With a vivid onstage presence, dazzling technique, and keen musicianship, pianist Olga Kern is widely recognized as one of the great artists of her generation, captivating audiences and critics alike. She was born into a family of musicians and began studying piano at the age of five. At seventeen, she was awarded first prize at the Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition, and in 2001, she launched her U.S. career, winning a historic Gold Medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition—the only woman in the last 50 years to do so.
Join Olga Kern with host Luis Sanchez as they discuss Kern’s award-winning career and her hopes for the future of music.
We would like to thank Carla Salas-Ruiz for this contribution on writing articles for research publications such as the Journal of Piano Research. Learn more about the Journal of Piano Research by clicking here.
Writing, akin to music, provides a platform for self-expression. It also fosters critical thinking and enables us to articulate diverse perspectives, integrate information, and contribute to the advancement of our discipline. Yet, it’s common for many of us to feel a bit lost, unsure of where to even start. Have you ever found yourself facing a blank page, unsure of what to write or how to transform your project or research study into a compelling and engaging work? I have experienced this scenario several times. However, it wasn’t until I drew parallels between piano practice, lesson planning, and writing that a breakthrough occurred. I am excited to share these connections and encourage you to view academic writing as an art form for which you already possess all the necessary tools. Now is the time to leverage these tools and recognize writing as a creative exploration, where intentional choices and practice yield inspiring outcomes, similar to performing a piece or teaching a lesson.
Engage with Others’ Work
When practicing any musical piece, it’s crucial to grasp the composer’s expressive ideas and the essence of the composition to shape the interpretation effectively. To do this, we listen to recordings from other performers and study the musical language of the composer throughout their repertoire. Similarly, in writing, the initial step involves gathering exemplary articles from various sources such as journals, magazines, books, and other publications to identify essential elements like structure, language usage, and coherence. Deconstructing these articles, akin to dissecting a musical composition into sections and phrases, facilitates targeted writing practice. Analyzing the author’s intentions behind effective writing serves as a guide in crafting our roadmap. Additionally, extensive reading enriches our understanding and fuels creativity by exposing us to diverse viewpoints and encouraging critical thinking.
Craft Your Concept
Having learned from the insights of fellow writers, now is the ideal time to establish a method. This is similar to creating a practice log, focused solely on the concepts pertinent to your topic. During this phase, your reading should be targeted towards understanding existing discussions relevant to your chosen idea. It is essential to adopt a systematic approach, meticulously extracting key concepts from authors and documenting them methodically. I recommend constructing a table with columns for the source, author’s name, key quotes, year of publication, and page numbers.
After completing your reading journey, it is crucial to define your idea or research question through discussions with peers, similar to seeking feedback on a musical composition. Sharing your ideas with others can be tremendously beneficial, as they serve as a sounding board, potentially providing invaluable clarity to your thoughts. For instance, during my time in graduate school, my focus was on studying motivation. However, given the extensive literature surrounding the concept, it was only upon encountering the theory of Interest Development1 that I could delineate the scope of my idea and purposefully devise a roadmap to satisfy my curiosity. This process was greatly facilitated by continual discussions with colleagues, friends, and professors.
Carla Salas-Ruiz
Develop a Method
With our ideas taking shape, we transition into methodological design, akin to selecting the appropriate techniques for musical expression. This time is about crafting a research question and defining a plan to answer that question. Establishing a robust research question is imperative, as it serves as a guiding beacon amidst the myriad of available methodologies, including quantitative, qualitative, ethnographic, historical, and/or philosophical approaches. Developing a method involves meticulously outlining the research design, methods, and techniques employed to satisfy your curiosity. It will outline your plans for data collection and analysis. In an academic context, this comprehensive plan encompasses critical decisions about how we chose participants or composers we’ll study, what tools we will use to gather information, how we will analyze that information carefully, and what conclusions we will draw from it. We will also look closely at what the findings mean and how they add to what we already know, the ideas we are working with, and how they can be useful in our field. This thorough analysis involves looking at the results in connection with the questions we asked at the start and the big ideas we are exploring, while also thinking about what they might mean for other important areas. Collaboration could be key in this step. Just as we gather to play beautiful chamber music, collaborate with colleagues that may have additional knowledge in this area, approach them and develop your idea in a multidisciplinary way.
Create a Writing Roadmap
Creating an outline for presenting your writing is essential to maintain clarity and coherence throughout your work. Remember Step 1? This is where your grasp of writing structures and tendencies becomes invaluable in organizing your writing process effectively. Consider these questions to initiate an initial outline:
What is your idea?
