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. The fact is that 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?

I would like to tell you about a book I own, like any other pianist I suppose: “The art of piano playing” by Heinrich Neuhaus, very enriching bible on diverse aspects of our favorite instrument. Like many others, I read it and re-read it, and according to the age I was, I understood it differently. “Do not find yourself in the music, but find the music in yourself” he used to say. Something we all should ponder on…

Some of you asked me following my article on memory and piano performance what are my tips for improving memory at the piano. This is what I am going to share with you today. How to optimize memorization of works? How do I do learn by heart scores I play?

No one can deny it, today, a pianist’s career requires other skills than just playing the piano. After our studies, we often realize that we haven’t been awakened to the reality of our profession. Indeed, once the conservatory is over, we are confronted to stewardship problems. Most of the time, not enough supported, we must manage everything by ourselves: solicit concerts organizers, manage press relations, deal contracts…

This is a dangerous topic. I don’t intend to discus generaly about musical training and teaching but I’ll focus on the particular case of contemporary music, because it takes less place in the education than it deserves, when it’s not completely “forgotten”.