There's Still Room for a Few More Pianists at the VISI Theatre of Art Song Program June 7-21

The Vancouver International Song Institute is still looking for one or two collaborative pianists for its Theatre of Art Song program which runs from June 7-21. This is a great chance to work with pianists such as Rena Sharon, Laura Loewen, and Alison D'Amato and study the art song repertoire on the stunning University of British Columbia campus. The Theatre of Art Song program will also overlap with the Collaborative Piano Retreat from June 12-14 (I'll be doing a presentation at the retreat--more info in a couple of days).

Tuition for the two-week program is $1200CDN plus accommodations. Bear in mind the Canadian dollar is currently trading at a discount to the US dollar, so American participants would pay significantly less taking into account current Canada/US exchange rates. For more info contact VISI as soon as possible. Hope to see you there!

Readers' Commentary - 28 April 2009

Some of the most interesting writing on the blog these days is coming from readers' comments. Here are some recent examples:

Sarah comments on 5 Ways to Add Length to your Practice Session:

Amen! I actually just had "the talk" with my main voice teacher, telling me I needed to take more time to dissect each phrase. I've added an extra 45-60 min to my practice- going from 1 1/2 hours to 2+. I warm up in the mornings from 9-10, and also work on technical exercises. From 2-3 before I teach I work on phrases. I force myself to go through every phrase and every vowel! Ah!! Very tedious, but I know I'm done when the doorbell rings :) When I'm through with my day of teaching, usually around 7:30, I go through my pieces in bigger chunks. It's great because I am completely warmed up and so satisfying to finally sing through something and release some emotion. I've also started looking at music beyond opera and running some musical theater rep. Definitely keeps my acting in check and is such fun! Thanks for this amazing post on practicing- if you have more tips for professionals, they are welcome!!

Yesterday's A Career in Parentheses? is also generating some excellent commentary. Jennifer Peterson (aka @gaspsiagore) writes:

Those of us who do this for a living can truly sense our value as collaborators. We are fulfilled by our contribution in a way those who are driven to be the soloist or the *star* may never experience.

Speaking for myself, the rewards unique to collaboration and facilitating to advance my particular corner of the creative arts far outweigh any possible rewards I might find in another field. I'm not sure the NYTimes would be able to see this satisfaction I'm able to live on, nor could they easily spin it into something the masses would be interested in reading, and I'm okay with that for the time being....

If I craved that attention, I think by definition I wouldn't be as good at what I do.

That's not to say I don't appreciate being appreciated!

And re. the term "accompanist" -- it's occurring to me that an unwritten, perhaps unofficial, standard in NYC is for operatic coaches to be referred to more often as "pianists" and "coaches" (if they coach), and the term "accompanist" mainly used for broadway pianists.

And finally, some personal perspective from ChiarinaEstrella: 

As I haul through the heaviest part of kids' competition season, I have the opportunity to notice - and feel quite keenly with my high stress level - the microcosm of attitudes towards accompanists just through the group of kids I'm working with.

Some have never known another accompanist, while some have had three, four or more. They are always incredibly eager for feedback - especially with competitions this weekend. I do my level best to do as much as I can for them. This is helped in large part by the teachers, who generally treat me like a goddess. Most of the parents go along with it, and learn as they go, and many treat me like gold. A certain few (mostly strings, the ones that see me most) bring me jewelry and chocolate and coffee gift cards at Christmas!

But then there are exceptions, and they are hard to take when I'm really stressed, sometimes even from the people I know best that know better. Forms were turned in by a teacher for one competition mere seconds from the deadline, for a kid I've never met before - without so much as word one to me from the teacher. She has yet to say boo to me at t minus 4 days. What is the teacher thinking? One parent who really ought to have known better waited a very long time to contact me, and then gave me a super limited window of times to work with for rehearsal, all based on her convenience and included the child's social schedule, not reality - I had to drop her and let someone else pick her up (for whom she suddenly had workable times - gee!) The mother doesn't seem to understand how these things work - or, more to the point, apparently does, and just wasn't willing to put out the effort. Another does seem to hold my playing and coaching in high regard, but is flaky as fine pastry.

