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Who or what inspired you to take up piano, and pursue a career in music?
I started with a local teacher, Art Richards, an amateur who loved music deeply. He gave me freedom to develop at my own pace, and in my own way. After a few years, I found that I could play more advanced repertoire, and it became self-motivating. I went on to study with Paul Strouse, who had been a pupil of Nadia Boulanger and Wanda Landowska. He demanded much more discipline and gave me a more well rounded musical education, preparing me for music school auditions.

Who or what have been the most important influences on your musical life and career?

My teachers, John Ogdon, Michel Block and Maria Curcio. Ursula Corning, a wonderful patron, sponsored my first recordings. Her support also enabled me to give my London debut recital.

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

To balance practicing, teaching, performing and the promotional/admin side of the business.

Which performance/recordings are you most proud of?

I’m pleased with all the recordings I have released so far, but especially Scarlatti and Debussy.

Which particular works do you think you play best?

Anything that I feel I have a clear and personal vision of.

How do you make your repertoire choices from season to season?

I choose pieces to play based on trying to form balanced programmes, largely with core repertoire, circulating old, familiar works with pieces that are new and fresh for me.

Do you have a favourite concert venue to perform in and why?

In London it’s a toss up between Wigmore Hall, for its intimacy and history, and Kings Place, for its clear, detailed acoustics and fabulous design.

Favourite pieces to perform? Listen to?

I always enjoy programming Beethoven Sonatas. In each one there are awkward, angular passages, but his genius makes them works that are greater than they can be performed.

Who are your favourite musicians?

Anyone who plays with focus and integrity, pretty much in any genre.

What is your most memorable concert experience?

Playing Beethoven’s ‘Appassionata’ Sonata outdoors at the Holloway Arts Festival in London. The piano was amplified on a powerful PA system. As I tried to play quietly the sound technicians kept cranking the volume up. So when the sudden fortissimo passages came the dynamic was ear-splitting. I was told the piano could be heard three miles away.

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

Keep your musical standards high and concentrate.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Maintaining a steady 2 or 3 percent improvement every day.

Mark Swartzentruber performs music by Bach, Ravel and Schubert at Kings Place, London on Wednesday 2nd March. Further details here

Mark Swartzentruber has performed throughout Europe, the USA and East Asia. London appearances include solo recitals at the South Bank’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall, Kings Place and St John’s Smith Square. He has performed live on BBC Radio 3. He has also appeared on BBC Radio 4 and Classic FM.

Mark Swartzentruber studied under John Ogdon in the United States before moving to London to work with Maria Curcio, the eminent protégé of Artur Schnabel. A committed teacher and educator, he maintains a vibrant private practice. He is an external examiner and adjudicator for the Guildhall School of Music and was formerly a teacher at the Royal College of Music, Junior Department. He has given masterclasses and has adjudicated competitions in Britain, Ireland, the United States and Korea.

Swartzentruber’s début album, of Schubert Sonatas, was released by Sony to critical acclaim. Shortly afterwards he co-founded Solo Records, an independent label. His CDs, of Scarlatti, Haydn, Beethoven, Schumann and Debussy piano works, have all earned excellent reviews in the international music press.

As a broadcaster, Mark Swartzentruber appeared weekly on BBC Radio 3’s Sunday Morning programme, presenting historic recordings, as well as producing the show. He has also had music features commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4.

www.markswartzentruber.com

 

 

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“Wise artists seek out critical evaluations.”
–The Musician’s Way

As musicians it is important for us to receive endorsement for our work. This may come from teachers and mentors, colleagues, friends and family, critics and audience members: whatever its source, it has value.

Positive endorsement of, for example, our playing naturally makes us feel good and keen to stay the course on the musician’s journey. It boosts our confidence – and a confident musician will take positive endorsement at face value, whereas one who is less confident may try to read between the lines for a hidden agenda or see an imagined backhanded compliment.

Those of us who study with teachers like to be told we have played well, to receive praise from the teacher for our work, but even criticism, if framed with the right vocabulary, can be constructive and regarded as useful endorsement. Critiquing of our work allows us to develop and grow and it feeds our creativity, encouraging us to strive for better technical control, more vibrant sound, greater expression or more profound and original interpretations in our music.