What sparked your interest in it?
What insights have other authors or performers shared?
How did you approach your methodology?
What data did you collect, and how did you analyze it?
What were the key findings, and how do they contribute to our profession?
Why is it important to disseminate them?
Ensure you iterate through several drafts and seek feedback from peers and mentors. Crafting a roadmap for written contributions ensures that our ideas are effectively communicated with clarity and impact, much like crafting engaging lesson plans or conducting focused practice sessions. Once you feel confident with your outline, begin writing without self-judgment; allow yourself to simply type! Stick to your outline, but don’t hesitate to make adjustments for better flow if needed. Much like practicing an instrument, this stage represents full engagement in practice: experimenting with specific strategies and refining particular sections.
Decide Where to Publish
Just as we can sense when our repertoire is ready for the stage, we also know when our written work is prepared to be shared. Whether through academic journals, book chapters, or magazines, sharing our work enhances communication skills, professional growth, and advances our field. Similar to selecting the ideal venue and format for a recital, deciding where to publish prompts us to find platforms where our contributions align well. After completing our written work and reflecting on “Step 1,” we can determine which journal or magazine best suits our work. There are research-specific journals as well as those catering to practitioners. Understanding the purpose of each publication can assist us in making this decision. In the music field, there are a number of journals, including Piano Magazine and the recently launched Journal of Piano Research. We should consider all options, and after reviewing previous research, we can gauge the expected contributions and target audience.
Recognizing writing as an art form encourages us to engage in a journey of creativity and purposeful expression. Through the process of exploration, refinement, and sharing, we achieve transformative musical and teaching outcomes. Just as musical performance brings compositions to life, as writers we can give vitality and resonance to our ideas, enriching our collective discourse and advancing our field.
To celebrate the latest episode of Piano Inspires Podcast featuring Ingrid Clarfield, we are sharing an excerpted article with her commentary on how she works with children who are musically gifted. Want to learn more about Clarfield? Check out the latest installment of the Piano Inspires Podcast. To learn more, visit pianoinspires.com. Listen to our latest episode with Clarfield on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or our website!
Individual differences can be met by adjusting level, quantity, and goals…
To answer this question, I must first tell you my basic teaching philosophy: Students rise to the level expected of them. With that ideal I teach all students, adjusting my level of expectation with the “gifted” student.
When selecting repertoire for early level students, I use materials that emphasize the following musical elements:
1. Beautiful singing tone
2. Melodic shaping
3. Comprehension of the mood of the piece
4. Balance
5. Timing and intensity of goal notes
With gifted students I can incorporate these elements into their repertoire from the beginning. As they learn to read music, the emphasis includes reinforcing technique and listening skills. Philosophically, while I feel all students should be trained with these goals, it is easier for the gifted student.
To make these musical concepts more obvious, I often assign descriptive music. For beginners, I use The Music Tree series by Frances Clark and Louise Goss (Summy-Birchard). The words relate to the music and each piece is carefully designed to teach or reinforce a specific element. From day one, students are trained to LISTEN and think about the music’s meaning. While this method is good for all of my students, it is ideal for the gifted student. We just move faster and use more supplementary rote pieces and exercises. I particularly like The Music Tree series for teaching upper arm freedom and melodic shaping.
For specific repertoire, I assign music from all four periods. The gifted student is particularly intrigued by the variation of sound and technique that changes with the style. For Baroque music, I use the traditional, easier Bach pieces and the simpler Scarlatti Sonatas. The Introductory editions published by Alfred, Introduction to Handel, Introduction to Scarlatti, and others in this series provide excellent material. Other collections I use are the Early English Sonatinas edited by Rowley (Boosey & Hawkes) and two volumes of Very First Classics edited by Gray (Boosey & Hawkes).
The Classical period is amply represented by the standard Sonatinas plus the Mozart Viennese Sonatinas and the less difficult Haydn Sonatas. I encourage students to think orchestrally for a wide spectrum of sounds and distinct contrast in mood, touches, and dynamics.
The music of the Romantic period involves pedaling skills and rubato from the earliest stages. I applaud the Alfred Publishing Company for the choice of pieces in the Introduction to Chopin, Introduction to Grieg, and Introduction to Schumann editions. These collections include ideal pieces for work on the elements crucial to an understanding of the Romantic style.
