Studio Winter Recital

Here is the group! These are most but not all of my students. 21 of these students in the picture have been studying with me for less than 18 months. I have heard a lot of progress this year!

I really enjoyed this year-end recital; We made sure that most students did not stretch to play their hardest pieces so they were very comfortable performing. I heard a lot of genuine musicality, phrasing, dynamics and real involvement in the music making experience, from all ages and levels. As the teacher I felt so comfortable and, well, thrilled at what was happening from the beginning. I'd already done a bad thing setting up that night by spilling an entire gallon of apple juice on the carpet- I felt like I was setting the tone for a bad night- but no way- it was awesome. The students really shone. I also really appreciated how well behaved the kids all were: they were supportive of each other, nobody was running around and playing pianos... At first the shop owner was really worried about the crowd we had coming- over 100 people! But they all behaved beautifully, and he was definitely happy: the parents were quickly cleaning up at the end- 10 minutes with several hard workers had all the chairs away, cookies cleaned up, everything back in order. (...Now if we could only get the piano teacher not to drop the apple juice jug!!)

Afterwards we enjoyed getting photos taken by a professional photographer ...as well as the obligatory cookie reception. What a great evening!

Saturday, December 10 2011, 6:00 Recital Program (Last names edited out for privacy)


Ella, 5
Lemonade Stand (Faber)
All My Friends (Faber)
Firefly (Faber)

Violet, 3
Frogs on Logs (Faber)
D-E-F March (Faber)
Marching (Dmitri Kabalevsky)

Sriya, 6
The Juggler (Faber)
“This is Not Jingle Bells” (Faber)

Sarah, 8
The Haunted Mouse (Faber)
The Grumpy Old Troll (Faber)

Ashwin, 6
Young Hunter (Faber)
Canoe Song (Faber)

Luke C, 7
Marching (Dmitri Kabalevsky)
Red Feather (W. E. Robinson)

Luke D, 6
Romantic Story (Gurlitt)

Luke B, 7
The Sleeping Dragon (Nancy Telfer)
Reflections and Swooping Blues (Paul Sheftel)

Livi, 9
Morning at Spring Meadow (Hartsell)

Sowmya, 9
Aria (Daniel Speer)
Gavotte (Handel)

Rowan, 8
Dance of the Irish (Faber)

Taylor, 10
Don’t Wanna Leave You Blues (Martha Meir)

Drew (13) and Taylor
Hush a Bye and Jamaica Farewell (Folk Tunes)

David, 10
Theme from New World Symphony, mvt. 2 (Dvorak)
Pumpkin Boogie (Faber)

Chloe, 6
Dance Song (Sperontes)
Grandfather’s Musical Clock (Rohde)

Amber, 6
Sonatina in G Major (Thomas Attwood)
Morning at Spring Meadow (Randall Hartsell)

Jackie, 7
Ballerina in a Chinese Garden (Composed by Jackie)
The Great Escape (Randall Hartsell)

Daniel, 9
Relay Race (Jon George)
Sonata in D minor K. 90d (Scarlatti)

Andrew, 12
Clowns (Dmitri Kabalevsky)
Arabesque (Burgmuller)

Eashan, 7
Musette (J. S. Bach)
Sonatina in G major, Mvt. 1 (Beethoven)

Jamin, 8
Jazz Sonatina,Mvt.1: Rhythmic (Robert Vandall)

Emily, 8
Recollections (Randall Hartsell)

Stella, 10
Invention No. 8 in F major (J. S. Bach)
Sonatina in F major mvt. 2: Rondo (Beethoven)

Haily, 12
Prelude No. 16 in D flat Major (Robert Vandall)

Katie, 16
Waltz in A minor (Edvard Grieg)

Lauren, 13
Fur Elise (Beethoven)

Dan, 17
Scherzo from Sonata in E flat Major (Beethoven)

Stefan, 15
Sonata in C minor Mvt. 1: Molto Allegro (Mozart)

Dawson, 17
Canon in D by Pachelbel (duet with Ms. Bonnie)
Improvisation

On a different note, we are preparing for another recital entirely, to happen next week... starring three of these students!

"Easy and Hard" - I want my kids to see it.

