I have recently taken on a new student, a boy of 11 who is preparing for his ABRSM Grade 2 exam in mid-July. He’s been having lessons at school (in a group lesson with another child) but his mother felt he would benefit from regular one-to-one tuition with me. A few days after the first lesson, the mother wrote to me:
“He came home with a ‘that’s the best piano lesson I’ve ever had’ and a fantastic great big grin on his face!”
Showing appreciation for your piano teacher is important, and while I enjoy the support of a wonderful group of parents to my students, a personal thank you like this means a great deal.
Pianist and writer Melanie Spanswick offered an appreciation of the piano teacher on her blog recently, highlighting the important role of the piano teacher in a student’s success or failure. A good teacher knows how to encourage and support his/her students, to get the best of out them, and to help them develop into rounded musicians, with a proper appreciation of the piano and its literature, rather than inexpressive “typists”.
Many parents, and students, and others, fail to appreciate just how much a piano teacher does, not only in lessons, but in all the time spent preparing for lessons, submitting exam entries, organising extra-curricular events to stimulate and interest students, and generally managing a teaching practice and all the admin this entails. These activities are not, generally, included in the teaching fee – just as all the lonely hours of practice a professional concert pianist puts in are not covered by the recital fee. But we have to do these things to ensure we run an efficient studio and to offer our students the best possible learning experience. Not all teachers put in this kind of effort, and it always upsets me when I come across a teacher who does not feel these additional aspects of the job are important or beneficial.
Sadly, the profession of piano teaching is not regulated, and there are charlatans out there: I know, because I have met one or two, both as an adult student and a teacher. As Melanie stresses in her blog article, it is very important to choose the right teacher, and while personality counts for a lot, proper qualifications and experience are crucial. In my opinion, simply having Grade 8 piano does not qualify one to teach advanced repertoire. Conversely, the best concert pianist in the world may not be the best teacher: some of the finest performers are not natural teachers/communicators. However, a good piano teacher should have performed at some point in their career: a teacher who performs, whether professionally or in an informal capacity, will be able to tutor his/her students in the art of performing and how to deal with performance anxiety, important skills for success in exams, festivals and competitions. An ability to communicate, at all levels, from young children to adults, flexibility, good humour, and endless patience are all key skills too. Above all, a good teacher will convey his/her passion and enthusiasm for the piano and its literature: this is my main motivation for being a piano teacher, and if I had to distill my mission statement into a snappy one-liner, I think it would probably say “I love the piano!”.
Good teachers don’t rest on their laurels and their exam successes, and devote time in their busy schedules to ongoing professional development – honing their craft by attending courses, lectures, and masterclasses, and keeping abreast with the new thinking and writing in piano pedagogy (and with the wide availability of such material online, there is really no excuse for not doing this).
So, the next time you meet a piano teacher, either as a student or parent of a student, spare a thought for the huge amount the best teachers put in outside of their teaching hours, to ensure their students get the best out of their lessons.
Just as a post-script, I would like to mention some of the people with whom I have had the very good fortune to study. Apart from my own regular teacher, Penelope Roskell, who studied with Giudo Agosti, Maria Curcio, Vlado Perlemuter and Peter Feuchtwanger, amongst others, I have also studied with former students of Peter Wallfisch, Nina Svetlanova, Leon Fleischer, John Barstow and Phyllis Sellick. For more about the benefits of studying with teachers at this level, please see my earlier post on Teachers and Mentors.
Who or what inspired you to take up the ‘cello and make it your career?
Ahhh! that is a long story, I will try and shorten it as much as possible. Perhaps this might even be the beginning of a funny book for later on in life.