The 20th century provides us with an abundance of outstanding early-level music by Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Kabalevsky, Bartok, and Gretchaninoff. This repertoire encourages communication of moods and a wide range of dynamics and touch. Two of my favorite living composers of effective descriptive pieces are Dennis Alexander and Seymour Bernstein.
We hope you enjoyed this excerpt from Clarfield and Appleby’s article about working with children who are gifted. You can read the entire article by clicking here.
Ingrid Clarfield is a nationally recognized performer, clinician, and author. She has presented workshops, lecture-recitals, and master classes in over 150 cities in 40 states across North America, including State and National MTNA Conferences, the National Conference of Keyboard Pedagogy, and other prestigious conferences and festivals. Professor Clarfield has written 23 books published by Alfred Publishing Co. and is the subject of a documentary entitled: Take a Bow: the Ingrid Clarfield Story.
In this episode, Ingrid Clarfield discusses her impact on generations of students with Pamela Pike.
To celebrate the latest episode of Piano Inspires Podcast featuring Ingrid Clarfield, we are sharing an excerpted transcript of her conversation with Pamela Pike. Want to learn more about Clarfield? Check out the latest installment of the Piano Inspires Podcast. To learn more, visit pianoinspires.com. Listen to our latest episode with Clarfield on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or our website!
Shana Kirk, Marvin Blickenstaff, and Ingrid Clarfield at NCKP 2023: The Piano Conference.
Pamela Pike: When I was sort of first coming on the scene, if you will, when I was a young professional, you were a big star in our field, you really were. And you still are! But you know, I just—I attended so many of your sessions, and you know, it was just always a pleasure to be able to speak with you. You were always so kind to young professionals. But then it seemed like at the peak of your career you had this devastating stroke.
Ingrid Clarfield: It’s so interesting that word “devastating.” I can do it. It’s been sixteen years.
PP: But it could have been devastating!
IC: Could have been!
PP: The point is here again, you demonstrate your resilience and your persistence. So maybe talk through your recovery because it’s amazing.
IC: Well, what is interesting is that the day before, I was onstage doing a session with George Litterst on the Disklavier and I came home that night, woke up at four in the morning, and had a stroke. Still they don’t know why. But, as I tell people: I’m here, I’m alive and well. I don’t mean to minimize it. But I think for me, I was determined to go on. I did not know how I was going to and—a grad student who was helping me with stuff, I said, “Cancel everything.” I mean I was in a wheelchair drooling on drugs—very attractive. Anyway, and then I cancelled everything because I didn’t know how I was going to do anything. Then I get an email from Sigrid Luther. Do you know Sigrid?
PP: No, I don’t.
Ingrid Clarfieldat NCKP 2023: The Piano Conference.
IC: Okay. Wonderful teacher in Chattanooga, Tennessee. “Oh, we’re so excited to sponsor your Ingrid Clarfield Pedagogy Workshop. We have got a grant from MTNA. I really don’t remember if it’s a phone call or an email, but probably an email. I was like, “Oh my god, we forgot somebody.” And so then I said, “Well, there’s a slight problem: I had a stroke.” “Oh!” And she was all embarrassed, and the loveliest woman anyway. No, it was an email because I needed time to think. I said, I wonder what it would be like if I said I’ll come if she plays my left hand because I knew she was a good pianist. But I first checked with Gary Ingle—good friend! I said, “How crazy would it be to say I’ll come do a conference and I’ll play with one hand? Do I charge half price?” So anyway, she agreed and I had no idea what I was doing, okay. Because she was so great and it went so well, that was how I came back. She subsequently—probably a half a dozen times—has been my left handed at MTNA conferences. Because it worked, I could continue to do it. I did not want to become a right hand pianist because there’s 8,000 pieces for left hand alone and four for right hand. But several people—like Dennis Alexander—wrote beautiful pieces for me. I wanted to do things my way, which was still me, but with somebody else. I’ve had over forty different people play my left hand in sixteen years. That was how I chose to go on. But I am convinced that it’s because of her and that it went so well that I thought, “I can do this.”
PP: It demonstrates a flexibility in your thinking, first of all, you know, that you were willing to try something different, but still be authentic to who you are.
IC: That’s—you’re really good with words. Authentic—that was it, because for me, that was important. I felt like what I do with pedagogy is important and it’s a little different—my style, to say the least. I wanted to still be me. I’ve been so lucky. And like today—like the young man you met here, he was in my pedagogy class. He was he was a student of Phyllis Lehrer and the fact that this is his first time to present like at a big conference to do this. I was really proud of him. There were certainly plenty of other people who worked with me and but I thought no, he’s helping me.