It's really eye-opening when some parents are astonished by my pricing. I'm charging about the same as the going rate as a lesson at the school they go to for this kind of thing, yet every year, at least one parent seems unpleasantly surprised. I often undercharge when I know the family is under financial stress, and even then, one person will always nickel and dime me (generally someone that could afford far more than my rates). Some seem to think that I'm a service employee and will have wide swaths of time open just for them, yet would never hesitate to wait weeks for an appointment with their doctor or their hairdresser.

The good outweighs the bad in the long run, or I wouldn't do it, but I feel the wrong attitudes and abuses of my work far more keenly when I'm under stress; as well, at this time of year, a lot of yahoos come out of the woodwork for these big events, so I see more of the bad attitudes at this point as well. I just try to remind myself of the little 9 year old pianist who thinks having an orchestra for his Mozart is the coolest thing *ever*, or the one teenage singer that had never met me before and came in bubbling over with gratitude before I had even played a note, and then it's all ok.

Thank you for the level of thought and writing that went into those comments, and keep them coming! Readers' Commentary (with links to authors wherever possible) will now be a continuing series on the Collaborative Piano Blog.

A Career in Parentheses?

Deborah Sontag's A Life Lived on the Side in Sunday's New York Times looks at the life and work of pianist Larry Fuller, a regular on the New York jazz scene, but one who works as a sideman rather than a band leader. The story of his personal journey and musical engagements makes for some interesting reading, as does Sontag's description of what it takes to maintain a lasting career in jazz:

To make a steady living as a jazz musician is in itself no mean feat, and Mr. Fuller has done so his whole life. His experience offers some insight into the requirements for survival as a working artist, especially in a specialty like jazz where fame and fortune are not realistic goals. Talent most certainly helps, but single-mindedness, passion, humility and the ability to live modestly seem critical too.

And yet...

I sense a kind of manufactured bias towards pianists who choose to work with others, as if a musical life that is spent working in collaboration rather than in the spotlight is a kind of disappointment (hint: re-read the title of the article). Buried near the end of the article is a disclosure by Fuller that he in fact makes $80,000 to $100,000 a year playing, a pretty respectable amount in the jazz field. Why not celebrate the fact that a jazz pianist who has managed to maintain an extremely stable career for years while overcoming enormous personal odds is able to make a solid living from his love of playing jazz? 

Be sure to check out the tracks of the Larry Fuller Trio on the multimeda sidebar. Although Sontag's article makes no mention that Fuller has ever led his own trio, the Larry Fuller Trio's recording on Pony Boy Records lists Fuller on piano joined by the legendary Ray Brown on bass and Jeff Hamilton on drums.

-----

One of the things I mention in workshops I give about my blog is how the media's perception of collaborative pianists colors what we do. Could you imagine the direction of this blog if I had named it "Accompanist's Corner"? "In the Shadows"? "At Your Service"?

And if there ever was reason that much still needs to be done, simply take a look at the anonymization of the pianists (and the abuses hurled at them) who are mentioned on a Twitter accompanist search. 

Previously on the Collaborative Piano Blog:

You're a What?

You're a What? Part 2

You're a What? Part 3

10+1 Ways to Advertise Your Services as a Collaborative Pianist

Appoggiaturas: Some or All of the Time in Mozart Recits?

A huge congratulations to Erika Reiman of Hamilton for starting Hammermusik. You may already know Erica from her music and knitting blog PianoKnits. Her second Hammermusik article is of particular interest to anyone that deals with the Mozart operas: Appoggiaturas in Mozart's recitatives: to add or not to add?

On a search to justify the traditional practice of adding appoggiaturas some but not all of the time in Mozart recits, Erica discovers that there is only one scholarly article that justifies this (by Frederick Neumann), which was thoroughly debunked by Will Crutchfield in 1989. 

Which is more correct--the weight of Mozartian operatic tradition or authentic performance practice? What should coaches recommend to singers? What should singers do in auditions, bearing in mind that only a small minority of musical directors may subscribe to (or even know about) current scholarly thought on appoggiatura frequency?

The Search for the Perfect Musical Quote

My newest post for the MTH blog is up, entitled Personalize Your Music Teaching Website with Favorite Quotes. The article looks at how to change the pre-loaded quotes on MTH music teacher websites, places to find them, and the importance of using a quote to influence the perception of your site in the first few seconds of viewing. 

By the way, what's your favorite musical quote?