Easy and Hard

This little tiny movie is very beautiful and moving. Perlman and this little girl have a conversation about things easy and hard and the setting says it all.

Practice-o'-Lantern

I'm the type of person that tries to find creative alternatives to standard procedures, especially when there is a point to be made. I carved this pumpkin with the perennial music teacher's one-word command, and set it beside the studio door. Though it garnered a lot of giggles, my students actually are practicing more, though I am sure it has more to do with upcoming performances and new pieces than with this pumpkin.

My studio grew!! I believe I am teaching no less then 40 hours of piano lessons every week now, even over 45 hours/week when my own children are practicing their full time daily. This hour a day and sometimes more with my own three children is really intense, but I am finding that consistency and playing practice games are really paying off. Oh, and getting enough sleep at night. Good night.

Boogie Boarding in December

WINTER: Snow is falling through the night on the studio roof, and the piano teacher crunches over the snow in warm, fur-lined boots and teaches for one hour. The piano student, a young man named Tae, is wearing shorts and a T shirt and is barefoot. But the piano teacher wastes no sympathy on the thinly clad student: she pulls her sweater closer and sips a hot drink and closes the piano lesson with these words:


"Have fun boogie boarding!"

And he does, too, directly after the lesson. He will not die of hypothermia because he lives on the beach and it's hot: it's a sunny afternoon in Australia and the way he leaves the studio is to turn off the computer.

Tae was the top prizewinner in the Queensland Junior Eisteddfod for 2011 and won top prizes in many divisions of the regional piano competitions in the last few years. He also received a music scholarship from his school and is an avid tennis player, and a high achieving scholar. 


Alexander Graham Bell would have flipped to see Webcam. Washington State and the Gold Coast all hooked up for music lessons! (Bell was a pianist too.) I began teaching Tae this way just over four years ago. In fact, it would have been about this time that his mother Helen Donaldson announced in my studio that they would be returning home to Australia and that was the end of our happy nine months of incredible piano progress together. They made the bog move, and as we stayed in touch we came across the idea that the lessons need not end. They had not started him on lessons because they had not found a suitable teacher, and I had been regretting the loss of such a promising student. We began very shortly after that, with meetings at our respective pianos with respective computers before us, sometimes at ridiculous hours of the night, sometimes not at all due to forgetting daylight saving doesn't exist in Australia (oops), sometimes with windstorms abruptly powering out the lessons or miserable rainy night connections obliterating the entire development section of a sonata, or sometimes having Windows Live screen suddenly freeze my face into one of those in-the-middle-of-a-blink faces that looks like I have a decimal point in front of my IQ, and equally frozen expression makes him look like he hasn't slept in fifty hours.

Most of the time it wasn't that eventful, but webcam lessons have more than enough disadvantages to make up for the lack of commute time! However, these lessons have allowed us to continue a very good student/teacher relationship, with the added advantage of Tae having come over for a week of lessons once in April of 2010, so I was able to see him in person, and also ran him through a gauntlet of performances, masterclasses, field trips and lessons. More recently he has had a lesson with a teacher from Belgium who was in Australia and was able to connect with them in person while there. Again, technology allows wonders!

We tried out Skype, Logitech, Windows Live and maybe some others, but windows live is the best for musical connections. After I'd hear Tae play, I'd give him suggesting, hear him work it out at the keys, and also have him carefully go through sections checking for notes because if you have someone who loves forgetting that accidentals carry through the measure (truly the only fault of this talent!) and you're working through an obscure, polyphonic and nearly atonal passage, working on the computer is a tremendous challenge.

Afterward, I would type an assignment either in a Word document or in the body of an email.
The following was a randomly chosen example of the type of follow up notes I would send after a lesson. He studied music theory with his mother and from books. (Teaching theory over the internet is very, very difficult!)
___________________________________________________________

October 23 2010

Technique work - Scales at 120 A flat, Bmajor this week, HT coordination

J.S. Bach This week- bring to at least 120 to an eighth note

Voice the daylights out of your chords to get that brilliant color

Brillance: flashes, constrasts, direction: peaks and valleys

Preludes are always accompanied by Fugues

Countersubject Repeated notes buildup intensity, following 16^ths release pressure

17 hear every note every clearly- Episode -take LH alone to study fingering, notes

Bach is so good for every musician: So solid, structured, so RIGHT. You just can’t fake Bach. MM needed for structure. Put a goal to each section with the MM so it is accurate. Your Fragments are ragged. Make sure they follow the subject in parallel motion. Take care! There was a lot of “approximation”- it is more exact. Learn notes like you’d learn surgery.