PP: Yeah, and you still have so much to contribute so there’s no reason to stop. You just have to find the alternate path forward.
IC: And find good left hands wherever I go!
If you enjoyed this excerpt from Piano Inspires Podcast’s latest episode, listen to the entire episode with Ingrid Clarfield on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or our website!
We are delighted to share top tips from Dr. Sara Ernst on writing successful conference proposals to support you as you draft your session ideas for The Piano Conference: NCKP 2025. Sara is Director of Teacher Engagement for the Frances Clark Center and a member of the Executive Committee for The Piano Conference: NCKP. We invite you to submit your proposals via our proposal submission portal by 11:59pm PDT on Monday, October 21, 2024.
1. Propose a topic that inspires you and aligns with the conference call
A strong conference proposal will be formed from a topic that is ideal for the specific conference, considering both its audience and specific theme or goals. Your topic certainly should grow from your interests and expertise while being relevant to the community at hand. Remember that the review committee will have hundreds of proposals to read, and often, the way to distinguish yours is by demonstrating the significance, relevance, and need for your presentation. Furthermore, convey that you have thoroughly explored and researched the topic, and that you have developed unique and vital ideas, ready to be shared.
2. Clearly state the objectives and organization of your presentation
Within the proposal abstract, give the reader a clear understanding of what will be accomplished during the presentation. Questions to address include: What are your specific goals and outcomes? What ideas and resources will be explored? How will the topic be organized? What examples and visuals will facilitate the flow of ideas? The proposal should demonstrate that the presentation will add depth of content to the conference program and will be effective in its delivery.
3. Identify how the topic is suitable for the proposed time length and format
The various presentation formats and durations each have unique characteristics. For example, a panel presentation has a theme that will benefit from the sharing of multiple, individual perspectives, whereas a keyboard lab has to demonstrate purposeful use of the group keyboard format. The 50-minute presentation has a scope and level of detail that necessitates the longest time frame. Alternatively, the 5-minute lightning talk needs to be narrow in its scope, while remaining of interest to the audience. The proposal can therefore clearly reflect and support the choices of format and time length.
4. Write effective prose, in a style that matches the topic
A formal research presentation and an interactive workshop have different styles of communication that are inherent to each format. The proposal can reflect this, ensuring that academic style is utilized where appropriate. A more personal, yet always professional, style can be used in other cases, in alignment with the topic and format. It is recommended that you ask a trusted colleague to review your writing prior to submission. All text—including the title, abstract, short description, and bio—need to be thoroughly edited to facilitate the review and potential programming of your work.
5. Follow the guidelines
Last, but certainly not least, take time to thoroughly review the requirements of the proposal, before the deadline. Note the formats possible, additional requested items (like CVs and headshots), the word count limits, and any additional materials needed (such as recordings). Read the policies and requirements, noting important details like ensuring that the text is suitable for blind review, and that all co-presenters are in agreement with the proposal. If you are including links, double check that these are viewable by others. To avoid last-minute issues, enter your proposal before the deadline, carefully reviewing each item before clicking the “submit” button. After submitting, verify the email confirmation to ensure that your proposal was correctly received.
Do you have research you want to share with the piano pedagogy community? Submit a manuscript to the Journal of Piano Research by clicking here.
To celebrate the latest episode of Piano Inspires Podcast featuring Artina McCain, we are sharing an excerpted transcript of her conversation with Andrea McAlister. Want to learn more about McCain? Check out the latest installment of the Piano Inspires Podcast. To learn more, visit pianoinspires.com. Listen to our latest episode with McCain on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or our website!
Artina McCain performing at NCKP 2023: The Piano Conference.
Andrea McAlister: One thing I love so much—and I ran out and got a copy as soon as it was available—is your publication with the 24 African American folk tunes. Just beautiful music.
Artina McCain: Oh, thank you.
Andrea McAlister: I think giving this gift to young students is—it’s tremendous. I just, I love the whole collection. I’ve given them out to my students. They’re all excited to play them. What does it mean to you to be able to create that for students? How did you come across this project to begin with?
