
15. Evenness and reliability. Above all, a piano technique should be a skill you can rely on and trust, helping you in even the toughest of performance situations with comfort and command.
Further reading:
The 5 C's of Learning Piano Technique
The Extreme Piano Guide, or 30+1 Ways to Improve Your Practice Time
5 Things to Remember About Fingerings
Developing an Artistic Sensibility
10 Ways to Get a Fresh Start With Summer Practice Assignments
What if 100 of the top music education bloggers created a network with the goal of sharing information and resources for the mutual benefit of themselves, their readers, and students? The ME Blogger project, begun by Grove City College faculty member Joseph Pisano, aims to do just that. So far he has assembled a list of 54 blogs on the topic of music education (The CPB occupies a proud 53rd spot), with 46 spots still remaining. Check out the entire list of blogs, as well as rules for participation and links to more information at the 100 ME Blogs page. Look for links to articles by some of the ME bloggers in the coming weeks...
Looking around on Flickr this evening, I stumbled upon a huge photographic resource for pianists: numerous photo pools dedicated to the piano. Here are a few of the really interesting and unique ones featuring various aspects of pianos, their brands, their players, how they fit into society, how they are fixed and cared for, and what happens when they go somewhere to die:
The Piano's Place in Public
Meerkats in purple hats playing the piano
My Love Affair With The Piano
Yamaha Pianos
Steinway & Sons Pianos
Perishing Pianos
Toy Pianos
Piano Jazz
The Architecture of the Piano
(Image from lonelanternsociety's Photostream)
A recent post by Tao Squared strikes to the heart of why pianists decided to become collaborators and the difficulties they often face at the early stages of learning their craft:
People still don't treat accompanists like real people. Maybe it's better in the professional world, but most student singers don't understand diddly squat about what we go through. In fact, it's worsened by the fact that most student pianists treat accompanying as something they do on the side. They'll pick up a piece, ask the tempo, and plunk out the notes, to give the singer a framework in which to perform. That's it. They are not invested in the piece at all - just providing the backdrop. I don't blame them - I used to be like that too. But we just need to suck up our egos and admit that accompanying is hard. One needs to spend MORE time practicing and preparing an accompaniment than working on a solo piece of comparable difficulty. There are more questions to be answered, because someone else is DOING something at the same time, and you have to sound good TOGETHER. No one seems to acknowledge this fact!
Look, all I'm saying is that as a singer I am frustrated by having to deal with hostility from pianists (regardless of their abilities). I am VERY considerate and always provide music well in advance, when possible, and it would just be nice to work with someone who can be pleasant and is not constantly trying to assert their importance by being a pain! (You may be thinking, well, you're just not working with the right person. That may be true, but don't kid yourself into thinking this is not a very common thing among CPs.) Guess what, the way for a CP to make a big career is to hitch a ride on someone else's rising star. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. Look at all the famous and successful CPs, they are all where they are because they were associated with a great singer, violinist, cellist, etc. Those singers, violinist and cellists were surely much better off for having that talented pianist with them, but remember your ambition when you decide to be a piano "diva".
This Monday evening at the Academy of Spherical Arts in Toronto, Chantelle Grant, Taylor, Strande, Katie Murphy, and Matthew Cassils will be singing in a program called Berlin in Light that features cabaret works by Schoenbert, Bernstein, Weill, Ives and Bolcom. Also appearing are Tristan Durie (flute), Jasmine Hall (clarinet), Pam Hinman (violin), Liza McLellan (cello), and Adam Sherkin (piano).
Wait a minute....that combination of instruments...strangely familiar......
Yes, there will be a performance of Book 1 of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire sung by mezzo soprano Chantelle Grant. The performance starts at 7:30 and tickets are $10, with an optional 5:30 dinner for preferred seating.
Directions to the Academy of Spherical Arts
The Academy's in-house listing
Facebook event listing
One of the most memorable scenes from Tim Burton's 2005 film Corpse Bride is the piano duet between Victor and Emily, whose detachable hand might be useful in certain works requiring extended techniques. And my goodness, that piano looks like it has spent considerable time in the Land of the Dead. Must find.......piano...technician....