I come from a family musicians, everyone plays an instrument, my mum the piano teacher, my dad played the Jazz trombone (so did my grand dad), my sister the violin, my grandmother was a singer and she had 17 brothers and sisters, all musicians, piano, flute, violin, cello, clarinet, singers etc…
When I was born my parents thought it would be nice to carry on the tradition without thinking necessarily of a career and they tried me on the piano first, but it’s really tough to have a mum piano teacher… too much pressure. Then I tried the violin, apparently I was really talented and they found me a great but very tough Russian teacher, and being 5 years old at the time all I wanted to do was have fun, and he was making me do so many exercise, scales etc…so I got tired of it all and threw the bow at his face at one lesson, then came the percussion which I loved, but after too many complaints from the neighbours and one too many visits from the local police we decided to stop that, I tried the flute, but kept hyper ventilating and fainting, then the saxophone ( which I did more for my dad ) and eventually they just decided to give up and let me be a normal person… But as my grandmother the singer always wanted to play the cello, she had other plans and she bought me a cello for my seventh Christmas. Imagine the scene; there is a massive wrapped up present with my name on it and I was sure it was the bike I had been begging for for so many months and then my disappointment when I realised it was just another piece of wood without wheels or a seat. I felt cheated, I was still very much a child.
Being disappointed, I did not even want to try what looked to be an instrument of torture, but a month later my mum organised my first cello lesson. Being fairly small and having to carry the big case around to the teacher’s house, I could not help but feel people were looking at me as if I was a wounded gazelle limping around in the Serengeti, with predators all around looking at me and thinking ”humm… I don’t know what that thing is, but I really feel the urge to have a bite at the person carrying it…”
The cello teacher was great, she made the whole experience fun and little by little I discovered a trusting friend in this instrument, and it has stayed like this ever since.
I could not imagine my life with out playing the cello now, I am the first musician in my family to be a soloist and I thank my Grandmother every time I am on stage. It’s the only place where I have always felt completely at home.
Who or what are the most important influences on your playing?
There are so many musicians from the present as well as of course from past generations: Gregor Piatigorsky, Mistslav Rostropovitch, Yehudi Menuhin, Daniil Shafran as well as from the present and especially from all the colleagues I play with.
What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?
There have been a few. One of them was juggling four jobs at once which started when I was appointed principal cello of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London at the age of 20 (the youngest ever apparently). That same year, I started my position as cello professor at the Royal Conservatory of Mons in Belgium. Of course, I had all my solo and chamber music concerts and I was also finishing Masters Degree at the Guildhall School of Music too. There were some incredibly early mornings and very late nights practicing on stage of the Royal Festival Hall just after having done concerts with the Philharmonia.
It taught me a lot about efficiency.
My first recording was done in the middle of the night. This was my first solo CD and we recorded it in Bruxelles while I was working in Paris at the “Chatelet”. Each night, I had to dash after the performance to catch the last TGV to Bruxelles in time to start recording at 1am until 6 am and then back to Paris with the first train in order to make it for the rehearsal and concert. This went on for three days and nights straight… I was younger and even more crazy than I am now, although I’m sure many of my friends might disagree with me on that!
What are the particular challenges/excitements of working with an orchestra/ensemble?
I always see playing as a soloist like making chamber music but with an impressive size group. I love to communicate with everyone on stage and it’s not so easy to engage with every single player in the orchestra, but when it happens, I find it magical.
Which recordings are you most proud of?
Each of my recordings have something that I am proud of, it is difficult for me to say, as I am so very critical but each happened under a different set of circumstances.
My Lalo cello concerto recording was done in 4 hours of recording and the orchestra had not performed it before. The conductor arrived late for the recording, and we could not extend the recording because of union rules which I totally appreciate, so we did the last movement in two full takes, no edits.
My YouTube recordings of the Rococo variations with the N.H.K Symphony and Vladimir Ashkenazy had kind of a funny start. I did not think that I was jetlagged when I arrived the night before the first concert, we rehearsed and feeling relaxed I had about 1h30 to kill before the performance (which was being filmed live), I decided to just sit for a bit and relax. The next thing I know I hear a knock on my door and someone telling me that I am on stage in five minutes…I was not dressed, had fallen asleep…a very deep sleep and thank god I did not have to put make up otherwise I would have been in real trouble. I just had time to change clothes, tune the cello and off we went… It does not look like it, but the whole thing seemed surreal to me at the time… almost comical
Do you have a favourite concert venue?