Artina McCain: Oh, well, interestingly enough, I’m glad you asked that, because nobody’s ever asked me that. Way back in the day when Piano Magazine was Clavier Companion, I was doing some reviews for some of the books that would come out for Hal Leonard, like at the beginning of my career. I actually ran into a woman who was working on the editorial staff at the time and she said, “Hey, you want to do some reviews?” Like sure. That had to be at least a seven to eight year difference between the time that Hal Leonard approached me. So basically, they had seen my review all those years ago, and she calls me and says, “You know, you wrote a really great review for us.” “Like eight years ago!” “You want to write a book?” “What?” That’s exactly how it happened. Wow, you never know who’s watching your work.
Artina McCain
Andrea McAlister: You never know. And that’s where perseverance also pays because you never know what’s going to come around.
Artina McCain: Right. So you know, they in the meantime have created this fantastic folk song series of books that represent people from all over the world. They said, “Oh, we want to do the African American version of this. Do you want to do it?” “No! [Laughs] I never wrote a book in my life! Are you sure that you are calling the right person?” [Laughs] So they convinced me and I’m so glad that I did because you know, those resources weren’t available for me when I was a kid. You know, maybe I could have been a singer if my mom could have found some books to encourage me. So no, it means the world. And again, I’m glad that I kind of stepped out on faith to do it because it wasn’t something that I even dreamed that I would do, or that I dreamed would come out of doing a book review, you know, like eight years prior.
Andrea McAlister: Right? You just never know who’s watching and reading and appreciating the work that you are doing.
Artina McCain: Absolutely.
Andrea McAlister: I think through this book, you have created so many people who are appreciative that you’ve done the work. That you didn’t say no.
Artina McCain: Right?
Andrea McAlister: Even though you didn’t say no initially. But they convinced you that you really should do this. Because just being able to experience things other than Clementi—I mean, I know those are all important foundational—you know, you learn a lot of foundational skills through the standard repertoire. But this is such important music to pass along to kids who are growing up now and getting excited about playing the piano and these pieces are so exciting to play.
Artina McCain: Yeah, and familiar hopefully to many too.
If you enjoyed this excerpt from Piano Inspires Podcast’s latest episode, listen to the entire episode with Artina McCain on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or our website!
Join Artina McCain, Concert Pianist and Yamaha Artist, dedicated to promoting the works of Black and other underrepresented composers, as she discusses wellness, persistence, and the importance of sharing music with a wider audience with Andrea McAlister in this episode of the Piano Inspires Podcast.
We would like to thank Artina McCain for this interview with pianist Awadagin Pratt.This week on Piano Inspires Podcast, Artina McCain is interviewed! Check out the latest installment of the Piano Inspires Podcast on Wednesday, May 22, 2024. To learn more, visit pianoinspires.com. Listen to our latest episode with Robert Weirich on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or our website!
Awadagin Pratt
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing concert pianist, conductor, and professor at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, Awadagin Pratt. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Awadagin Pratt has received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Johns Hopkins, an honorary doctorate from Illinois Wesleyan University, and an Avery Fisher Grant. In November 2009, Pratt was one of four artists selected to perform at a music event at the White House that included student workshops hosted by the First Lady, Michelle Obama. He also performed in concert for guests including President Obama. He has played numerous recitals throughout the United States and internationally, including four tours of Japan. We had a great chat about his historic career, the competition his foundation will sponsor, and—BBQ!
Artina McCain
Tell me about your early exposure to music.
Awadagin Pratt
My father listened to classical music in our home. He was a nuclear physicist, but he loved music and actually played the organ as a child. He would often record from the radio to the old reel-to-reel tape machines. It was the only music in the house, and I liked it. My parents started me with piano lessons when I was six, but when we moved to Brazil for a year, I stopped taking lessons. I restarted piano lessons when I was eight and then began taking violin lessons when I was nine.
Pianist Awadagin Pratt (Photo credit: Robert Reck).
AM:
How did you end up choosing piano over the violin?
AP:
When I was sixteen years old, I entered the University of Illinois as a violin major. Illinois wouldn’t allow a double major, which is what I wanted to do, and somehow it was decided for me that I was going to study violin. I was also studying piano with a teaching assistant who would always say, “You know, you could be a piano major.” I thought, “Well, it’s not allowed.” After a couple of years, I was able to study with a piano faculty member there, but then I transferred because I really wanted to be a double major. I also wanted a conservatory atmosphere. Although the faculty and the teachers were great, Illinois leaned towards music education more than performance. I wanted to be in a more concentrated, intensive musical environment. I applied to Cleveland Institute of Music, New England Conservatory, and Peabody Institute. I was accepted to New England on violin and not piano. I was accepted to Cleveland on piano and not violin. I was accepted to Peabody on both instruments, so I went to Peabody.