Knowing keys of subjects

Haydn

Pulse: set it up – stick with it

m. 23 rushes. Get control of pulse- put the heartbeat in your fingers

39 LH seventh

Leif Ove Andsnes playing this: Pay special attention to his skill in pedaling

Make this 100% clean 65-79

What is the character of Theme 2? Little bird trying to make up his mind in a candy shop, maybe. Sweet and golden, with levels of sound and sure 16^th rhythm.

LH woodwinds piping up a slow incline

95 virtuosic

Rush Hour

Mozart

Schubert

Mendelssohn- I have to send it through still…

Thank you for taking care to write in your music. This is so helpful. In my music I like to mark peaks and echoes. You may find that helpful as I did. 

______________________________________________________________

Though it is nearly shorthand, Tae is the kind of student who sees the meaning between all the lines, and rarely do I have to bring something to his attention more than once. He has an enormous repertory for a thirteen year old, and I am curious to find out the rest of his future story...

A week without piano (Sort of)

Many of my students I missed last week. Well, we had an awesome vacation! Swimming in the Columbia river, playing Glow-in-the-dark tag and a 100 ft. long slip'n'slide, cabins, firelight sings, encouragement in the Holy Scriptures, bike jumps and loads of friends, unlimited Slurpees and great food... There was a horrendous piano at the lodge that had real ivory keys of all dirty shades of brown, several of which were either broken or completely missing, and original hammers that had to be at least 100 years old. (Probably the original tuning too!) We didn't practice much even if we had the time, inclination and the books! There is some point at which making your kids practice on something like that is a bit much. But one girl at camp spent five hours over two days playing the first three measures of Fur Elise over and over that another girl at camp had taught her. Wish I were kidding...

...Actually, I wish I were her teacher! :) With patience motivation and determination like that, she'd go really far!

Listening I enjoyed this week (on the road trip!): Pletnev Plays Bach-Busoni Chaconne

and here is where that Chaconne come from: it is a very famous Violin Solo piece from Bach's Violin Sonata in D minor, and Maxim Vengerov plays it- this is more a memorial than a concert.

Then after we came home late Friday, I taught six piano lessons yesterday, then we climbed to the top of Mount Si.

OK, I'll admit it: I never have any week without piano!

Music Insider Jokes: Famous Cell Phone Ringtone

This is the Nokia Ring Tone set in Fugal Counterpoint.

Marc Andre Hamelin's take on the same ring tone

This ringtone was ripped off from this wonderful waltz by Tarrega.

Foot Rests for Young Students

mypianofootrest.com has these foot rests that look very high quality. If your child is practicing with dangling feet, here is your answer!

Pipe Organ Field Trip

Today many of the students in my studio went on a field trip to a large church that had a pipe organ with 2,996 pipes. The organist is always so accommodating to my studio, bringing extra pipes and instrument parts, explaining the workings of the monstrous instrument, describing the different-than-piano-technique needed to play the organ, and best of all, getting just the right sound for all the students' pieces. Today it was mostly my youngest students, and it was a really nice group. If you look carefully through the pictures, you can see the reactions of some of the youngsters when the organ reaches its loudest volume!

The children were kept fascinated not just by the playing, but also by the demonstrations.

Pictured above is the LaDonna, the organist who has been a wonderful guide to my students in their first introduction to the king of instruments!

(Did anyone ever write a method called "Teaching Little Feet to Play?")

When you pull out all the stops for the lowest pedal pipes the whole room vibrates and it can get startlingly loud...

...inducing fits of giggles

(You gotta do what you gotta do!)

The "tubas" up top

Their duet turned out to be more suited to the organ than the piano!