There are so many: Palais des Beaux Arts of Bruxelles (because it’s home) Vienna Musikverein because it is so beautiful, has such an amazing acoustic and always reminds me of my Rising Star Tour. The Amsterdam Concertgebouw is not a bad place either of course (-; and of course I would not mind going back to Carnegie Hall, it was my debut stage in America and I was so young I did not have time to embrace and breathe in all the amazing vibes that this hall has experienced
Who are your favourite musicians?
There are so many, and each of them for different reasons: Ricardo Mutti’s incredible control of the orchestra and of the magnificent delivery he manages every time. Misha Maisky for his courage, he has the courage to speak his voice through his cello in the way that is true to him regardless of the criticism, Mikhail Pletnev and his mastership of the technique of the piano and his cool on stage. Steven Isserlis’s incredible musicianship and the research he implements into his unique sound.
There are just so many… I find something extraordinary in every Musician that I meet and work with. I feel blessed to have had the chance to come into contact with them and look forward to continue learning forever.
What is your most memorable concert experience?
In one of my few visits to Vietnam, I performed a recital during a lightning storm. While performing Paganini’s Moses Variations on One String, there was a massive bang that erupted in the packed French style theatre and all the power went out. As we had just started the piece, and not knowing if the power was going to come back on after a few seconds, we carried on performing the piece in total darkness. After 30-40 seconds the mass of spectators in front of us started using lighters, mobile phones and directed their lights towards us. It was like a rock concert. The whole piece finishes on a very virtuoso climax; we played still in the dark until the very last note, when- as if it had been planned and choreographed- all the lights came back on at the very final chord! I will never forget the incredible roar and cheers from the audience. It was the most electrifying performance and reaction from an audience in my whole life.
What is your favorite music to play? To listen to?
I love absolutely every kind of music, and I know it’s a cliché, but I really do. When I am in the car I hardly ever listen to classical music, more like pop and rock, in a hotel room I like listening to jazz… it somehow fits the bill for me and at home is were I listen the most to classical music. If I had to choose composers I enjoy performing, there are so many, but very often like my mood I will go through stages in the year where I am hooked on Brahms, Mahler, Schubert, Frank and then it would be Shostakovitch, Prokofiev, Britten, Barber etc…
What do you consider to be the most important ideas and concepts to impart to aspiring musicians/students?
It’s such a big question and it would require several paragraphs to answer it really in depth, I think that it’s important to adjust the answer specifically to the young musician/student. Not everyone is the same and not every one requires the same kind of advice or encouragement. I guess the universal advice is be true to yourself and do what you enjoy most doing, this is what will make you the most happy in your professional life and thus in all other aspects of your life.
What are you working on at the moment?
Many different things, Barber Cello Concerto, Elgar Concerto, Dvorak Cello concerto, Schubert, Brahms and Britten sonatas and Bach Cello Suites.
Where would you like to be in 10 years’ time?
I love what I am doing now, I just want to keep going in the same direction, but as many of my friends and family know, I am a bit of a workaholic and perhaps where I should be in 10 years is for a brief time at least …on holiday….but with the cello (he never leaves my side!)
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Apart from the obvious on stage, performing with great friends in one of my favorite halls.
I do feel incredibly at peace swimming in the sea or skiing down some slopes. I guess I would also feel incredibly happy if every so often I get upgraded to first class seats when I am flying long haul flights…
What is your most treasured possession?
I am not a materialistic person, but my cello is my most prized possession, it’s my baby.
What do you enjoy doing most?
Apart from the few dangerous sports that I do (surfing, skiing, scuba diving etc…) I love to perform and I also love to share what I have to offer and this is also why I love to teach so much.
I do also love to work in my garden in London, I am very good at DIY, I love animals especially spending time with ‘Tempo’, my golden retriever.
What is your present state of mind?
I am calm, relaxed and really looking forward to the challenges the future will bring my way.
