Music Education
In this series of articles, I’ve focused on helping students discover the indications various composers employed to show where they wanted the sustaining pedal engaged and released. What happens when our ears want additional resonance from the instrument, but using the pedal would obscure a melodic line or cover
Music Education
For many of our students, the works of Chopin present the first occasions where carefully planned and executed pedalling is required. The Inventions and Sonatinas they’ve studied before earning their first Chopin Waltz make few if any demands for the pedal. A brand-new sound world is offered to them
Music Education
Pedalling is essential to creating the magical sounds called for in the piano music of Debussy. The moods, atmospheres, and far-off lands he conjured cannot be evoked without skilful use of both the sustaining and the una corda pedals. In my experience students respond very positively to this music once
Music Education
Stringed instruments and their printed scores had been in existence for centuries before the piano was invented. When music started being written expressly for the piano many of the notational conventions of string music were carried over. Slurs and staccatos are found in the early works for piano by J.
Music Education
Students as well as teachers can be confused by the variety of ways Beethoven indicated when he wanted one or more of the pedals used. This is because he had a wider variety of pedals available to him and there wasn’t yet a standard notation used by all composers.
Music Education
Piano teachers know the challenges of developing proper pedal technique in the students they instruct. In this first of a series of articles we’ll focus on teaching students of any age the mechanics of depressing and lifting the sustaining pedal at the desired time. Proper pedal technique requires pianists
Music Education
One of our most important goals as piano teachers is to develop flexibility in our students’ wrists. Pianists who land on chords with supple wrists coax the most beautiful sounds out of the instrument, and using rotational movements of the wrist can lead to the clearest Alberti Basses as well
Features
One of the biggest inflection points in my life happened at age 22 when I moved to Paris. I had just completed my Masters Degree at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and my piano teacher there suggested I continue my studies in France with a colleague who had just served
Travel Diaries
I went to Lisbon, Portugal in August 2018 to meet up with my partners in Syrinx : XXII — Katharine Rawdon, flutes, and António Carrilho, recorders. Since the three of us don’t all live in the same country we assemble for periods of intensive work in our respective cities whenever we
Music Education
Intermediate piano students are presented with many new opportunities and challenges as they progress into more sophisticated repertoire. The music they play evolves from single notes in each hand to counterpoint and chords. Learning to highlight individual notes in chords proves challenging for many of them, but understanding one element
Travel Diaries
I moved to Paris after completing my Master’s Degree in Piano Performance in the States. Living and studying there for three years was one of the most significant events of my life. Going back each year to perform is always a highlight — revisiting old neighbourhoods, catching up with dear
Travel Diaries
I’m always pleased to be invited to play at New York’s Lincoln Center. They’ve invited me several times in the past and have had me play every year recently. It’s my musical home in the city where I live. Here are photos I had taken a
