Renowned pianist Krystian Zimerman gave a quite unsual performance on Sunday, April 26 in LA at Walt Disney Hall.
I got the news about this particular event through my daily digest on Artsjournal.com (highly recommended! Never miss this amazing information source about music and arts www.artsjournal.com).
Zimerman apparently criticized some US policies overseas and took the opportunity of his performance at Walt Disney Concert Hall to announce this as his last American appearance. Understandable that he got annoyed also because of the troubles he often encountered due to traveling with his own Steinway piano.
But why taking political reasons regarding the country where I have been invited to perform, and use them to affect my performance and let the audience know, that I would never perform again in that country? First a pianist is performing for the people and not for politics, even though people involved into politics also attend classical concerts.
Just by [...]

Last week we had the opportunity to assist to a unique classical music project: the YouTube Symphony Orchestra performing at Carnegie Hall. The musicians came from several countries and have been selected through auditioning videos, which they self-posted on YouTube.
That was the first orchestra “made in the world-wide-web”.
Just check your camera, put it in your practice room, choose the best piece you can play and then just record your little audition to get your chance to be a member of a ”virtual orchestra”.
A good idea, a well-organized project, a particular live performance.
Any instrumentalist was no more required to travel personally to an audition, they could just do it from their home, from their practicing room.
Hm, quite interesting but, do you really like this?
It sounds like in doing so, “virtual voyeurs” are allowed to watch me while I am having my private practicing session at home.
Well, I think that a [...]

A woman plays Beethoven
„ Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.” (L.v.Beethoven)
Beethoven used these words to make a clear statement to the people of his time and to posterity. He considered music as the highest form of expression.
As a composer he was absolutely conscious about the strong influence of his art to other people. Beethoven had particular preference for the instrumental form of the string quartet, he also declared that his way of imagining the sound was always symphonic.
Nevertheless he found the perfect expression of all his emotional feelings through the piano sonata form.
A similar huge work cannot be found in the whole piano literature like the 32 piano sonatas compendium, which is still a difficult enterprise for a pianist, even today, about 200 years later. Mastering them requires to grow and to mature as a musician for a deeper understanding of Beethoven´s style and sound.
These [...]

As long as someone can play piano, he or she is not necessarily a pianist. The way to become a professional pianist is not a simple scheme or pattern which can be used and experienced equally by every person.
I am not speaking about simple piano playing, what I often prefer to define as a pushing down of keys, depressing pedals like the accelerator of your car with a typewriter technique. Not at all.
It is very important not to strive after a quite impersonal and unattractive style of playing.
How do you consider your being a pianist?
Did you set your own mission statement about your personal musical development? If not, believe me, you should.
Unless you want to play rather for yourself in your free time and not for public.
But remember: being a pianist is only the step before you become an artist…

Do you believe in coincidence? Or do you prefer to believe in a perfect master plan of the universe? Well, if you are reading this blog, it is probably not a coincidence. You just found this blog because you are making music. Maybe making music is the main component of your personal expression, maybe you are a music student, or music is your profession, either as a career or as a music teacher. Anyway, making music is the part of my life which drives me since my childhood.
Music is my life, this is the reason why I simply decided to be a pianist. But I don´t want to remain “just” a pianist.
Professional development as a pianist is as much essential as personal development in life. Remaining “just” a pianist would mean stopping at a certain stepping stone without considering a wider perspective of experience.
You should not find satisfaction as a [...]