Endorsement from other sources can be equally as meaningful and valuable as that which we receive from teachers and mentors. (Why else, for example, do we read reviews of our work?) Sometimes the most meaningful comments can come the audience.

Take endorsements and criticism at face value and be generous in your response, even if you don’t entirely agree with it. If someone says something you disagree with, perhaps ask them to explain their comments in more detail. Treat it as impersonal information, evaluate it and try to resist taking a defensive stance. Go away and think about the comments, and, if appropriate, act on them or reject them.

Of course, sometimes we come up against negative comments or criticism which has no real value to us. Musicians tend to be sensitive souls and despite our best efforts it can sometimes be very hard to retain a thick skin about negative comments.. In these instances, unless the negative feedback has any value, it is better to step back and move on. 

It is also important to “self-endorse” – to praise ourselves when our playing is going well. I encourage my students to self-evaluate, at lessons and in their practising at home, and being able to identify passages played well is as important as identifying areas which need extra attention.

 

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The Music into Words event, which I chaired earlier this month, attempted to explore some of the ways in which we write about classical music today and provoked a lively discussion, both at the actual event and online. Several issues emerged relating specifically to blogs which have exercised my thoughts in the weeks since the event:

  1. Without an editor, how do you ensure that what you write is intelligent, well-written, factually accurate, and interesting to read?
  2. Who are you writing for?
  3. Why a blog?

In my experience, readers will return to those blogs which are consistently well-written, interesting, accurate and assiduously self-edited. (This is borne out by the number of regular commentators and subscribers to this blog: WordPress provides very useful stats and analytics allowing one to track such data.) I have come across some truly dire writing on the internet (and also in newspapers, journals and books), and also much that is extremely high-quality (by academics, journalists, bloggers, musicians….), and one can of course learn a great deal by looking at what others are doing, or not doing. In the era of the spelling and grammar checker, there really is no excuse for sloppy spelling; clichés or hackneyed expressions should also be avoided (my particular pet hate is “smorgasbord”….). I’m very fortunate that one of my blog subscribers, who also happens to be a good friend of mine, will pounce on any inaccuracies of spelling or grammar with the eagle eyes of a skilled editor. In terms of fact-checking, I make sure I do my homework: this applies to my concert reviews too. I try to write in an accessible, readable and intelligent style, and one of the nicest compliments I’ve been paid when I met one of my readers in real life was “you sound just the same in person as you do in your writing”.

Which leads me onto “Who are you writing for?”. Initially, I didn’t really think I was writing for anyone but myself when I started this blog in 2010. I was playing the piano seriously again, having returned to the instrument after an absence of c15 years, and I wanted some way to record my thoughts and feelings about the music I was playing and hearing in concerts. Rather than keep an old-fashioned journal, I decided to write a blog (having had a modest degree of success with a food blog called Demon Cook), but I didn’t really expect anyone to take much notice of it. I suppose the unusual title helped (and by the way, I initially thought of calling this blog The Naked Pianist (à la Jamie’s Oliver’s Naked Chef) until my husband pointed out that this might attract “the wrong kind of reader”!), plus my interest in social media and a growing network of like-minded people (including a number of other bloggers and online reviewers), and gradually the number of daily visitors and subscribers crept up. When I was invited to review for Bachtrack.com (the owner of the site had read and liked my blog), I felt my writing finally had some currency beyond the confines of this site, and I have subsequently gone on to write guest blogs for a number of other classical music sites, including HelloStage, InterludeHK, Music Haven and The Sampler, the blog of Soundandmusic.org.

Subconsciously, I am probably writing for someone like me, someone who enjoys classical music, likes going to concerts and reading about them, maybe plays the piano too, who ponders the day-to-day practicalities of being a musician, amateur or professional (practising, repertoire, continuing study, teaching etc), as well as the more esoteric aspects of the musician’s life (motivation, performance anxiety, impostor syndrome, avoiding injury). Judging by the comments and messages I receive in response to my articles, it is clear my readership is now pretty wide, and international.