[Update 9:47pm] 

This quote is from @musicformedia: B Sharp, don't B Flat, always B Natural :)

The 2009 MIT Piano Drop

Piano FAIL, gravity WIN: this tradition dates back to 1972 and commemorates the last day that MIT students can drop a class without being penalized on their transcript.



(Via WTB)

Opera Atelier Ticket Giveaway Winners

The contest is over, the Poppea mini-plots have been written and submitted, and we have 5 winners:

Gerrit Theule:

Attempted murder
Disguise - Mixup - Confession
Things we do for "love"

Opera Gal:

Poppeas gossip has Senaca fall on his knife while Nero plots much evil for sex after Ottavia is banished Poppea becomes Empress - Amore win

danny:

Power, lust and deception. Poppia seduces Nero to become empress

OperaGeek:

Fate of Poppea
For the crown, heart of Nero
by Monteverdi

Anonymous:

To hell with virtue and fortune, Love Conquers All! (That's Amore, And They Called it Poppy Love)

Thanks for competing! Each of these winners will receive 2 tickets to the April 29th showing of the Opera Atelier production of Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea at the Elgin Theatre starting at 7:30pm. Congratulations to all of the winners and a huge awesomesauce thanks to Opera Atelier for making these tickets available. Unfortunately, I won't be at the show on the 29th since the only night I can go is the 28th.  I hope to be able to run more of these competitions in the future, and not just for events in Toronto...

Opera Atelier Ticket Giveaway: 5 Readers Will Each Win 2 Tickets to April 29 Poppea Performance

One of Toronto's most anticipated operatic events of the season is opening in a few days: Opera Atelier's production of The Coronation of Poppea by Claudio Monteverdi at the Elgin Theatre from April 25 to May 2. This production will feature an all-star lineup of singers, including Michael Maniaci, Kimberley Barber, João Fernandes, Carla Huhtanen, Peggy Kriha Dye, Cory Knight, Olivier Laquerre, Laura Pudwell, Vicki St. Pierre, Tracy Smith Bessette, and Curtis Sullivan.

Now here's the best part:

Opera Atelier will be generously giving away 5 sets of 2 tickets (10 in all) to readers of the Collaborative Piano Blog for the performance of April 29th.

Here's how it works...

Competition Rules and Regulations

1. Write a short synopsis of Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea in 140 characters or less. Be inventive, clever, cunning, witty, or snide. Just be aware you have only 140 characters in which to tell the story of the opera.

2. Once you've written the pint-sized synopsis, you have to do two things: 

a) Email it to me at collaborativepiano [at] gmail dot com - this is so I can reach the authors of the winning entries.

b) Leave it as a comment on this posting so readers can follow the contest entries as they appear.

3. The deadline for entries is Friday, April 24 at 12pm Eastern Daylight Time. After that I'll go over all the entries, choose the winners, announce them in a separate post, and forward the winners' names and email addresses to the Opera Atelier office so they can be contacted by an OA staff member about how to pick up their free tickets on the 29th.

4. Note to Twitter users: if you're entering the competition and you want to rebroadcast your entry on Twitter, be sure to add the #poppea hashtag following your entry (which means that you'll only have 133 characters to write your synopsis).

5. If you wish to remain anonymous, you can either comment anonymously or invent a nom de plume for your comment. Just be sure to send me your real email address when you submit your entry to my email address (see 2a).

I would like to express heartfelt thanks to Opera Atelier for kindly making these tickets available to readers of the Collaborative Piano Blog. Best of luck to everyone! 

(Photo of Peggy Kriha Dye and Michael Maniaci by Bruce Zinger)

Map of Future Forces Affecting Education

Ever wondered what the effect of grassroots economies, smart networking, families, institutions, and changing practices is having on education? The KnowledgeWorks Foundation has created an interactive Map of Future Forces Affecting Education that poses significant questions about the future direction of education. Whether you're still in school, operate a private home studio or teach at an institution, this map is required reading for anyone that is looking to ride the crest of where education might go in the coming years. KnowledgeWorks also offers a video showing possible ways to navigate the map:

(Via The Teaching Box/@theteachingbox)

