What is your first memory of the piano?
An upright piano in the family home
Who or what inspired you to start teaching?
Abandoned the unrealistic idea of being a performer!
Who were your most memorable/significant teachers?
Henryk Mierowski, John Hunt (pupil of Schnabel) and Harold Rubens.
Who or what are the most important influences on your teaching?
Harold Rubens
What are the most exciting/challenging aspects of teaching adults?
Their wide-eyed curiosity and eagerness to learn.
What do you expect from your students?
Hard work, self-discipline and RESPECT!
What are your views on exams, festivals and competitions?
All useful in their ways but only as a means to and end and not as an end in itself (often the case)
What do you consider to be the most important concepts to impart to beginning students, and to advanced students?
Respect for the composer above all – and the constant need to examine, intellectually and physically how things are achieved. It is years since I have taught beginners so I’m not qualified to comment on this…
What do you consider to be the best and worst aspects the job?
Best – raising the level of achievement of a moderately talented player (the best can fend for themselves). Worst – not being able to do that, also feckless, indolent students with no care for their progress or even a modest desire to please me…..
What is your favourite music to teach? To play?
Mozart A minor Rondo or Chopin 4th Ballade
Who are your favourite pianists/pianist-teachers and why?
Old oldies – Richter above all, Gilels, Cortot. Schnabel. In the case of Richter, sound and integrity.
John Humphreys studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Harold Rubens, and in Vienna on an Austrian Government Scholarship. He made his Wigmore Hall debut in 1972 with Busoni’s rarely heard Fantasia Contrappuntistica and since then has led an active life as a teacher and performer. He has broadcast on BBC Radio3, and played throughout the UK, in Iceland, Hungary, Austria, Holland and the USA. He is a Diploma Examiner for the Associated Board and both Artistic Advisor and jury member of the Dudley International Piano Competition. His recording (with Allan Schiller) of the complete two piano music of Ferrucio Busoni was released by Naxos in December 2005 and in March 2007 they recorded major works of Schubert as part of Naxos’s ongoing complete Schubert duet series due for release in January 2008. In January 2006 he and Allan Schiller were invited by the Wigmore Hall to present a recital on the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth. In 1998 he received the honorary award of ARAM from the Royal Academy of Music for his ‘distinguished contribution to music’.
The Cross-Eyed Pianist 