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Fiona Lau

What is your first memory of the piano?

In assembly at school we marched in and out to a lovely lady playing a variety of marches on a battered piano. My parents then bought one and as I was the eldest I got to have piano lessons first! I remember being enchanted by fingers flying over keys and the variety of sounds the piano made.

Who or what inspired you to start teaching?

Originally I was a class teacher in secondary schools, but with the birth of my children gave that up and then a friend asked me to teach her children. After a while (private teaching and peri teaching) I thought I had better do it properly and so I enrolled on the CTABRSM course. It opened my eyes and I learnt to teach not just as I had been taught but as appropriate for each pupil.

Who were your most memorable/significant teachers?

My first teacher was Miss Charlesworth; she had a beautiful house and a fabulous piano- I think that was part of the attraction. At Huddersfield I had Ronald Newton and he dragged me up from a passable grade 8 to a secure diploma standard. He gave me a sound technique and a great view of the piano repertoire. In later life I had lessons from Tim Carey who made lessons such fun and imbued me with excitement and enjoyment about playing. Tim also taught me to be friends with my pupils and do more than “just teach”.

Who or what are the most important influences on your teaching?

Richard Crozier at ABRSM for his calm, erudite but humorous approach. Tim Carey for his holistic approach and my many colleagues who are generous enough to share their ideas.

Most memorable/significant teaching experiences?

As a peripatetic teacher, I taught a boy who was in set 5 (nearly the lowest set) but who had a desire and talent for playing the piano. We progressed to grade 6 practical and grade 5 theory and he then went on to complete a degree in music followed by a PGCE and is now a music teacher. That experience is more important to me than the grade 8 distinctions and it taught me to always keep an open mind.

What are the most exciting/challenging aspects of teaching adults?

It’s exciting because they want to learn. Challenging because they have more life experience, more music experience, more baggage and often greater expectations.

What do you expect from your students?

Commitment, enjoyment and a have a go attitude. I can’t bear it if someone won’t try!

What are your views on exams, festivals and competitions?

Hmm, mixed. They suit some pupils and not others so I take the individual and work out, with them, what is best for their development.

What are you thoughts on the link between performing and teaching?

I am pretty sure that an effective piano teacher will perform – if not at the Wigmore Hall every week – at least in the lessons they teach! Pupils learn so much by demonstration and modelling; sometimes words are just not enough. However I also know that when I perform, whether it’s accompanying exams,playing in recitals, a concert or at a wedding, my teaching about performance has much more veracity and integrity. I can say “when I played last week, I did feel nervous but some deep breaths and focussing on the music really helped me” or other such advice. If you don’t perform at all it would be hard to convincingly and effectively prepare your pupils for performance.

What do you consider to be the most important concepts to impart to beginning students, and to advanced students?

How to practise is probably up there for both. With beginning students it’s probably more important to educate the parents. With advanced pupils I encourage them to have a holistic approach to playing- listen, attend concerts, learn about composers and pianists and play with other musicians.

What do you consider to be the best and worst aspects the job?

Best- the music and the people. Worst- tax and admin!

What is your favourite music to teach? To play?

I love teaching all sorts of music but love a bit of Beethoven. To play- duets with my pupils and friends.

Who are your favourite pianists/pianist-teachers and why?

I have a top ten in my head but always delight in Murray Perahia’s playing.

Fiona is an experienced and successful piano teacher, mentor, presenter and music journalist. She is involved in many areas of professional development via workshops, mentoring and presentations, talks and seminars for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM), Hal Leonard, the European Piano teachers Association (EPTA), Essex Music Services (EMS) and other music services. She has written several articles on aspects of instrumental teaching and reviewed piano sheet music for Music Teacher magazine, EPTA Piano Professional Journal and the British Music Education Yearbook. Fiona also works as a mentor, guiding and advising instrumental teachers for the ABRSM and Essex Music Services and has edited and arranged two educational piano books-“Songs of the British Isles and Ireland” and “Treasured Classics”, for De Haske.

www.fionalau.com

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Musical Overture is an online community of aspiring musicians showcasing their talents before the world and the watchful eyes of conservatory and university recruiters.

It is a place where young musicians find community, performance experience, helpful instruction, and a platform from which they can enter the next stage of their training.

Musical Overture was founded by Terry Lowry  (Conductor and Music Director of the Carroll Symphony Orchestra) and Steve Gradick (owner of Gradick Communications, LLC). I asked Terry to explain the vision and philosophy behind Musical Overture, and how it seeks to be different from other video and music-sharing/networking platforms:

Why did we build Musical Overture?
To make a difference in the lives of undiscovered musicians and empower them to build a better world. We built a place where undiscovered musicians could post videos of their performances, their rehearsals or even videos of them just cutting up and having a laugh.  We built place where their audience would not have to sort through videos of famous performers from the past or of completely unrelated videos.