Steve Reich's Double Sextet Wins 2009 Pulitzer Prize in Music

Congratulations to Steve Reich for winning the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his Double Sextet. The Pulitzer music citation lists the Double Sextet as "a major work that displays an ability to channel an initial burst of energy into a large-scale musical event, built with masterful control and consistently intriguing to the ear." The Double Sextet was conceived as either a work for 12 soloists or as a sextet that plays against the other recorded sextet. Here's a video of eighth blackbird recording the 2nd sextet part (Lisa Kaplan on piano):



Some info from the Pulitzer site on the other finalists for the 2009 music prize:

Also nominated as finalists in this category were: “7 Etudes for Solo Piano,” by Don Byron (nottuskegeelike music/BMI), premiered on March 15, 2008 at Hallwall’s Contemporary Art Center, Buffalo, NY, a deft set of studies that display rhythmic inventiveness and irresistible energy, charm and wit; and “Brion,” by Harold Meltzer (Urban Scrawl Music Company), premiered on April 23, 2008 at Merkin Hall, New York City, a sonic portrait of a cemetery in northern Italy painted with the touch of a watercolorist and marked by an episodic structure and vivid playfulness that offer a graceful, sensual and contemplative experience.

(Via Iron Tongue of Midnight)

More about the Pulitzer Prize in Music from Wikipedia

Monday Morning Update

It's been an honor to have been asked to adjudicate for two prestigious Toronto festivals over the last two weeks: the Davenport Music Festival and the Royal Conservatory Festival. Wendy just got a great review in the Toronto Star today for her Fairy Queen in Toronto Operetta Theatre's Iolanthe. The eye infection that I've been dealing with in the last few days is much better, and this week I'm back to my regular teaching schedule for the first time in weeks. More interesting blog stuff to come in the next few days.

John Graham on Practicing

John Graham has written an interesting article about practicing piano as part of his new teaching website. A colleague of mine at the Royal Conservatory, John pulls no punches--he emphasizes that even at the start of a course of study in music, there has to be a commitment to regular practice times in order for any benefits to show:

If you are the type of person that cannot tolerate repetition, piano is certainly not for you. Consider other forms of enrichment. Adults learn motor skills much slower than children do and sometimes require more determination to succeed. Without the repetition, a given piece can take months, sometimes years to learn, even then usually prepared to a mediocre standard. The lessons become tedious for both the teacher and student as there is little variety. The student has to learn to do this routine work independently. They have to learn how to practice. This is part of what I teach. Proper habits and approach to the instrument is critical and must be established from the onset.

John's article might be worthwhile to show to parents of potential students in order to get parents on board in the teaching process, as @aferomckinney points out.

Practicing by John Graham

Previously on the Collaborative Piano Blog:

Build a Regular Practice Schedule Part 1
Build a Regular Practice Schedule Part 2
Goal Setting Part 1: Short Term Goals
Goal Setting Part 2: Medium Term Goals
Goal Setting Part 3: Long Term Goals

Guerrilla Dance Performance at Antwerp Central Station

Just look at the expressions on the faces of commuters at Antwerp's Central Station as they watch an impromptu dance performance of Do-Re-Mi from The Sound of Music unfold before their eyes, then evaporate as soon as it's over:



I've always had a soft spot for these unnanounced performances that blur the boundary between ordinary reality and art, and got to participate in one just last month. In Canada, you can also discover more unconventional ways to experience new music with New Music in New Places.

Previously on the Collaborative Piano Blog:

Impromptu Opera Performance Spotted in Vancouver's West End
Naturally7 in the Paris Metro

Guerrilla Musical Theatre Performance in London's Stansted Airport
Los Angeles Food Court Musical 

(Via @reneesalewski)

Call for Composers: 2009 ASCAP/LLF Art Song Composition Competition

If you're a composer [Update: specifically a composer under 30 who is either a resident of the US or a student enrolled in the US] writing in the art song tradition, you might be interested in the 2009 ASCAP/Lotte Lehmann Art Song Composition Competition, which features a song cycle commission for the first prize winner, and song commissions for second through fourth place. Be sure to check out the rules and guidelines on the competition's application form regarding application materials. Applications will need to be postmarked by September 15, 2009.

