Elizabeth DeMio Interview

The December 8 edition of Cleveland Classical features an interview with pianist and Cleveland Institute of Music faculty member Elizabeth DeMio, who talks about the field of collaborative piano, observations on repertoire and ensembles, and her own musical activities.  Here's an excerpt:

Dan: When did accompanists become "collaborative pianists"?

Liz: Nobody called it that in the old days when there wasn't a department yet at CIM. In the early 80s, there was a program at the University of Michigan run by Eugene Bossert, a wonderful coach and teacher. You could actually get a degree in accompanying. When CIM established its program in 1983 or 1984, perhaps they already called it "collaborative piano". But John Mack said to anybody of my generation, it sounded like the collaborators of World War II. We don't have that association, but the older I get, the less I care what it's called!

Dan: What's a typical week like for you at CIM?

Liz: There is no typical week. Regularly, I work with a lot of people, helping prepare programs. I work almost exclusively with instrumentalists, and I've been lucky to be able to concentrate on a couple of different instruments - I'm drawn to the cello and the oboe, I get to work with a lot of those players and I know the repertory, which is sometimes really difficult, like the Dvorak concerto which has a big hairy orchestral reduction to play.