Looking for a new way to teach music?July 8th, 2010

Yesterday, my friend, the American conductor Jaemi Loeb inspired me a great night thinking about musical education. We were chatting over the phone and I told her I hate teaching piano. But since everything is never so simple, I realized that it was not really true. I love sharing my passion with others, but isn’t teaching a way to share your passion? So how can I say I don’t like teaching while I like sharing my thoughts about music? Read more …

André Rieux SyndromeJune 23rd, 2010

We all know the dutch fiddler and his orchestra dressed à la mode of XVIII^th century, but would his name be associated to a psychiatric disorder? Not yet officially, but it won’t be long coming. I noticed that many musicians and artistic directors were subject to the same symptoms that I have been regrouping under the “Andre Rieux syndrome”. Read more …

The score (3/4) – NotationMay 13th, 2010

Let’s continue our series on interpretation and scores. In our previous post we have been discussing the issue of editions, today let’s focus on notation and its interpretation. Read more …

Serialism (1/3)May 4th, 2010

Today we continue our journey into the world of Schoenberg and his disciples with serial music. The term “serial music” is often misused as a synonym for “Twelve-tone music ” or “ atonal music“. In fact this term appeared with Schoenberg, Berg and Webern in the descriptions of works composed after 1920 which were written using the twelve-tone rows. Read more …

5 tips for contacting presentersApril 21st, 2010

If you are an independent musician, contacting presenters is a part of your daily life. Apparently, it sounds as easy as calling someone and introducing yourself. But in fact, it is much more complicated than it looks. Contacting an institution or a festival to book a concert is often an obstacle course we, musicians, are not accustomed to. I will try here to give you some tips to improve your approach with presenters. Read more …

The score (2/4) – EditionsApril 6th, 2010

A promise is a promise. In my first post about the score I told you that I will talk about the issue of editorial quality and the differences between editions. Text is our best source, and often all you can find about the music you want to interpret. In the case of a composer still alive you can always contact him to know his opinion about a detail, but in the case of Beethoven for example, it is a little late to ask him if a particular phrasing is in accordance with his thoughts. The quality of an edition becomes thus crucial. Read more …

Confessions of a pianistMarch 27th, 2010

I realize how time flies and I have not managed to write for almost two weeks already. The past couple of days have been tough for me : a lot of decisions to make, a lot of work to do, so excuse me for not being very punctual at our weekly meeting on this blog. I must say that I spent much time in front of my piano; learning new repertoire, maintaining the old, I found back my student’s pace work! It’s time to make a quick review of the first six months of sabbatical. Read more …

The twelve-tone techniqueMarch 6th, 2010

We had a general view on atonal music in a previous post. This week, let’s get to the heart of the matter by focusing on the twelve-tone technique. Unavoidable revolution of the twentieth century, the technique known as twelve-tone was imaginated by Schoenberg. Yes, him again, and it makes sense as we learnt he tried to get as far away as possible from tonality. And what is the most basic characteristic of a key? The hierarchy of sounds, I mean that certain notes of the scale are more important than others, they have what is called a “function”, and these fonction are polarizing our ears. Read more …

Needing Rebirth? I don’t think so…February 25th, 2010

This week, a post a little more personal. I would like to comment Greg Sandow’s post entitled Needing Rebirth, which sparked a controversy in the american blogosphere. At first I paid no attention to it, then after rereading it, I started to think deeply about it.

To sum up, Sandow talks about two concerts he heard in Washington: Janine Jansen playing the Sibelius concerto with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam and one of the ECCO (East Coast Chamber Orchestra). Both took place at the Kennedy Center. Read more …