There were more students who are not pictured playing, but sometimes I had to listen, too! This is the only instrument I have ever seen that has its own telephone. I should have given it its own picture, as well as the pile of little shoes that grew as more and more children performed! LaDonna, as well as the other listeners had many fine things to say about these young performers who adapted their considerable pianistic skills to the pipe organ this afternoon.

Thanks to all that participated!

So What's A Conductor For?

Conducting music is fascinating to do and fascinating to watch. When you feel the baton come down and an orchestra beautifully wakes up the air according to the point in time that you chose, there is a thrill about that! Watching it almost seems like there is something magic about the little stick that makes it all come together.

There are many beautiful examples of fine conducting.

Kimbo Ishiieto (but you know there is another person here I love to watch and hear!)

I enjoy how this conductor brought to life to the orchestral music in this concerto. Normally Chopin concerto orchestra music tends to just get swept along by the piano without that much to say, but here they support the soloist musically like they really mean it.

The other two movies that go with this are here and here

This is Barenboim conducting- and is so powerful and unique.

There are many examples of conducting that are funny.

Sebastian the Cyber Conductor

Jonathan the three year old conductor (I LOVE him right about minute 2:03!)

The remarkable thing about this child is more than his timing, knowledge of the music and appreciation and understanding: He actually treats the baton beautifully- he has absorbed through observation some manner of handling the thing like a real conductor- I hope when he goes for conducting lessons as he inevitably will someday, that the though of right ways and wrong ways to do things won't knock the spontaneity out of him. A little research proves he'll be fine!

Goodness, yes. More

Now we're just getting silly:

Beethoven's 5th-Atkinson style

More along that same vein

And even a lighter example of conducting- Tom and Jerry!

But what is a conductor for?

The conductor makes a lot of business and musical decisions before that concert ever begins, months before, in preparation for each concert. The conductor's responsibility is to make one musician out of an orchestra by knowing all parts to the music, not just the part of one instrument. The conductor can also act as a type of musical ambassador to the public and a kind of guide of the group as a whole, to make decisions on performances and choosing repertory. Conductors really have to be complete and thorough musicians, having strong leadership qualities to be able to conduct rehearsals effectively and to be able to convincingly direct the speed, the volume and the emotional message that the musicians need to cohesively deliver.

In a concert and in rehearsal, musicians depend on cues from the conductor for dynamics and tempo. The baton patterns show meter and also show just the right moment for the orchestra to begin chords all together and when to close off long notes so the orchestra does not sound like a bunch of confused people with no plan or direction. Most professional orchestras can do just fine without the conductor in most works actually, but with strong leadership, they themselves can really feel a difference in the energy, accuracy and emotional output of the performance. The movements of the baton are just a little piece of the whole picture, just like the moment on the stage is just a part of being a musician. Sometimes it's easy to miss the importance of a conductors since they don't play an instrument in the orchestra- well- actually sometimes the soloist does conduct a concerto. But maybe this post helps explain parts of the huge leadership role the conductor has.

Student Performance - 6 years old

Here is a six year old student of mine who was recently honored at an EMTA recital in Bellevue WA. He has studied with me from the beginning and this recital happened after 6 months of study. The repertory is an Early English Sonatina by William Duncombe and the ever-popular Clowns by Dmitri Kabalevsky.

I hope to post more student performances soon- Stay tuned!

Favorite #5 Poema Singelo by Villa-Lobos

Poema Singelo

Written in 1938 by Brazilian Composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. He was a cellist. No wonder he favors the wonderful bass line. The piece follows ABACA form and this is a clean, relaxed and wonderful lyrical performance by Anna Stella Schic. Listen to the amazing alternating hand technique at minute 1:24 and 2:09!

Favorite Music #4 Barnburners

Chopin: Etude in C minor Opus 25 No. 12

Rachmaninov: Prelude in C minor Op. 23 No. 7 (on that same movie is the Prelude No. 2, listening to that is like being a small piece of dust that got sucked into the world's largest vacuum cleaner.)

Grieg: Piano Concerto in A minor. I really like the atmosphere at this concert. It's like the Super Bowl.

Favorite Music #3 More J.S. Bach

Partita no. 1 in B Flat: Gigue

Boris Feiner

Miss Amazing

I Got Rhythm! And it's Funny!