David Cohen will be performing at this year’s Spitalfields Summer Music Festival with the Rambert Orchestra in a programme including a work by Cheryl Frances Hoad . Further details and tickets here
David Cohen has established a reputation as one of the most charismatic and exciting young cellists of today. Hailed by critics as “Magnificent”, Gramophone, “demonstrates total commitment, combining vitality with expressive feeling in the most spontaneous manner”, the Strad, “an individual, and an exceptionally gifted one,” New York Stereo Review.
Born in the town of Tournai in Belgium, David made his solo debut with the Belgium National Orchestra at the age of nine.
His international career as a soloist soon flourished with invitations from the Saint-Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the London Soloists Chamber Orchestra, l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Liege, l’Orchestre Symphonique de la VRT, l’Orchestre de la Beethoven Akademie, l’Orchestre National de Lille, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, l’Orchestre de Chambre de Lauzanne, l’Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, l’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, l’Orchestre Symphonique de Grenoble, the Polish Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sinfonia Varsovia, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Seoul Philharmonic, the N.H.K. Symphony Orchestra, as well as the BBC Concert Orchestra.
Suffolk seaside town to host celebrated artists in a unique musical evening
The picturesque town of Southwold, on the Suffolk coast, will play host to an unusual cast of distinguished artists this June in performances of William Walton’s Façade and Constant Lambert’s Concerto for Piano and Nine Instruments.
The actress Claire Bloom, who has worked with Charlie Chaplin and Laurence Olivier in a dazzling career, will be joined by writer and broadcaster Humphrey Burton in taking on the role of ‘Reciter’ in Walton’s Façade.
Leading pianist David Owen Norris will be the soloist in Constant Lambert’s rarely heard Concerto, a work which shares Façade’s strong influence of jazz, conjuring up the atmosphere and spirit of the ‘Roaring 20s’.
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As with the original performance of Façade in 1923, poems by Edith Sitwell are set over a series of jazzy numbers, the results of which created a tremendous ‘succès de scandale’ for Walton at the time.
The Southwold Concert Series Ensemble, formed of outstanding students and young professionals from London, will be conducted by Southwold-based composer Nathan Williamson. The ensemble aims to give young performers the chance to work alongside well-established artists.
“If you took the most wacky idea you had for combining music and words and multiplied it by ten, you’d still get nowhere near Façade,” says Williamson. “It’s a sort of 1920s hip-hop.”
Bloom and Burton will bring a wealth of experience to the reciting roles, both having worked alongside Walton himself. They will introduce the concert with reminiscences about their friendship with the famous composer, providing a fascinating insight into the man behind the music.
The first performance will be taking place in St Edmunds Church and St Edmund’s Hall in Southwold on 29th June, 2013. A second performance will take place in the Aldeburgh Jubilee Hall on Sunday 30th June. Both performances are expected to sell out.
Dates & venues:
Saturday 29th June 2013, 7:30pm – Southwold St Edmund’s Church (first half) and St Edmund’s Hall (second half)
Sunday 30th June 2013, 7:30pm – Aldeburgh Jubilee Hall
The Southwold Concert Series is run entirely by volunteers. Founded in 2008 by Nathan Williamson with the generous support of local advertising agency, Spring, it stages several high-quality concerts each year in Southwold and nearby. It also provides education opportunities to local schools. www.southwoldconcertseries.co.uk
Nathan Williamson (b.1978) was brought up in Southwold and, after time away for studies at the Guildhall School of Music, Yale and Oxford Univerisities, returned to the town in 2009. Nathan is an award-winning composer and pianist, writing for musicians from around the world, from full symphony orchestras to smaller ensembles and theatre. As a pianist he has performed at many of Europe’s most prestigious venues as soloist and collaborating with leading instrumentalists and singers. He released his debut CD this year. www.nathanwilliamson.co.uk
Spring is a marketing communications agency which creates extraordinary ideas that help brands grow. Spring’s clients include Adnams, Bollinger, The Conservative Party, Marriages Millers, EDF Energy, The East of England Co-op and SolarAid. Two Spring clients are officially CoolBrands: not bad for an independent agency headquartered on Southwold beach.