Speedlinking - 13 April 2009

Here are some articles of interest I've mentioned on Twitter in the last few days:

• Michael Hitzik writes in the LA Times about Glenn Gould's foresight about the role of technology in music.
• If the performing scene is slow in the real world, there's always Second Life.
• Wondering how a Steinway is made? Check out the online factory tour on their website.
• Bean-Counter Concerto, from Wiley Miller's Non Sequitur cartoon.
• Caroline Davies' Comeback for pianist who beat Tourette's in the Observer looks at Nick van Bloss's journey with the condition in his return to the concert hall.
• The stampede of people in the arts onto Twitter has continued unabated this month. If you're new to the platform , have a look at Brenda Young's Beginner's Guide to Twitter.
• Zinc Research and Nick Coulter have some interesting commentary on Billy Bob Thornton's now-legendary botched interview with Jian Ghomeshi on Q (watch the original interview here).
  
  

More About Festival Accompanying Rates

Earlier this evening, s@bd left an excellent comment on the previous article about how to charge for festival accompanying, which appears below in full:

I am a voice teacher and here's the system I've worked out with the pianists I work with:

I have nine students singing thirty-five songs in twenty-seven classes at an upcoming festival. I hire a pianist on behalf of all of my students and usually negotiate a fee on a per song basis - regardless of the difficulty level of the song AND regardless of whether several students are singing the same song. So every students knows when they sign up for the Festival that they will be paying on a per song basis ...

I give the pianist the music in advance (obviously) and arrange Performance Classes of about two hours in length that occur the week before the Festival. The are five to six students at each Performance Class and each student is assigned a certain number of their songs to sing at the Class. The class is the rehearsal time with the pianist as well as a chance to perform for peers. I assign approximately seven to fifteen minutes per song (depending on how much ensemble and performance things will need to be worked on), which generally works out to about three two-hour rehearsal times.

So, the pianist gets paid for 35 songs at $25/song ($875), which covers about six hours of rehearsal and their time at the Festival.

Keeping in mind that I always work with local pianists so that there's no travel cost incurred, and keeping in mind that the pianist is literally being paid for accompanying, NOT for coaching, how do you feel about this arrangement?

It seems to me the best way to make sure the pianist is being paid fairly but also that the students can enter as many categories as they like without it becoming prohibitively expensive ...

I'd love your thoughts ...

In the original post, my opinion regarding how to charge for playing at the festival was to charge a set rate per person per class in addition to rehearsal time. In the case of s@bd's studio, she has a fair number of singers entered in the festival, all of whom are entered in multiple classes. 

I see s@bd's goal as threefold--1) to get all of her singers set up with pianists, and 2) to maximize rehearsal time for a lot of singers performing a lot of rep, and 3) to ensure that her students are paying for pianists in a fair and equitable manner. Thus, she works out an alternate arrangement with payment per song negotiated with a single pianist for ease of organization and uniformity of cost for singers in her studio. 

Although this arrangement is quite different from the one I mentioned in the original post, it seems like a logical course of action to pursue if you're a teacher with that many students in the festival. It's also a sizable chunk of money for the pianist that agrees to play for the studio. The main difficulty with this arrangement is finding a pianist to be present and reliable for all the hours with no NA's and his/her ability to play the rep at a uniform level, all based on a vocal contract between pianist and voice teacher.

One thing I need to emphasize is that festival accompanying work exists in a free market economy. Pianists can charge as much or as little as they feel appropriate. Performers, their teachers, and parents can set terms for how much they wish to pay for the desired rehearsal and class times to be played. If one party disagrees with the other, they are welcome to negotiate if they see fit, or to stand firm. I know some pianists who will refuse to play for a single festival class for under $150. I have also encountered parents who have told me that my rates for playing festivals are completely inappropriate. If pianists and performers/parents/teachers disagree on payment terms, they are welcome to negotiate, and if they don't agree on payment terms, any party is welcome to walk away prior to a commitment being made.

The important thing for both parties is to agree on hours and payment prior to any commitment being made, and then stick to it. Or they'll never work in this business again. Just joking. No I'm not.

Using the Top Posts Widget To Find Past CPB Articles

After three and a half years of relentless blogging, there are now over 1300 posts on the Collaborative Piano Blog. One of the requests that I have continually responded to is a need on the part of readers to be able to find what they are looking for quickly. In addition to the Google search box on the upper right hand corner of the blog, the Monster List of 100+ Resources, and the links to articles and labels on the sidebar, I've just installed a Top Posts widget from PostRank, which you can see just below the Feedburner and Twittercounter chicklets on the right hand sidebar at the bottom of every page on the left-hand side of the footer. PostRank rates reader engagement of articles based on criteria such as Google Reader shares, comments, bookmark links and more, then lists a rating out of 10.

