Piano for Life: E.L. Lancaster on Piano Pedagogy, Music Education, and Accessibility for All

To celebrate the latest episode of the Piano Inspires Podcast featuring E.L. Lancaster, we are sharing an excerpted transcript of his conversation with Yeeseon Kwon. Want to learn more about Lancaster? Check out the latest installment of the Piano Inspires Podcast. To learn more, visit pianoinspires.com. Listen to our latest episode with Lancaster on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or our website!

Yeeseon Kwon: When I think about what inspires you, EL, in your life and work, in some ways, it’s all of these kinds of things I’m hearing from you. Is there something that fuels all of this, that you have this vision, this larger vision beyond what we are doing today?

E.L. Lancaster: What inspires me, I think in terms of piano, piano teaching and piano pedagogy, and piano performance is figuring out how we really make it enticing to not only our professionals, but make it enticing to the general population, to the world. What can we do to bring piano to everyone? My most recent publication is called Piano for Life. And that’s what I want people to be able to experience. How is it in your life? I don’t know. Is it playing a lead sheet? Is it turning on the radio and listening to piano music? Is it going to a concert? How does piano relate to everyone’s life? And to try to get it to relate to everyone’s life. Whether it’s listening to the keyboard in a rock band and figuring out what is that keyboard doing there.

YK: I think in some ways, maybe because you’ve traveled, you’ve seen teachers—former students—making inroads as new teachers across the globe, internationally. It’s not this is North America, or it’s not ‘this is what music and music making looks like in this country.’ You’ve been in many, many places. You’ve seen people with means and without means. How does that impact your idea and the things that you’re talking about music and accessibility for all, and our role as teachers and music makers?

EL: Well, interestingly enough, when you ask that question and I think about my project tree, I did not come from a family of means. I did not come from an area in which the arts were necessarily a large part of what was going on. But I know that there is a path, regardless of where you grew up or how you grew up, that piano and music can fit into your life in some way. And that’s why I always want to guide people to find. I don’t have to find it for them, but I want to spark that interest for them to find it for themselves. I always told students, “If your colleague—your student colleague—someone may be very good at one thing, but you need to appreciate if they’re not good at the same thing you are good at, [and appreciate] what they are good at and develop that appreciation for each other and collaborative work. I don’t mean collaborative piano at this point. I mean collaboration with other people and collaboration with a profession, really. 

YK: Well, and I think that it comes full circle. I think it also speaks to a generosity of ourselves in recognizing that in one another. Oftentimes, we think about our playing, what we can share, and what we can say, and what you’re saying is kind of open that up again and to appreciate the talents and skills of others, because there’s so much to learn and gain from that.

If you enjoyed this excerpt from Piano Inspires Podcast’s latest episode, listen to the entire episode with E.L. Lancaster on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or our website!