AM:
Talk about fate! What happened next?
AP:
At that age, I was really focused on the central European repertoire—the core part of our repertoire— and was deciding whether to concentrate on violin or piano. It would have been hard for me to have a solo career as a violinist, and I knew I didn’t want to play in an orchestra, so I drifted towards piano and conducting.
I graduated with degrees in violin, piano, and conducting from Peabody, but then I went on to do an Artist Diploma in piano and a Graduate Performance Diploma in conducting. I slowly stopped practicing the violin. I still play occasionally, but just random chamber music or donor events. When people are paying over $100 a seat, I play the violin!
AM:
Well, it’s good for the piano world that you chose piano! Let’s recap your historic win at the Naumburg Competition. How did your international career evolve after entering that competition?
AP:
That time of life was interesting. A few years before, I was in a competition sponsored by what is now called the American Pianists Association, formerly known as the Beethoven Foundation. I made the final twelve in that competition and then the final six. You know, they say no competition is fair except for the one that you win! Menahem Pressler and Leon Fleisher were judges. The third judge was Alan Hughes, who was a retired New York Times critic. Hughes told me that my playing was too individualistic, too different to win a competition. “You should try and play for conductors and find a conductor to take you under their wing.” I thought, “Ha! Let me call Daniel Barenboim and see what we can do.”
Well, Peabody started having their students play for some of the conductors who were coming in, but nothing came of it. Also, I was trying to pursue a conducting career at the time and had an audition in April for an assistant conductor program with the Louisville Philharmonic, which I didn’t get into. Then, the Naumburg Competition was in May.
The previous year, I went to Banff Centre for a three-month residency. Over the years, I had so many lessons— violin, chamber, conducting, and piano from many different teachers. Sometimes I would be playing the Brahms Violin Sonata on the violin for my teacher Mitchell Stern, but also the piano accompaniment for Sam Sanders who played with Itzhak Perlman and others on the violin faculty—Berl Senofsky, Sylvia Rosenberg, and more.
I was taught all these different ways of performing and interpreting music. Each one had their own internal logic. Each interpretation made sense to the thinking of that performer, that teacher, and I wanted to go and figure it out for myself. How would I assemble a piece of music that I was learning? How would I prepare for it intellectually? What would my practice regime look like? How would I get to know the piece, and how would I perform it?
The year after Banff, I was really done with school. I was in my tenth year of school, and I started to finish my degree by playing all my required recitals. I ended up playing three that year. It turned out that I had performed the requirements for the Naumburg Competition, which was two full recital programs and two concertos.
We hope you enjoyed this excerpted interview of AwadaginPratt by Artina McCain. To read the full article, click here.
Join us in honoring our esteemed Marvin Blickenstaff. His 89th birthday is May 19th! Marvin has dedicated his life to serving others, and we are asking for your help to show appreciation in a special way this year.
Share Your Birthday Wishes
To celebrate Marvin’s birthday and support his legacy, please consider making a donation to the Marvin Blickenstaff Institute for Teaching Excellence.
Your contribution will support inclusive teaching programs, teacher education, advocacy, and resources that uphold Marvin’s commitment to excellence in piano education.
Click here to make a donation and leave a birthday message. Your birthday wishes will be sent directly to Marvin!
The Marvin Blickenstaff Institute for Teaching Excellence is an international division of The Frances Clark Center that encompasses inclusive teaching programs, teacher education, courses, performance, advocacy, publications, research, and resources that support excellence in piano teaching and learning.
Created to amplify the extraordinary life work of world-renowned educator and pianist Mr. Marvin Blickenstaff, the Institute serves to advance teaching practice and elevate the music teaching profession.
To celebrate the latest episode of Piano Inspires Podcast featuring Robert Weirich we are sharing an excerpted transcript of his conversation with Nicholas Phillips. Want to learn more about Weirich? Check out the latest installment of the Piano Inspires Podcast. To learn more, visit pianoinspires.com. Listen to our latest episode with Weirich on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or our website!
Nicholas Phillips: I know that your path in music and your career in academia took several turns along the way. Can you talk a little bit about the process of making hard decisions because they can ultimately lead to other really enriching opportunities?