This arrangement of Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm" reaches into ranges that demand a little much from the ear, but these kids are great and having lots of fun- and isn't that what this is all about?!

I Got Rhythm - Gershwin - 6 hands

Favorite Music #2

I don't know if this should actually go under the heading of Favorite Music: This is the Scariest Piece I have ever heard: Right Here. Prokofiev's Toccata Op. 11, played by Vladimir Horowitz. (Also Martha Argerich, I believe, but Horowitz really does it for me.) Prokofiev liked Horowitz's rendition. Prokofiev is one of those rare composers whose music actually has made me cry. I don't really like or expect to be affected that much, and I admire the work of someone whose music can elicit such a strong reaction.

Here is another take on it. Silly Dog Plays Toccata... (OK, that's Just For Fun!) To me the piece sounds like a Black Hawk Helicopter coming over the horizon to serve up some destruction, not a hyper cocker spaniel in a tuxedo pawing at a keyboard- but maybe that's what makes it so funny.

Music Education #9 Sight Reading

Here is a detailed outline showing how a parent or teacher can prepare a piano student to be able to sightread music. (Know how already, and want a little advice? I like this video. )

Make sure you don't put a kid through the following all at once and then expect him to remember at the end of the practice: spread it over a week at least to make sure it sticks, reviewing the points on several different days.

1. Confirm that the child is thoroughly confident in identifying all piano key names including sharps and flats. A way to reinforce this is to say “Play all the Gs on the piano from low to high.” Then have a small doll or toy slowly chase them up the keyboard as they are playing and saying “G, G, G, G,” and say “Uhhh- you win!” when they get to the top. Repeat with all other single notes and include combinations of notes such as “Play F, A flat, F A flat, F, A flat allt he way down the keyboard,” Children also enjoy it if you play the slow, preposterous teacher: Say loudly and ostentatiously, “Now, I’m going to teach you how to play a B flat.” [Meanwhile you can whisper in their ear that they can try to find it before you say how to do it.] “First you have to know how to find a B, then you have to know that to go flat you have to go down to the very next key…” By this time they should have been able to play it seventeen times, and you can say, “Hey I was going to teach you that!” Focus on speed becomes the game rather than the commandment.

2. Drill all the Lines and Spaces of the treble and bass clefs orally (without keyboard) A good game for this is the spin game: Say as you slowly turn around in a circle: “The names of the treble clef lines are…EGBDF” and be saying “EGBDF” when you are facing the student again. Their goal is to try to say EGBDF before you do and before you face them. If you say “EGBDF” before they do, just repeat the question on the next revolution. Continue with lines and spaces for both treble and bass clefs until they can recite them quickly on call or until you fall over.

3. Then he can learn to identify if a note is a line or space, and which line or space it is. Is it the first line? Is it the top space? Is it the middle line?

4. Teach skips and steps on the keyboard. Show skips and steps on the staff (Line to the next line is a skip, Line to a Space is a step, etc.) and correlate skipping and stepping both upward and downward to the correct interval and direction on the keys.

5. Then the student learns to play the lines and spaces of treble and bass clef where they are played on the keyboard.

6. Begin attaching the cardinal number and letter to the line or space by saying, for example, “The fourth line is GBDF! Be sure to mention that the treble clef and the bass clef are ancient forms of the letters G and F, and point out which Gs and Fs they are. These are anchor notes, along with middle C.

7. Drill individual line and space notes with flash cards. I like to set one flash card upon the music rack and say “Is this a line note or a space note? Is it treble or bass clef? Is this the third space?" (Yes, it's the third space.) "Is this the fourth line?" (No, it's the 5th line) "If you know the names of the treble clef spaces, you can find this note!” Sometime about this point I begin to stick to a few notes at a time to memorize as anchor notes without reference to EGBDF or GBDFA, etc. memorization treble F just because it's the top line And the top line and the top space are a step apart. Another very useful tool for working with sightreading children is the Wright Way Note-finder.

