An Inside Look at the Life of a Professional Musician
These excerpts from Marcia Butler's memoir The Skin Above My Knee show that even for a professional musician, preparing a new piece can be frightening and all-encompassing. »
These excerpts from Marcia Butler's memoir The Skin Above My Knee show that even for a professional musician, preparing a new piece can be frightening and all-encompassing. »
Although she didn’t have typical classical piano lessons, Gail Fischler learned chords. She went on to arrange music, including a book of Christmas carols. »
Tips on how to play and interpret the contemplative No. 30 from Schumann’s Album for the Young, and create variety to avoid monotony in the repeating motif. »
An adult pianist who suffered from stage fright since childhood, Sara Solovitch, author of Playing Scared, decides to take her performance anxiety head on. »
The Chopin Prelude in A Major is a very short piece that offers a wonderful study in dynamics, color, and rubato. Find tips on how to achieve these effects. »
A film director and amateur pianist describes the making of American Grand, a documentary depicting the drama of taking apart and rebuilding a grand piano. »
The Bach French Suite No. 4's Allemande is relatively short, making its contrapuntal demands on the player manageable; get tips on how to play the piece. »
Gain perspectives on interpreting Satie's Gnossienne No. 3, with its flexible sense of rhythm, lack of measure markings, and colorful written indications. »
Mary Jo Balistreri, who has a hearing loss, writes of the piano as an honest friend and lifelong teacher in this uplifting poem dedicated to Nancy Williams. »
The Beethoven Moonlight Sonata's first movement is not as simple as it seems; find historical context and tips on ways to interpret the piece with rubato. »
AmateurPianists organized a recital featuring piano works by all women composers during Women's History Month. Amateur performers share what they learned. »
Gain insight into how to play and interpret the Chopin Prelude in E Minor, from using tempo rubato to convey emotion to balancing the right and left hands. »
Multiple perspectives for playing and interpreting the Debussy Rêverie, including communicating the music’s rises and falls through your own breath control. »
During a performance of the Chopin Prelude in E Minor, the feeling of fear brought poet Mary Jo Balistreri’s memory back to a childhood drowning incident. »
Learn more about how to play and interpret Erik Satie’s Gymnopédie No. 3, which involves a wide spectrum of dynamic contrasts and leaps with the left hand. »
After playing piano for a century, Holocaust survivor Alice Herz-Sommer looks back on her life in the Oscar-winning short documentary The Lady in Number 6. »
Writer William Giraldi reflects on the stanzas of English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, and how the characteristic “sprung rhythm” relates strongly to music. »
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein and composer Daniel Felsenfeld discuss the making of The Cohen Variations, with its inner voices and counterpoint, in this video. »
In this video, Simone Dinnerstein plays The Cohen Variations, a piano solo composed by Daniel Felsenfeld and based on the 1967 Leonard Cohen song “Suzanne.” »
Anna Shelest and her husband Dmitri Shelest are role models for adults learning piano duets. The couple offers tips on playing together as a four hands duo. »