Robert Weirich: Well, yes. The problem with making hard decisions is you don’t know what the result will be; you don’t know what the future will be. When you make a decision, you simply have to live with what ever comes next. My very first teaching job—well, actually, before I had my first teaching job, I was a student at Yale, around New York City a lot. I had some connections there. I really debated whether to stay there in the New York area and try to make it as a soloist. But instead, I took the Tulane job, and the rest is history, as it were. I ended up really loving teaching. Even at Tulane, I—two years later, I had an offer to teach at Northwestern. It was really hard to make that decision even though it was a prestigious jump in the job. I really loved New Orleans, and I still miss it. So you just never know what you’re going to come up with. I think it is proof of that saying—what is it? If you’re dealt lemons, make lemonade. So you just have to make lemonade all the time, whatever it is.
NP: In the book, you talks a lot about how learning is something that begins at a certain point, but never really ends, and it’s an important point for us all to remember, don’t you think?
RW: Yeah, for sure. I think the thing about learning—you do want to learn new things, but I think it’s also important to learn more deeply the things you already know. There’s a chapter in the book about the spiral curriculum, which is a term coined by Jerome Bruner, an educational psychologist. The idea is that in learning anything, you learn very basic things first, and then as the learning continues, it’s like you’re on a spiral up, and you keep coming back to those things that you learned at the lower level, and then you go a little higher and higher and higher. So you are in fact, learning those basics more deeply every time. I just think that’s a good thing to keep in mind.
Robert Weirich with his former student, Allison Shinnick Keep, at NCKP 2023: The Piano Conference.
NP: It’s really important for us to continue to be open to new experiences, while also enriching previously learned things.
If you enjoyed this excerpt from Piano Inspires Podcast’s latest episode, listen to the entire episode with Robert Weirich on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or our website!
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. Learn more and purchase here: https://pianoinspires.com/recollections-by-robert-weirich/.
I guess you could say that my pandemic project was to go back through my writings for Clavier and other journals and see if there was a viable book in there waiting to surface. I had two fears—first, that the subject matter would seem dated and no longer of interest to musicians of the twenty-first century. After all, I started “The View from the Second Floor” in 1984—yikes, that was almost forty years ago! And that leads to the second fear—no one will remember these writings that, in their time, led many readers to say they turned to this column first when the magazine arrived. But in 2021, when MTNA president Martha Hilley introduced me via Zoom to introduce convention artist Awadagin Pratt (a former student), she said exactly that, citing chapter and verse. She also admitted that she kept boxes of the old magazines just to occasionally revisit a piece she liked.
Done! I think I started the project the next day.
Happily, I found that the subject matter held up, since most often I was writing about the constants of artistry and learning, values that don’t change. I ended up choosing ninety-one essays written between 1981 and 2016 and arranged them by subject matter into fifteen large sections. There is new writing as well, often giving background on what inspired the essay in the first place. Some of the essays did not appear in Clavier. One I particularly like is called “Zen and the Art of Piano Study” which appears in a section called “Foundations.” The sixteenth section is also new, entitled “The Next Chapter,” and takes a stab at considering the future of our profession. To my amazement, the book clocks in at 394 pages. Happily, it can be read in short bursts.
As for readers remembering me, well, perhaps that is the price of living into my seventies while most of the profession is a generation or two younger! I realize I am no longer the youngest teacher out there, but some of the ideas posited in my writing urged change and questioned tradition, and those questions remain. An underlying theme in the book constantly asks is what we do relevant, is a life at the piano sustainable for anyone who is not a superstar performer? Since most of us don’t qualify as globe-trotting virtuosi, I think the book has more than a little pertinence to those entering college music study, those beginning careers, and those wondering twenty years later what they’ve been doing. When I wrote the columns, these were the readers I imagined. I’m very happy to have all the columns available in one place, thanks to the Frances Clark Center’s publication of Recollections: A Pianist’s Essays on Teaching, Performing, and Living.
I conclude with an excerpt from the foreword to the book, written by Mark Wait, pianist and dean emeritus of the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University. For this blog I was asked to say what the book is about. Mark’s foreword does it better than I can:
“The book you are holding could be called The Making of a Musician’s Life. It is an inspiring memoir, a musical and intellectual autobiography. Here we find themes we will all recognize–the importance of various teachers over a lifetime of learning, encounters and events (planned or not) that change our lives. Many of us will be especially grateful to Weirich for his loving attention to his earliest teachers.
“But this book is much more than a memoir or a collection, for it recounts the changing musical and cultural landscape of the past half-century. Weirich has a broad vision, and he casts a wide net. We hear his thoughts, always carefully considered and often provocative, on artistic and educational values, and the place of the arts in our society.