Spring is Chief Patron of the Southwold Concert Series as part of its corporate social responsibility programme.
Who or what inspired you to take up composing and make it your career?
I started writing music when I was at school, it was just something I did. I once read a quote about only writing music if you have to and for years I composed songs, but never wrote anything down. It was only when working as a musical director and arranger for a choir (The Pink Singers), and for a number of cabaret groups (e.g The Insinuendos), that I started to write music down, finding it profoundly satisfying to create something and to craft it to suit someone. For me, writing music is a little like archaeology, you are not so much creating as exploring and excavating something which already exists. The trick is to get it right.
Who or what were the most important influences on you composing?
Writing and arranging music for the cabaret group, the Insinuendos in the 1980’s
Learning and singing Gregorian chant, which I now do regularly as part of the Latin Mass choir at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, Cadogan Street Chelsea
Learning that Kurt Weill did his own orchestrations for his Broadway musicals, and that Tchaikovsky was present at the rehearsals for his ballets so that he not only wrote and orchestrated the music, but made all the changes to suit the dancers
What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?
Getting my music performed
Which performances/compositions/recordings are you most proud of?
My most recent composition is always my favourite. I also have an abiding weakness for my cantata The Young Man and Death, based on Rabindranath Tagore poems, about a young man dying of AIDS in dialogue with death. I am also very proud of my opera When a Man Knows which we staged at the Bridewell Theatre in 2011.
Do you have a favourite concert venue to perform in?
Frankly, it depends on what is being performed, you can’t do a symphony concert in the Wigmore Hall, and different acoustics suit different pieces. Also, if you ask a singer you’ll get a different answer to an audience member. Venues which are lovely to sing in, are not necessarily ideal when it comes to what the audience hears.
Favourite pieces to perform? Listen to?
I have a weakness for performing plainchant, and Renaissance polyphony particularly Palestrina and Victoria.
Listening, I am happy to listen to anything by Handel, and the music of Vaughan Williams still has the power to move me that I discovered when I was a student in the 1970’s.
Who are your favourite musicians?
My current favourite band must be Arcangelo, a very talented young group. I still have wonderful memories of singers like Janet Baker, Geraint Evans, Jon Vickers, Gynneth Jones and Rita Hunter. But there are so many wonderful young singers out there at the moment it is difficult to select a favourite, though perhaps Carolyn Sampson and Sarah Connolly come pretty close.
What do you consider to be the most important ideas and concepts to impart to aspiring musicians?
Be true to yourself. Decide whether you are doing it for love, or for money. Always bear in mind your audience: a composer who writes in a vacuum is in danger of producing merely masturbatory fantasies.
What are you working on at the moment?
I am trying to get to grips with the final 20 motets in my collection Tempus per annum, which when complete with contain 72 motets covering the entire church’s year, setting the Latin Introits for Sundays and the major feasts. I’ve done the first three volumes, and am a little bit stuck at the beginning of volume four.
Where would you like to be in 10 years’ time?
Listening to my music being performed on Radio 3.
What do you enjoy doing most?
Writing music, creating something new that feels just right.
Robert Hugill writes attractive, accessible contemporary classical music in a variety of genres. Recent performances have included sacred motets, orchestral music and a one-act opera. In 2008 the eight:fifteen vocal ensemble, conductor Paul Brough, issued a CD of Robert’s music on the Divine Art label.
Born in Cleethorpes, UK in 1955, Robert Hugill is a mainly self-taught composer. In the 70’s and 80’s he was the musical director of the Church of St. Andrew and St. George, Rosyth, Scotland, musical director of London’s first Lesbian and Gay choir, The Pink Singers and acted as composer and arranger for a number of cabaret acts in London and at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
As a singer, he is currently a member of London Concord Singers and the Latin Mass Choir at St. Mary’s Church, Cadogan Street, Chelsea, London. Robert’s motets and mass settings are in use St. Mary’s Church, Chelsea (Roman Catholic), the Oxford Oratory (Roman Catholic), St. Woolos Cathedral, Newport (Anglican), All Saints Church, Margaret Street, London, St. Botolph without Bishopsgate, London and St. George’s Church, Hanover Square, London (Anglican).