We built a safe place – monitored by REAL PEOPLE (not computers looking for key words) – where musicians could build a community and their parents can be confident about their security.  We built a place where musicians can receive encouragement, without slash and burn-style comments from frustrated sour grapes.  We built a place where musicians can learn from each other and feel that their voices are being heard, a place where the people behind the music matter.

We built a place where the difference makers – people like university recruiters, agents and conductors – could go listen to and watch the stars of tomorrow.  We recognize how difficult it is to sort through the billions of videos on the internet and how costly it is to travel to hear prospects live.  We built a place – one place – where these difference makers can find the talent they are looking for.

As a young musician growing up in a small town I felt as if I was the only teenager in the world for whom classical music was important.  I felt odd and isolated from my peers, most of whom had never heard of the composers that were so important to me.  I would have done anything to have a community of musicians who, like me, wanted to make a difference in the world through music.  I would have done anything to have the chance to be heard by a difference maker.

Why did we build Musical Overture?  To make a difference in the lives of undiscovered musicians and empower them to build a better world.

It’s free to join Musical Overture and you can browse the site without signing up. More here

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American pianist Jeffrey Biegel adds to his portfolio of recordings for the Steinway & Sons label (which launched with his acclaimed Bach on a Steinway album in 2010) with a collection of romantic works for piano by some of the greatest pianist-composers of the era, including Moszkowski, Paderewski and Rubinstein. The pieces come from an age before the serious recital came into vogue, when performers would delight audiences with light-hearted encores and showpieces, and where musical fireworks, supreme virtuosity and unashamed charm went hand in hand.

But these pieces are not simply saccharine titbits: the selection and programming of the works on the album is thoughtful and well-paced. Obviously virtuosic pieces are followed by works of more depth and sentiment, such as the Lyrica Nova by Samuel Bortkiewicz and Kamennly-Ostrov (Rocky Island) by Rubinstein, both of which are played with sensitivity and warmth by Biegel. The grandiose Schulz-Evier paraphrase of Strauss’s much-loved An der schonen, blauen Donau (The Beautiful Blue Danube) avoids cliché in Biegel’s hands with his delicate attention to its frills and furbelows, and tasteful rubato.

For me, the most enjoyable pieces were those where Biegel’s clarity of tone, silky touch, technical assuredness, and his obvious delight in these works really shine through: Moszkowski’s exuberant Étincelles, Henselt’s Si oiseau j’étais, and Scholzer’s Etudes, Op. 1: no 1. This is an enjoyable album of favourite encores: Biegel’s stylish playing and consistently polished finish remind us of why these pieces continue to enjoy such popularity in piano recitals.

A Grand Romance is available now on the Steinway & Sons label from Arkivmusic and other outlets, and digital download via iTunes

Jeffrey Biegel will feature in a forthcoming Meet the Artist interview

www.jeffreybiegel.com

More about the Steinway & Sons record label here

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***NEWS***

Greg Kallor will be performing at Subculture in New York’s NoHo on 26 September, with cellist Laura Metcalf, as part of the venue’s first annual ‘Piano Fest’ and to promote his new music video Broken Sentences, and premiere a new work ‘Undercurrent’. Further details here

 

Who or what inspired you to take up the piano, and make it your career? 

I’ve always felt a sort of inexorable pull toward music – almost as soon as I could walk I made my way to the piano in my parent’s home. A piece of string was thoughtfully tied around the length of the instrument to prevent the fallboard from crushing my fingers. My older brother studied with a piano teacher whom I begged for lessons every week for a year; she finally relented when I turned six – and I abandoned my assignments almost immediately. (Improvising was more fun than playing, say, “The Typewriter”.) I’ve become somewhat more disciplined. Supportive parents, wonderful teachers, encouraging friends and colleagues – a career in music just seemed… right.

Who or what were the most important influences on your playing/composing? 

When I was nine or ten I heard Brad Mehldau play in the jazz band at the high school I would attend a few years later; I was absolutely blown away. (I added jazz piano lessons to my music curriculum so I could play the way he did – but it doesn’t quite work that way, I quickly discovered.)

In college I began studying with Fred Hersch – who, in addition to being a master improviser, produces one of the most beautiful sounds from the piano I have ever heard. He encouraged me to explore the full range of the piano’s sonic possibilities, to pay attention to the sound.

After I moved to New York City, Fred introduced me to his piano teacher, Sophia Rosoff, and to composer Herschel Garfein. I’m so grateful to Sophia and Herschel for encouraging me to draw upon my background in jazz and improvisation in my classical playing and composing – working with them has helped me to embrace all of those elements, and my playing and writing has become much more personal as a result. I’m a musical mutt, I suppose.

What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far? 

It’s taken me a little while to reconcile all of my musical passions – playing and composing, classical music and jazz – into a professional trajectory that makes sense. Audiences and friends who’ve watched my development have been super-encouraging, and more and more presenters are getting excited by the mix of things that I do.

Which performances/compositions/recordings are you most proud of? 

