Recollections with Robert Weirich
Discovery homeSign up for email updatessubmit a question We would like to thank Robert Weirich for his insightful commentary regarding his latest book, Recollections: A Pianist’s Essays on Teaching, Performing, and Living. Order Recollections: A Pianist’s Essays on Teaching, Performing, and Living, by Robert Weirich NOW...
July 2011: Winds of Change
July 2011; Vol. 3, No. 4
It’s midsummer as this issue sees print, and the quiet time since those year-end recitals and juries has been most welcomed. After thirty weeks of lessons, I’m ready for a change. The longer the term goes on, the more I feel that I can’t hear...
November 2018: Winds of Change
November 2018; Vol. 10, No. 6
In the last two columns I have danced around acknowledging that I have retired from university teaching. Now it seems the right time to retire this column as well. There are many reasons for the decision, and with a new editor at Clavier Companion, I step aside to make room for new ideas...
November 2016: Winds of Change
November 2016; Vol. 8, No. 6
While this column usually focuses on change as it transforms our profession and sometimes flusters its practitioners, I want to think about something that doesn’t change: the effect of artistry and its long-lasting impact. These thoughts come to mind as I reminisce about the unexpected...
March 2018: The Winds of Change
March 2018; Vol. 10, No. 2
You may have heard that I am retiring from my teaching position. If all goes according to plan, 2017–2018 will be my final year of piano “professordom.” It was not an easy decision, but after forty years in the studio, it’s time to make room for others. I will still teach, but...
March 2017: Winds of Change
March 2017; Vol. 9, No. 2
Change has been on our minds a lot lately. When I coined the name of this column in 2009, I had no idea how prescient it was (some of these recent changes would have been hard to predict even a year ago). With the future certain...
July 2018: Winds of Change
July 2018; Vol. 10, No. 4
As you read this column, have pity for the long-suffering editor—my submission was way past the usual deadline. As an excuse I can only offer that unique syndrome, Retirement Nervous Breakdown. You may think retiring is easy, but I have found it exactly the opposite....
July 2017: Winds of Change
July 2017; Vol. 9, No. 4
Pianists are blessed with an incredibly rich, diverse repertoire. I have thought a lot recently about how one chooses a recital program—so much to learn, so little time. Risking too much self-revelation, I will share the experience of my most recent attempt to reach an audience....
November 2013: Winds of Change
November 2013; Vol. 5, No. 6
I’ve found myself thinking a lot about competitions lately. One of my first pieces for Clavier, even before I started a regular column, dealt with “The Competition Syndrome.” Re-reading it, I’m struck by how little things have changed, other than the fact that I’m much...
March 2014: Winds of Change
March 2014; Vol. 6, No. 2
Time’s passage has been much on my mind of late. The winds of change blow on. We rush toward the future, the way paved by technologies that only get faster and more pervasive. I long for a leeward island, enough out of the wind to...
March 2009: Winds of Change
March 2009; Vol. 1, No. 2
We’re in the communication business. We may think our job is teaching little fingers to play, or furthering the mission statements of our music schools, or projecting our understanding of a long dead composer’s score to a passive but attentive (we hope) audience. But what...
March 2010: Winds of Change
March 2010; Vol. 2, No. 2
I recall that in my undergraduate years, eons ago, the concert piano received a tuning before every senior recital. The tuning often occurred within the hour or so before the recital itself; when scheduling prevented this, a sign was placed on the piano declaring it off-limits...
March 2011: Winds of Change
March 2011; Vol. 3, No. 2
In the ongoing effort to stimulate my students, I have occasionally tried an all-studio repertoire project. For example, in the winter of 2009 my students performed two recitals devoted to the complete solo piano music of Maurice Ravel. This turned out to be a splendid...
November 2012: Winds of Change
November 2012; Vol. 4, No. 6
A funny thing happened on the way to writing this column: I started questioning everything about this profession of ours. Even more than I usually do. In future columns I’ll get at more of this, but let’s start with the institution we call the piano recital....
July 2016: Winds of Change
July 2016; Vol. 8, No. 4
In the heat of this political season, the airwaves are full of talk about systems that don’t work, about reform. I recently gave a political speech of sorts at the MTNA national conference, not carried by any of the networks, in which I said that...