Mitsuko Uchida returns to Zellerbach Hall with a feast of Mozart Piano Concerti

It's been two years since I last heard Mitsuko Uchida dish up a serving of mellifluous Mozart that she tenders phrase by phrase, with nuances of pure poetry. https://arioso7.wordpress.com/2022/03/28/mitsuko-uchida-and-mozart/ 3/24/2024 Performance at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, California The pianist's runs, so well-shaped, curvaceous, and keenly melodic, afford a model for students of the piano, teachers,…

A revisit of a timely topic about the human voice and piano lessons

https://arioso7.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/piano-study-and-the-value-of-singing-against-a-cultural-backdrop-of-vocal-inhibition/?page_id=14563

The Leonard Bernstein biopic, Maestro has its ups and downs

In 2019, I attended a San Francisco Jewish Community Center event that featured author, Jamie Bernstein showcasing her book, Famous Father Girl. The eldest daughter of conductor/composer icon, Leonard Bernstein, she had released her memoir in step with her father's Centennial Celebration that drew a reinvigorated interest in the conductor/composer's life.  The book event: https://arioso7.wordpress.com/2019/05/06/famous-father-girl-author-jamie-bernstein-delights-a-crowd-of-lenny-lovers/ With…

The universe of pedaling and phrasing as explored in W.A. Mozart, Andante movement, Sonata K. 545

Today I was immersed in the cosmos of pedaling and phrasing in the good company of an Online student. It was a natural follow-up to a pedal centered video produced by Tone Base, a cyber generated platform that engages fine pianists to contribute ideas in the technical/musical realm. https://youtu.be/p0YI_qMW9R8?si=u8rqzetmDbpkcF_K What I thought was missing in…

Noteworthy Pianist Discoveries on You Tube!

Taking the lead from Seymour Bernstein, who sent out a mega-mailing to his List-Serve members about pianist, Orli Shaham, I dashed off to an embedded link of superlative Mozart playing. The reading was permeated by an ever present singing tone, nuanced articulations, and a broad breadth of emotional expression. ( As you scroll down to…

Practicing J.S. Bach Sarabande, BWV 816: In a Sea of Ornaments, first explore an unadorned melody

As I revisited J.S. Bach's memorable Sarabande movement from his French Suite No. 5, BWV 816, I stared at an Urtext score laden with ornaments of infinite variety --trills, mordents, parentheses showing upper and lower accents, loops on trills in opposite directions, etc. and to complicate matters, I was expected, by tradition, to improvise each…

The value of sending supplementary videos to Online students between piano lessons

Since I began teaching piano Online in 2011, well before it gained pandemic driven popularity, I'd always felt the need to fill in what seemed to be distance related gaps in the Internet teaching environment. Compensating for my guilt-ridden, tradition-breaking, cyber teaching excursions on Face Time, I'd made sure to give my students an extra…

Technology enhancements for Online Piano Lessons

Back in 2011, when music lessons by webcam were viewed as out of the mainstream, bucking the traditional face-to-face, in-person learning environment, I was nevertheless, lulled into cyberspace by an Australian subscriber to my You Tube channel. One day, he messaged me with a promise to send a Logitech webcam that would widen my teaching…

Music and Community Activism

During my many years of teaching piano, nurturing students along of diverse backgrounds and levels, I never imagined that I would find myself channeling music into a form of local activism. But it's happened here in Berkeley, California on Hopkins Street, with its lovely stretch of trees and quaint shops owned my merchants of many…

Arm Weight and Piano Playing

My personal arm weight journey began at age 13, when I enrolled at the NYC High School of Performing Arts. The preceding summer, I'd been a music camper at Merrywood in Lenox, Massachusetts where I'd met student cellist, Douglas Freundlich who regaled his aunt Lillian as an exceptional, Manhattan-based piano teacher. Such a name drop,…