One thing I’ve never done via this blog, or indeed anywhere else, is set myself up as some kind of “expert”. People do come to me for advice about piano playing, careers in music, piano teaching and more, and I try to respond to such enquiries with honesty and courtesy. It is gratifying to be respected for what one does, but I believe a degree of a humility is crucial too (there are quite enough egos at large in the musical profession!). I enjoy the conversations that emerge from comments on articles here, I have made friends via this blog and I find the community of like-minded people which blogging creates very stimulating. To explore this further, I canvassed the opinion of a number of other bloggers who write on music and culture, and with whom I interact on a regular basis:

It started as a kind of “cultural diary” – a channel for me to enthuse about music I loved (plus some art and photography) and hopefully ‘share the love’.

First, I enjoy writing, and get special satisfaction in expressing my thoughts and ideas as eloquently as I can. Secondly, the idea that there are complete strangers out there reading what I’ve written flatters my vanity. Finally, there are so many ignoramuses on the net, spouting rubbish on matters they don’t understand, I saw no reason not to join them.

It’s cheaper than therapy

I think my single overriding reason is a desire to entertain.

The world of blogging is a curious one, and one which has grown hugely in the last ten years or so, to the extent that blogging now makes a significant contribution to writing and journalism. Many organisations, including mainstream newspapers, have blogs on their sites, often written by well-regarded journalists and commentators. (At the Music into Words event, one of the panelists, Imogen Tilden, classical music editor of The Guardian, acknowledged the important role of bloggers who “fill the gaps” in covering concerts and events her team of reviewers do not have the time or resources to cover, and who offer alternative opinions.)  The difference for the majority of bloggers is that we are independent – and the freedom to write what we like is very potent. Some people may regard bloggers as “privileged”, and are perhaps envious of the freedom we enjoy – freedom to write what we like without the pressure of conforming to editorial house style or deadlines, freedom to go to as many concerts, operas, plays or exhibitions as we like. I do regard myself as fortunate to be able to do this, but I also have a day job (two in fact), as do most of my blogging colleagues, and I don’t think blogging should necessarily be regarded as some kind of self-indulgent literary onanism or dilettantism.

From a more pragmatic point of view, a blog can be a useful tool to:

  1. Offer an overview of who you are – an extended CV, if you will
  2. Provide samples of your writing
  3. Connect with new people
  4. Organise your messy thoughts into coherent ones
  5. Create your own PR machine
  6. Stand out – according to the “1 per cent rule”, only 1 percent of Internet users actively create new content, while the other 99 percent just view it. Blogging separates from the 99 percent of people who don’t blog. Standing out is essential in an increasingly competitive world, whatever your profession or role
  7. Improve your writing skills – like piano playing, writing improves with practise
  8. Give yourself some headspace. The person who described blogging as “cheaper than therapy” makes a useful point – that writing can be therapeutic, regardless of the subject under discussion

So, if you’ve got something to say, maybe now is the time for you to consider writing a blog?

For more on the practicalities of writing a blog see Presentation for BASCA on Classical Music Blogging

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Who or what inspired you to take up the guitar and pursue a career in music?

Growing up in an opera family it sounds strange to fall in love with guitar, but all my life I was fascinated with Spain and Spanish music. I learnt piano from earliest childhood – and I could have stayed with it playing Granados, Albeniz etc, but I guess it was the attraction of this instrument that you can hold in your arms, carry with you and physically feel the vibrations that made me want to become a guitarist. Nothing between you and the sounds your fingers make with the strings, no bow or other “tools” to start the vibrations and it is the most “touching” instrument existing!

Who or what were the most important influences on your musical life and career?

Without the courage of my first teacher, Professor Heinz Teuchtert who later confessed that he liked the interesting case to bring a complete musician with no experience on the guitar within one year from zero to University I would not answer your questions today. I had my first guitar lesson with 18!! I soon started to work as chamber musician and to play all kind of plucked instruments in opera houses. Then I met Pepe Romero who changed my life completely, turning me into a full soloist!

Musically I always feel my opera roots, it is all about singing with your instrument!!!

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

To handle all the rejections you receive when you start to become a freelance indie-classical, between clear “No” to you or to the guitar itself. And I write hundreds mails to presenters and promoters around the world every year…. It is a big challenge not to take it personal. My mantra: “Every “no” brings me closer to the next “yes”

Which performance/recordings are you most proud of?