“In all of these issues, Weirich holds up a mirror to our cultural institutions. And to himself, for some of his views and opinions have changed during his fascinating and multi-faceted career. We share his struggles as he considers the future of an art form to which he has dedicated his life.”
In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, we are sharing this excerpted article by Louise Goss about her lifetime collaboration with Frances Clark. On behalf of The Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy, thank you to all teachers for sharing the incredible and transformative power of music.
The New School for Music Study.
Being invited to look at the changes in keyboard pedagogy over the last 20-30 years is a little like being asked to review my life. Piano Pedagogy and I grew up together, from 1945 until now.
I was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, a small, vibrant city where music and the arts flourished. Except for very poor piano lessons, I had wonderful musical experiences — church and school choirs, orchestra and band, clarinet lessons and excellent vocal coaching, the local symphony and Community Concerts.
The early days with Frances Clark
By the time I got to college, I knew my future lay in music, and I also realized this meant becoming a better pianist. By great good fortune, my college piano teacher was Frances Clark, who had just joined the faculty of Kalamazoo College. “K” college was a liberal arts school, with a minimal music department. Adding Frances to their faculty was a bold step for a small college, but how bold they had no idea!
By my sophomore year, Frances had persuaded the administration to let her start a program in “piano teacher training” so that six of us undergraduate piano students could begin our training as teachers. Frances already had considerable experience in teaching teachers. She had developed a reputation as a teacher of exceptionally successful young students and was widely regarded for her imaginative ideas on teaching methods and materials. Other teachers began to come to her, first singly and then in groups, for what today we would call “piano pedagogy.” So, in a new college position, it was natural for her to think about how to help piano majors learn the basics of piano teaching.
Louise Goss
Frances’ first collegiate four-year piano pedagogy curriculum
Frances devised a curriculum for us: private lessons on our own repertoire, weekly lectures on the teaching/learning process and how it applied to piano, and demonstrations of her own extraordinary teaching of beginners and intermediate students in both private and group lessons. We studied the popular beginning piano methods of the day, and totally reorganized them under her guidance. We also began to work on supplementary study material to “fill in the holes.”
And so it was, that in my sophomore year, I was already embarked on two aspects of pedagogy which were to dominate the rest of my professional life: a study of the teaching/learning process and how to apply it most effectively to piano teaching, plus an attempt to create better, more comprehensive, more creative teaching materials. By our junior year, each of us was assigned one or two beginners in a study program called “the two-and-one plan.” Frances taught the first lesson while we observed and took notes. We taught the next two lessons, she taught the fourth, etc. In retrospect, I find it fascinating that she never watched us teach. Apparently she learned all she needed to know about our teaching by teaching our students. Each of these lessons was followed by a conference with us on what we were doing right, what we might improve, and how to improve it.
In our senior year, we taught the private lessons from her beginner’s classes, and began to experiment with intermediate level students, still on the two-and-one plan. By the time I graduated (1948), “K” College already had in place what was probably the first 4-year program in piano pedagogy in a college or university anywhere. This little liberal arts college, with a great reputation in English and science, unwittingly found itself at the forefront of an important new movement in the training of piano teachers.
That summer, Frances invited me to help her give her first “Workshop for Piano Teachers.” Three days long, it included lectures, teaching demonstrations, discussion periods, and student recitals. About 35 teachers attended the first of what were to become annual summer study courses, extending over the next 50 years and across the length and breadth of the country.
A time to begin
Frances also asked me to help her put together the supplementary reading materials we had been developing in our pedagogy courses. She took them to the Clayton F. Summy Publishing Company (later to become Summy-Birchard) in Chicago, where they were immediately accepted and published as The ABC Papers. This simple little book of intervallic reading drills was without precedent and became an instant success.
I was at the University of Michigan for doctoral study in musicology when Frances received an intriguing invitation. Summy asked her to study their keyboard catalogue and arrange it in an order that made pedagogical sense. She countered that if they wanted a real “method,” she would need to start from scratch and create one that followed the learning principles and curriculum guidelines she had been developing over the years. Hearing I was to be included in this project, I joyously abandoned the doctorate, went back to Kalamazoo, and began an adventure that lasts even today.
We hope you enjoyed this excerpted article by Louise Goss. To learn more about her collaboration with Frances Clark and read the full article, click here.
Pianist and educator Sara Davis Buechner discusses her musical journey, the saving power of music, and advocacy, with Craig Sale in this episode of the Piano Inspires Podcast.