I’m really proud of my recording of my piano suite, A Single Noon. It’s a tableau of life in New York City – moments of caffeinated bliss, embarrassing subway mishaps, etc. The interplay of freedom and structure is something I think about a lot, and I wanted to write a piece in which both composition and improvisation would be significant in shaping the musical narrative. (Note to pianists: A Single Noon can be performed with or without improvisation. The sections for improvisation are sort of like scenic detours on a highway; the musical narrative won’t be compromised if you stick to the paved road – you’ll just arrive a little sooner.)

Do you have a favourite concert venue to perform in? 

Wherever I’m playing next.

Favourite pieces to perform? Listen to? 

Ginastera’s Argentinian Dances are a blast to perform – brief, but potent miniatures. The second dance has that sort of sad/happy vibe. Seductive. And the last – “Dance of the Arrogant Cowboy” – feels like the musical id of a crazy dancing gaucho on amphetamines. (Probably not what Ginastera intended, but there you go.)

I love performing Rachmaninoff’s Preludes and Etudes-Tableaux, and his Corelli Variations. Gorgeous, and super-pianistic. Rachmaninoff was a master of both the short form and of the long, singing line.

Speaking of which, I love playing songs – particularly those delicious German Romantic lieder. Schumann. Schubert. Brahms. Wolf. It really doesn’t get much better than that.

And Elliott Smith songs. They’re like the Schumann of the (19)’90s.

I had a lot of fun playing Janacek’s Violin Sonata last fall – strange and wonderful piece. Still not entirely sure that I totally get it.

At the risk of sounding egocentric, I’m rather fond of performing my own music – I feel greater freedom to take chances with it than when I play other composers’ music that I love. Of course I try to play their music with the same freedom, but I always feel a little bit like a guest in a friend’s home – no matter how close we are, it’s still probably not a good idea for me to walk around naked just because it’s more comfortable. In my apartment, it’s come as you are. (Maybe I need some new friends.)

Favorite listening? This could take all year…..

Who are your favourite musicians? 

Martha Argerich. That woman must be from another planet.

Brad Mehldau has been an enormous influence since the first time I heard him play, and he continues to inspire me.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin – I’ve heard him conduct the Philadelphia Orchestra twice this season (Verdi Requiem, Stravinsky Rite of Spring). Phenomenal! And such a generous leader/conductor.

Dawn Upshaw. I wrote my Dickinson and Yeats songs with her voice and artistry in mind.

I heard Anthony McGill perform the Copland concerto last year – big fan. Gorgeous tone, soulful playing.

Thomas Quasthoff and Justus Zeyen – left every one of their recitals without tears in my eyes.

Gil Shaham – incredibly beautiful player. Never an impersonal note.

James Levine conducting the MET orchestra = perfection.

Radiohead – one of the most energetic and exciting group of performers I’ve seen/heard.

Alisa Weilerstein, Chris Potter, Byron Janis, Maxim Vengerov, Larry Grenadier… so many. I’m very lucky to live in New York where I get to hear all of these extraordinary musicians.

What is your most memorable concert experience? 

My first Weill Hall solo concert in 2007 was incredibly special. Entering the stage door at Carnegie Hall was surreal (Rachmaninoff walked in this way!), and I giddily assumed that my concert was as momentous for the security guard and the stage manager as it was for me. (They graciously indulged my newbie delusion.) I premiered my Dickinson and Yeats songs with mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala, and played solo pieces by Ginastera, Scriabin, Bach, and Rachmaninoff. Kind of a big night.

What do you consider to be the most important ideas and concepts to impart to aspiring musicians? 

Beware of people offering unsolicited advice!

Here’s something that’s not too offensive: take care of your body. Hike, stretch, run, play basketball, swim, lift weights, whatever brings you joy – but be active. It’s good for the long-term health of people with sedentary vocations (um, hello musicians), and it really helps me out of my head. (Not a whole lot of thought going on when veins are popping out of your neck as you struggle to finish that last pull-up.) I used to LOVE rock climbing, but I gave that up when I realized that a cavalier attitude towards injury probably wasn’t recommended for a pianist.

What are you working on at the moment? 

Playing: I’m digging into some of Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch – absolute gems. I’m performing them with mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala at the end of the month, along with my settings of Dickinson and Yeats poems. Also, Faure’s insanely beautiful D-flat Nocturne is on my stand, calling to me…

Composing: I just finished my piano concerto! Super excited about that – and about some new chamber music sketches I’m working on for cello and piano, and piano trio. I’m almost ready to play through some of them with friends and see what works and what needs to be burned.

Where would you like to be in 10 years’ time? 

Doing exactly what I’m doing right now – except more of it. And, hopefully, better.

What is your idea of perfect happiness? 

A beautifully-pulled espresso.

Gregg Kallor’s new album A Single Noon is available now, a musical tableau of life in New York City, told through a combination of composed music and improvisation in nine movements that coalesce into a more complete story like an album of postcards, or memories. Each movement develops an aspect of the Single Noon theme, and improvisation is incorporated throughout the suite as a commentary on and development of the themes in the music.

My review of A Single Noon

Gregg Kallor’s biography