8. Learn “Hugger notes” (Notes that are on spaces just outside the Lines of the treble and bass clefs: There are Four: F, B, D, and G) and ledger note (any line or space notes beyond the hugger notes that require ledger lines to be written)

9. Use pairs of Flash cards to show skipping, stepping in either direction

10. See if the student has a “mental image” of the keyboard by asking them to close their eyes and answer what is a step up from G, a skip down from D, etc. Carry this a step further by asking if A# is a black key and if F flat is a black key or a white key, etc.

11. Review rhythms (whole notes through quarter note) with the corresponding rests. Winning Rhythms by Edward Ayola can help with this, especially fun with two people playing at once, either premeditated chords, or simply choosing whatever notes or note clusters each one chooses. A dynamic plan can also be chosen without any regard to notes, which adds to the fun.

The students now know a lot about the notes they are about to read. In preparing for the rest of the process they should continually be checked for good posture, good hands and fingers, relaxation of the torso and arms and natural breathing as they play, because... not knowing things promotes tension, and not knowing things is the nature of sight reading!

12. Time to get out little beginning piano books! First choose pieces with only one note at a time, and keep it short. Before attempting to read a piece, first identify the direction of steps or skips: (“step up, skip down, step up, step up…”) Then name all notes to be played (C, C, G, G, A, A, G) Then name the finger numbers that will be used. The student should also clap the rhythms while counting the beat aloud. Now it should be played. Encourage the student to keep a steady beat. This process should be used a few times on different pieces, then the student should attempt equivalent pieces and try to gather the information of which finger to use and which note to play with only a brief visual scan through the piece before playing.

13. When students can effortlessly read melodies at the simplest level, they should be then encouraged to start reading simple two hands pieces, taking care to continue rhythm study that will keep ahead of the rhythms presented in their pieces to sightread. The greatest reward for sightreading is successful ensemble work. Students should not try to memorize their sightreading pieces- save that for performance repertory, which may be at a higher level than their sightreading practice. Above all be encouraging and require that the sightreading practice takes five to ten minutes of each practice session. Progress is inevitable.

Being able to sightread is fun! Not being able to sightread and still trying to progress is being on the fast track to burnout.

Hilarious Introduction to the Metronome

The metronome is a very handy tool for measuring a regular beat, guiding practice, giving yourself very strict standards for your pulse and also scaring the living daylights out of your cat. A friend forwarded me this funny video. I have never listened to it with the sound on, but just watching it made me laugh.

Metronome use does help your practice! A student of mine recently had two lessons on two consecutive days. He plays Abram Chasin's Rush Hour in Hong Kong from Three Chinese Pieces and on Monday it sounded okay- he got through it with some minor hesitations. We had a lesson on it, and the next day he came back with a completely different Rush Hour. He was playing energetically with flashy dynamics and had rock solid pulse. "Please tell the rest of the world your secret to such success!" I exclaimed, " To make that much progress in 24 hours is really something!" "I practiced with the metronome," he replied. Then five days later he performed it beautifully in recital.

I shouldn't guarantee that same success, I suppose, but wow, I know it sure has helped me control and organize my practice. I can set a goal for myself and strive to make it, gradually bringing up my tempo in an orderly way. And all of my students who have practiced with the metronome have certainly reaped the benefits. Too much metronome practice can take away the natural breath of the piece, so an understanding of the natural flow of the piece is also important.

Need to buy a metronome? I recommend a quartz metronome and not an annoying beepy digital one. I like a metronome that has all the original numbers series like 6o, 63, 66 through 208, etc. (and not every number there is from 30-300. )

The pendulum kind that the cat attacked in the video above is fun but they tend to break and are not as reliable. Maybe I begin to see why.

Haydn's Manuscripts make it to the Hairdresser

Josef Haydn (Yes, I know it was "Franz Josef Haydn," but he didn't know it) was irrepressibly optimistic. With sore difficulties wracking his childhood ("I received more floggings than food") he came out beaming with happiness in his demeanor, his conversation and of course in his music. He was socially successful because of this point. Constantly negative people drain so much energy it's depressing just to talk to them, But Haydn, the lighthearted prankster made friends right and left that helped him succeed in spite of coming out of low socioeconomic circumstances, which, I might add, may have been stacks harder to combat in that day.