Here's what's really cool: there's a search bar at the bottom of the widget, on which you can type what you're looking for. PostRank not only searches the entire history of the blog, but uses its rating algorithm to list the most important items under your search term.

Try out the widget and tell me if you find it useful. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

More Page Turning Links

Joanne Kaufman's Some Page-Turning Tales in the Wall Street Journal is a wonderful look at stories from pianists and their page turners. An anecdote from Joseph Kalichstein:

Several years ago, Mr. Kalichstein hired a young music student who kept reaching across the score to turn pages from the bottom right corner, in the process obscuring several measures of the concerto. "Take it from the top!" the frustrated Mr. Kalichstein finally hissed; reflexively, the page turner flipped the score back to the beginning. "Since then I've been very careful how I phrase things," said Mr. Kalichstein ruefully.

I don't know if the following video is a joke or not, but it celebrates the spiritual gift of the [sniff] page turner:

Here's a scene from Denis Dercourt's 2006 film The Page Turner:

Of course, with one of these, you'll never need another (human) page turner again...

Previously on the Collaborative Piano Blog:

Pianist vs. Page Turner

Victor Borge Page Turner Skit

AirTurn Launches: Are Human Page Turners Obsolete?

The Crash Ensemble Plays Dennehy's Grá agus Bás

Another great video from CMCIreland: excerpts of the Crash Ensemble (featuring Afro Celt Sound System's Iarla Ó Lionáird) playing Donnacha Dennehy's Grá agus Bás at the Samuel Beckett Theatre in Dublin's Trinity College. As usual, there's nothing more to say, thanks to the CMCIreland's excellent commentary and subtitles throughout the video:

(Via @CMCIreland)

IPA Humor

Here's some geeky IPA humor that discerning vocal coaches should appreciate--the Speculative Grammarian's latest issue features an article on Guidelines for the Behavior of Graduate Students of Phonetics. Here are a few excerpts:

5. There is absolutely no mystical significance to the fact that the IPA symbol for a voiced palatal implosive slightly resembles the helix symbol from the TV show Heroes.
6. Students are not allowed to erase everything on the vowel chart besides /a, e, i, o, and u/ and insist that the TA “teach the controversy.”
7. Students are not allowed to turn in papers written entirely in IPA.

(Via John Wells and Craig Tompkins)

More language-related stuff on the Collaborative Piano Blog:

International Phonetic Alphabet: Full Chart and Links

10 Ways for Collaborative Pianists to Build Language Skills

10 Ways to Translate Song and Aria Texts into English

How To Charge For Festival Accompanying

A few days ago, Vashti asked the following question:

I don't know that this has already been covered somewhere, but I'd love to read a post on charging for Festival accompaniment. 1 song in 1 class vs. 5 songs in 1 class. I've always charged per class my hourly rate no matter how many pieces played, but would love to hear some other points of view.

Run by organizations such as local Kiwanis/Rotary clubs and chapters of organizations such as NATS or MTNA, these annual festivals provide performing opportunities for hundreds (if not thousands) of local young musicians with the opportunity to win scholarships, receive an independent evaluation from an adjudicator, and strut their stuff in front of parents and the musical community.

The vast majority of the classes for voice, strings, winds, and brass require a pianist to be there, providing the potential for a huge amount of seasonal work for those pianists who are willing and able to put in the hours required for this often strenuous work.

However, the issue of how much pianists should bill clients for their time can be daunting. Here are some of the billing possibilities for pianists:

• flat rate per performer
• hourly rate per class
• single charge per performer per class
• additional charges for rehearsals
• additional charges for lessons
• bulk rates for multiple participants from one studio
• discounted rates for multiple participants in a class

There is often a fair amount of disagreement among pianists as to how they prefer to charge, and among teachers, performers, and parents as to how they prefer to pay.

Here is my recommended best practice for playing at festival classes:

Amount charged per performer = flat rate per class per person + rehearsal and lesson times as applicable

No studio deals, no hourly rates for festivals (which can be notoriously behind schedule), no bulk rates for multiple participants within a class or from a studio.