In 1994 Robert founded FifteenB, the choir which gave the first public performance of Robert’s cantata Vocibus Mulierum – Women’s Voices. In 1998 FifteenB was awarded a grant, by the National Lottery through the Arts Council of England, to give the first performance of Robert’s cantata The Young Man and Death – A Dialogue, for choir and wind octet. In 2000 the choir premiered Robert’s Requiem for unaccompanied choir at the Chelsea Festival. They returned to the Chelsea Festival in 2002 to give the first performance of The Barbarian at the Gate with Philharmonia Brass. The choir returned to the festival in 2004 and 2006 with programmes of liturgical music including a number of Robert’s motets.
In 1999 Robert was commissioned by the early music group, The Burgundian Cadence, to write Passion a 40 minute unaccompanied setting of the passion story from St. John’s Gospel interpolated with poems by the American poet, Carl Cook. The Burgundian Cadence performed Passion on a UK tour in 1999 and subsequently recorded the work. The recording received its first broadcast performance on Vatican Radio as part of the Jubilee celebrations in 2000. Robert’s Choruses from Passion was premièred by FifteenB in 2008, and the work received its Polish premiere in 2009 when Chor Mieszany Caecilianum performed it in the Cathedral of Christ the King, Katowice.
Robert’s motet Here Be Angels was commissioned by the Crouch End Festival Chorus, musical director David Temple. The chorus gave the first performances of the motet in March 1998 and the revised version was premiered by London Concord Singers in December 2002. The Black Dragon, inspired by a science fiction story, was premiered by London Concord Singers in 2000 as part of their Millennium celebrations. In 2006 London Concord Singers premiered Robert’s Ubi Carmina as part of their 40th anniversary celebrations.
In 1999 Robert wrote the incidental music to ‘Candle Dancing’, a play by the Pittsburgh based playwright Coni Ciongoli-Koepfinger and the music was performed in Pittsburgh as a part of the first run of the play. In November 2001 Robert’s song cycle Songs of Love and Loss received its first American performance at CMU in Pittsburgh. Robert’s opera, Garrett, based on a play by Coni Ciongoli-Koepfinger, was staged in London in June 2001. An audio book of the play CandleDancing, with Robert’s music, is being issued in 2009.
A number of Robert’s orchestral works have been premièred by the Salomon Orchestra. In March 2006 the orchestra, conducted by Adrian Brown with baritone David Greiner gave the first performances of Robert’s Elegy for Baritone and Orchestra and the tone poem In the Barbarians Camp.
As a complement to his amateur group, Robert founded the professional choir, the eight:fifteen vocal ensemble in 2005. They gave their debut performance at St. Giles Cripplegate, premièring Robert’s cantata The Testament of Dr. Cranmer. They repeated the performance in March 2006 as part of the commemorations for the 450th anniversary of Cranmer’s execution at Oxford University Church. The ensemble, conducted by Paul Brough, recorded The Testament of Dr. Cranmer as part of a new disc of Robert’s choral and vocal music recently released on the Divine Art Label.
In 2003 Robert was on the jury judging the liturgical category of the first British Composers Awards organised by the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters and he returned as a judge in 2004 in the choral category. Robert’s songs came 2nd and 4th in the English Poetry and Song Society’s Ivor Gurney competition in November 2007 and another song came 3rd in the Society’s A.E. Houseman competition in February 2009.
Robert is new motet for Alistair Dixon and the Chapelle du Roi will be performed in December 2009. His 2nd volume of motets for the church’s year, Tempus per Annum, was published in autumn 2008. Robert is currently working on new opera based on a play by Alan Richardson.
Robert’s Passion is published by Bardic Edition and the remainder of his catalogue is available on-line from Spherical Editions.
Robert writes CD reviews for MusicWeb and writes CD reviews, Opera reviews and feature articles for Music and Vision.
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