But it wasn't all sunbeams for Haydn the adult either- He missed the mark big time in one respect: His wife. Oops. Haydn loved a girl who was unfortunately predestined by her family to a nunnery, so she was packed off to the nunnery, much to Haydn's disappointment. Her sister was available. So he went for her instead. After their marriage he found she had... not a lot of respect for music or composition or composers or manuscripts or any such thing which made things really hard for her musical, composing, manuscript writing husband because their living depended on his success and his success depended on his manuscripts that were too often taken from his writing desk and ending up lining her muffin tins and ending up as curl-papers for Mrs. Haydn's coiffure. I am Dead Serious. This really happened. This is one of those situations that would make even the most hardened marriage counselor's jaw drop. Well, needless to say, their relationship did not flourish because she was like this on a regular basis. They separated, whether amicably or not I cannot tell, but he supported her comfortably in her own home and regarded himself as a married man the rest of his life. This I really, really respect about him: Haydn wrote to a friend who was suggesting the beginning of a relationship between Haydn and one of his students, a rich, handsome widow who obviously preferred him: "I am not a free man." Haydn recognized that vows are forever.

Is it Classical? Is it Jazz?

You need to hear the Impromptu Op. 66, No. 22 by Nicolai Kapustin.

This artist plays beautifully- but it's not a pure jazz sound. That's OK with me, but after hearing Kapustin play it I almost miss the cold, deep soul of jazz, she sounds like she plays with the fire and touch of a classical artist by comparison. I love the music around :50-:60

To hear what I mean, Kapustin himself sounds way more like the jazz player he is here.

Cool piece! I really enjoy composers who blend the jazz with classical traditions.

Like Copland's Clarinet Concerto.

Enjoy!!!

Up and Coming Pianists #2 Benjamin Grosvenor

Pianist Benjamin Grosvenor is 18 and lives in the U. K. and is well on his way to becoming an international artist. You can look up his bio on his website http://www.benjamingrosvenor.co.uk/

What I really admire about this young artist is that he is already like the older masters who are established at the international concert stage in so many ways, not only his beautiful playing, but his serious approach to the job. Listen to him at 16 and Watch him play at 11!

Music as Sales Rep.

Have you ever thought about how manipulative and commercial music can be? Advertisers use it to try to get you to buy it, It gets piped into hospital elevators to try to make you relax and not think about your gown, just trying to make you think your hospital is a ritzy hotel, it gets piped into ritzy hotels to make you think you're in a ... ritzy hotel... Movie makers use it to cue you as to the moment of the leading lady's first glimmer of understanding that the new acquaintance she's dealing with is a blackguard. It is blasted through the loudspeakers of all the mall shops to go with the tone of the line of clothing they sell-- nothing is as simple as buying a shirt- it's not just an outfit you buy, it's a whole package, a way of life.

People use music to market themselves: convertible owners and souped-up "can't afford to buy a real engine so I amplified my muffler" car owners turn up the woofers on their gigantic speakers and vibrate their way down the boulevards in hopes that the rest of the world will think the whole party is in their car 24/7... "look at me... I'm just a fuzzy outline because I'm vibrating so much, but I want you to look at me anyway (if you can track me) because I'm so cool..."

Throughout history royalty has been quick to support the arts because of the advantage of dazzling your guests with the incredible sounds of your own personal orchestra. And young ladies were ever so much more eligible to suitors as accomplished singers or harpsichord or pianoforte players (but not so much violin players- that was too immodest- with all those arms lifting and playing about, and the cello- for a young lady- never!! Let us not speak of that!!)

Yes, music is a manipulator, an enhancer. Aaron Copland wrote the score to a movie and when it was reviewed for the first time, a moment that was supposed to be dark and gripping got a laughter response. The makers were horrified. This was not supposed to be funny! Copland quickly rewrote the music with severe dissonance instead. A second review of the film brought no laughter, instead, everyone felt the tension. Copland himself said he wishes the audience could see each film three times, once normally, with the music, once without the music, then once with the music turned back on. Then people would pay attention to the importance of the music.

Here is a tiny example: Music is what made this funny baby movie so successful. It's pretty cute already, but the clever musical accompaniment makes it irresistibly funny. Enjoy!

Imponderables #1

Why and How did this happen?

Grand Piano appears on a sandbar in Florida?