Here's an example: 

A singer asks a pianist to play for two classes at the festival. They agree on one and a half hours of rehearsal time. For this example I'll arbitrarily use an hourly rehearsal rate of $50 per hour and a festival class rate of $30 per person per class.  The amount charged will therefore be 2 classes @$30 each ($60) + 1.5 hours @ $50 ($75), for a billable total of $135.

If you're charging with this system, you have the option of fine-tuning your rates depending on whether or not you wish to offer lower class rates offset by higher rehearsal rates, or vice versa. I do not recommend an all-inclusive flat rate per person, as if there a particularly large number of rehearsals, the pianist can feel cheated, and if there is a negligible amount of rehearsal time needed, the performer will feel cheated. With the broken-up billing method above, it will probably result in different amounts charged to different performers, but at the end of the day, both pianist and soloist will feel that they were dealt with fairly.

This billing practice may result in pianists feeling out of sorts if they have to commute all the way to play for the festival for only one person. It may also result in pianists making a sizable amount of money if they are particularly overworked at festival time. I believe this is appropriate, as playing for festivals requires a lot of note-learning, rehearsal time, schedule juggling, time spent waiting around, personal interaction, and potential performance anxiety.

Earlier this evening on Twitter, I asked this question: "Pianists--how much do you charge for accompanying at festivals? Do you charge for the class + rehearsals or a flat rate?" Below are some answers that I've received so far (huge thx to @eusebius24, @JeffThePianist, and @musicformedia). What are your practices for billing at festivals, competitions, and workshops? Do you feel my recommendations are appropriate? Are you pressured into giving rate discounts? What do you recommend for pianists entering the field of festival playing?

Free Sheet Music Download for Isaac Shepard's Gentle

If you happened to play Music Catch 2 embedded in a posting from a few days back, you might have noticed Gentle, a particularly moving piano piece found in the second level of the game. Isaac Sheperd, who created the game, also wrote and played the piano music for it, which you can find on his Deep Joy CD. From his blog posting of March 28, Isaac has also released the sheet music for Gentle, available as a free pdf download. It doesn't look too difficult, as long as you're okay with G flat major and observe the registration markings above or below some of the treble clefs. Enjoy!




Update: I just spent some time with the piece in the studio and it reads very well. One important thing to watch is that there are not just two but four clefs in the score: treble, treble 8va sopra, treble 8va basso, and bass clefs. The transitions between them are clearly marked but require a careful eye for detail. A huge thanks to Isaac Shepard for making the score of this piece available.

The Last Piano Roll Ever Made

QRS Technologies has just issued its last piano roll, a recording of Michael T. Jones playing Rodgers and Hart's "Spring Is Here". From a Buffalo News article:

QRS dates back to 1900. Melville Clark, a Chicago piano designer and inventor, created a subsidiary of the Melville Clark Piano Co. based on the 88-note standard piano roll he developed.

The company changed names and hands several times — even locating for a time in New York City — before Ramsi Tick, manager of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, bought it in 1966. Richard A. Dolan, the current chairman of the board, bought QRS in 1987.

Mark Sommer's article makes for some fascinating reading, with a lot of history about this once thriving, now forgotten industry. QRS will now focus on developing, expanding, and marketing its Pianomation line of interactive digital products.

Link

(Via the well tempered blog)

Update: Buffalo bloggers Mary Kunz Goldman and Howard Goldman have also written about the QRS story, and Howard has filmed Michael T. Jones playing the historic roll of Spring Is Here:

Misha Dichter Plays the Prokofiev 7th Sonata

Here is a film of Misha Dichter playing the third movement of Prokofiev's Seventh Sonata, as directed by Stanley Donen (with multi-screen awesomeness):



(Via @kirill_pianist)

Isaac Shepard's Music Catch 2

For those of you who enjoyed Music Catch and its soundtrack (both by Isaac Shepard and relased by Reflexive), here is Music Catch 2 for your gaming pleasure (collect green+blue shapes, yellow multiplies the score, red is bad, purple is awesome):





I adore the piano music in this game! Throughout the course of the game, you can unlock further songs from Isaac Shepard's Deep Joy album.

Note: if you're reading this post on Facebook, an RSS reader, or email, you probably won't be able to play the game until you click on the link and come directly to the site. 

Support Staff?