It's been a busy couple of weeks here, with a full schedule of teaching, playing, master classes, marking, and administrative duties. As the season winds down in a few weeks, I hope to have some time to finish several organizational issues with past postings, as well as adding more resources. Here's what is on the agenda:
Make sure you watch to the end of this outrageous clip with Anna Russell's advice to those who would seek a career as an [ahem] opera singer.
Coaches who work with singers in preparation for agent, conductor, and company auditions often pursue a much more elusive goal than those who prepare singers for recitals and university auditions. I've talked to numerous coaches who have stated that they have very little idea what actually gets singers hired at the professional level. An article by Valerie Scher in the San Diego Union-Tribune looks at the casting process of Ian Campbell, artistic director of the San Diego Opera. Campbell assembles file cards that contain information on numerous singers he has heard and hired over the years, and states about what he has noticed:You'll find lots of names that amounted to nothing. Then, there are others who really took off. Still others are singers who don't have the kind of sound I'm after but have good careers.
One benchmark that he uses in hiring:Company directors are looking for a sound they like or that works for them in a particular group of singers, when the blend is very important.
What do you consider important traits in the singer's art that are important at the professional level, musical or otherwise? Feel free to leave comments below.
(Note: Be sure to check the update at the bottom of the post!)
Male singers looking into learning an operatic role or two to perform this summer may want to check out the Atеlίεя S Summer Vocal Academy in Querétaro, Mexico, featuring productions of Il Tabarro and Gianni Schicchi. Some of the faculty that will be working with the singers in the program include Stuart Graham, Claudette Denys, Ewald Hekking Sloof, and François Vaucher.
I'm going to contact Atеlίεя S Artistic Director Stuart Graham this morning to see which specific roles are still being filled and then update this post. Here's what Stuart has already said about the program:
One could think that Queretaro is an unlikely place for this kind of summer program considering the multitude of resources one finds in Mexico City or other places such as Guanajuato or Puebla. But, the opportunity presented itself quite unexpectedly and as I became familiar with the cultural "goings on", I quickly decided that this is the place to be.If you need to contact Atelier S you can either fill out this contact form or email them directly at atelier.s [at] sympatico dot ca.
My good friend for the past 18 years, Dr. Ewald Hekking (originally from Holland) has been a long time member of the faculty as a teacher/co-ordinator and researcher in the Linguistics Department of the Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro. I mentioned to him this idea of a summer program that had been floating in my head for the past 18 months and he thought it was a wonderful idea. And, to add to the fire, he mentioned that Queretaro and its university was really the destination of choice for many of the European Universities to send their students for spanish immersion during the summer months as Queretaro had acheived a very strong reputation for the quality of its language education.
As for the cultural and musical side of things, the resources are many here and with the help and partnership of the Faculty of Fine Arts of UAQ and Atelier S is finding itself fully enabled physically and morally. The choice of Queretaro as a destination instead of Mexico City was not a difficult choice, in as much as we do finish the showcase with the final week of performances in several venues throughout Mexico City. Queretaro is just a short 3 hour drive straight north of Mexico City on the edge of the Sierra Gorda mountain range in the central plains of Mexico. Even thought the city has quickly grown in economy and population (now 750 000 people) it maintains that very small village feel and really is a most important cultural centre in Mexico as this is the birthplace of the Mexican Revolution back in 1810. Aesthetically, it is very rich in colonial spanish architecture and is now fully protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A visit to my website's "Mexico at a glance" page will show the photographic proof of the beauty. (http://atelier-s.org)
A question I have been asked often is: "Mexico in the summer? What are you thinking?!" Yes, Queretaro does get warm (daily highs in the 30'sC). Pretty much the same one would suffer in a good old prairie summer in Canada. But, being in the middle of the desert, one does not suffer the humidity and it will cool off to a frisky 5-10C at night. The stone and brick houses and buildings do keep very fresh during the heat of the day, and one would find that the city really comes alive once the sunsets and everyone goes out to eat in the many plazas and listen to the mariachis or local jazz combos playing in the bandshells of each park.
Yes, there are the courses to take and the hours of rehearsal to achieve, but I fully anticipate the participants of Atelier S in Queretaro to get out and enjoy the flavours and generous spirit of Queretaro.
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