It was a highlight to be part of the opening festival of the Salzburger Festspiele last year- I am proud to play at all the places which are devoted to music and where very few guitarists appear. We have a vivid culture of guitar festivals but it is like an “ivory tower”, I am so happy of my concerts in “real world” feeling like an ambassador for classical guitar.

Recordings? You can’t really earn money with CDs anymore, so why not do something idealistic? I will be very proud of the newest, featuring female composers.

Which particular works do you think you perform best?

No secret, I LOVE Spanish music (and almost no concert without ‘Recuerdos de la Alhambra’)…. and I am trying more and more to connect my roots of opera and all my piano years with guitar.

How do you make your repertoire choices from season to season?

Some programs stay for years, just with exchanging some pieces. Yes, and people book me again with similar programs because the loved it and guitar recitals still are rare in many concert series, so they love to repeat what worked once. It is different from piano world I guess.. I have tried to offer a big variety of programs in the last ten years, but I got almost no bookings for example with tango or really contemporary music, so it is by far to much work to keep them in my portfolio. Maybe it also that I am already considered specialist for Spanish music and those hyper-classical programs. And it is music I deeply love, so I am in the happy position that the music I get booked the most is the music I love to play the most!

Do you have a favourite concert venue to perform in and why?

I LOVE venues with historic flair, especially castles – they add a magical atmosphere to the music!

Favourite pieces to perform? Listen to?

Recuerdos de la Alhambra already became my signature piece, playing it in almost every concert and never getting tired of it…

To listen to I need regular doses of Mozart and all kind of operas!

Who are your favourite musicians?

Emil Gilels, Artur Rubinstein, Marta Argerich, Tzimon Barto, Fritz Wunderlich (eternal: Dichterliebe), Maria Callas, Nathan Milstein, Julian Bream and of course Pepe Romero.

When I pack my bags for concerts I listen to Vicente Amigo or Yasmin Levy!

What is your most memorable concert experience?

The moment when I was completely alone in the Alte Oper Frankfurt preparing my banjo etc for Shostakovitch Jazz Suite, and Tzimon Barto came on stage and played his encore for the evening, the Albeniz ‘Tango’, just for me with a smile, a magic gift of pure beauty.

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

Oh my god, I hope you know what you are doing to your life: Insecurity (also financially), difficult family life, loneliness— and on the other hand magic experiences, inspiration, pure bliss. Be prepared for a wild rollercoaster that will challenge you in all aspects of your life and your personality .

So the most important advice: Treat yourself like if you were an olympic athlete, you are your own coach, mental coach, cook and doctor!

Where would you like to be in 10 years time?

I will be performing regularly in the small halls in the big venues – and in 40 years I hope to be the “grand old dame of the guitar” still playing concerts with the unbelievable wisdom of age.

What do you enjoy doing most?

Spectacular answer: Playing guitar!!!!

What is your present state of mind?

Balanced, full of courage, happy and completely addicted to this wonderful crazy life.

Heike Matthiesen is one of Germany’s leading guitarists whose virtuosity and spirited performance, coupled with a charismatic stage presence, are regularly highlighted by the press.

Born in Braunschweig, she received comprehensive musical training on the piano at an early age and only took up the guitar when she was 18. About a year later, she started studying at the Frankfurt Conservatory. Pepe Romero, who taught her for several years, was the formative influence on her playing.

In addition, she attended a large number of master classes, inter alia with Manuel Barrueco, David Russel, Roland Dyens, Alvaro Pierri and Leo Brouwer.

Apart from her solo commitments, Heike Matthiesen regularly performs with chamber music ensembles, and since 1997 she has been closely affiliated with Villa Musica Mainz. She has appeared with Los Romeros and, in 2005, recorded a CD with the Spanish Art Guitar Quartet (“Bolero”, NCA).

Heike Matthiesen has performed in many different countries, including the US, Russia, Japan, China, France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Iceland, Austria and Bulgaria, and is a very welcome guest at festivals and in guitar concert series.

She has had two recordings with Tyrolis, on “Sol y luna” with a Spanish-South American repertoire and “Tristemusette”, an internationally acclaimed portrait of Roland Dyens.

heikematthiesen.com