The link at the above tweet goes to a job listing for an On-call Music Accompanist (at the Support Staff pay level, no less). Although the listing for the position doesn't reveal any hourly rate information, The job's page on Texasjobmarket.com advertises an hourly rate of US$10.06. I also followed a link to another page that advertised info on On Call Music Accompanist Salaries in Fort Worth, TX, which lists an average salary of $20,000 per annum for this type of position.

On the salaries page, here's another interesting tidbit of information:

Average On Call Music Accompanist salaries for job postings in Fort Worth, TX are 17% lower than average.

Double digits! Below that quote on the same page, Indeed.com even has a graph of National Salary Trends for On Call Music Accompanists, which you can see in the following screenshot:

Just look at that growth! I don't know where Indeed.com got their facts regarding the salary trends of On Call Music Accompanists, but some recent research by OSSTF (the parent union of the RCM Faculty Association) failed to uncover any information in existence regarding average salaries of faculty at schools of music, either across North America or internationally, let alone those of the On Call Music Accompanists that work there.

Two Questions: 

1) Is this type of position worthwhile for those pianists with collaborative piano degrees who are entering the workforce and looking for their first taste of academic work? (Disclosure: I started my teaching career as a staff accompanist, and although I moved beyond it into classroom and private teaching, I worked with fantastic teachers and students and it was a rewarding experience overall.)

2) Are there any resources in existence where salaries of faculty at schools of music (including staff accompanists) are listed? Or are salaries at schools of music a closely guarded secret that are never shared outside the groves of academe?

(Via @tmj_dfw_music and the dreaded accompanist search on Twitter)

Misha and Cipa Dichter Will Premiere Mendelssohn Four-Hand Works This Summer

This summer at both the Ravinia and the Aspen Music Festivals, duo pianists Misha and Cipa Dichter will be performing the world premiere of the Songs Without Words Op. 62 and Op. 67 arranged for piano four hands. These four-hand works are part of a group of 270(!) unpublished works recently uncovered by the Mendelssohn Project.

Ravinia program for June 20

Aspen program for August 20

Here is part of the press release sent out by Shuman Associates this morning with a fascinating story of the work's origin:

March 12, 2009…Misha Dichter and Cipa Dichter, who have become known for bringing many previously neglected works of the two-piano and piano four-hand repertoire to the concert stage, will perform the world premiere of an unpublished work by Felix Mendelssohn at the Ravinia Festival on Saturday, June 20, followed by a performance of the work on Thursday, August 20 at the Aspen Music Festival. The “Seven Songs Without Words, Op. 62 and Op. 67” for piano four-hands are among more than 270 unpublished works recovered by The Mendelssohn Project.

Mendelssohn began writing his “Six Songs without Words” for solo piano, Op. 62, in 1841 and completed them in early 1844. Soon after at a dinner in London with British novelists Charles Dickens and William Thackeray, the idea was discussed of arranging the Op. 62 songs for piano four-hands and dedicating them to Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert, both pianists. His work was nearly finished when he learned that the Queen’s favorite song was Meditation from the “Six Songs Without Words,” Op. 67. Mendelssohn quickly arranged the work, and on June 9, 1844, presented the “Seven Songs Without Words, Op. 62 and 67” for piano four-hands to Prince Albert with the following dedication (translated from the German).

Your Dignified Royal Highness,

I have taken the liberty to arrange the fifth book of my Songs Without Words for four-hands for You. And now I dare to lay it down at the feet of Her Majesty the Queen and Your Royal Highness; I have used hints of Czerny’s facile arrangement style etc. as well as I could, and have even exceeded my predecessor at least with respect to one point, I have enclosed a still unpublished seventh Song for four-hands. May the composer be credited for what the copyist may have lacked here and there – and vice versa! May Your Royal Highness sometimes play parts of it and consider it as evidence of my heartfelt gratitude for the gracious accommodation and the unforgettable hours that You let me share during my stay last week.

Always, Your Royal Highness, most sincerely

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy

In addition to their world premiere performance of Mendelssohn’s “Seven Songs Without Words” at Ravinia, the Dichters will play Dvorak’s 5 Legends and Liszt’s Concerto Pathetique for two pianos. The Ravinia program will also include Schubert’s Sonata Op. 143 and Beethoven’s Six Bagatelles, Op. 126 by Mr. Dichter. 

(Thanks, Angela!)