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In some ways, I miss how I used to understand Bach. I learned several pieces from the Anna Magdalena  in my early years as a pianist, but my teachers did not express to me much regarding Bach. I experienced little effort from others to humanize Bach. That is, until I learned my first prelude from the Well-Tempered Klavier, in B-flat minor, Book 1. Before I decided to study that piece, my teacher encouraged me to listen to the entire Well-Tempered Klavier, and more importantly

*Disclaimer: This post is not peer-reviewed. I do have experience in historical research and writing, and my goal here is to analyze, not to compare. Dimitri Shostakovich is a particular example of someone who faced both public adoration and political scrutiny. Consider how Soviet music critics received composer Shostakovich’s opera, Lady Macbeth,  in the primary newspaper Pravda . Critics published Sumbur vmeste muzyki  (Chaos Instead of Music) on January 28 th , 1936, fu

*Disclaimer: This post is not peer-reviewed. I do have experience in historical research and writing, and my goal here is to analyze, not to compare. The formation of musicology as a separate field of study did not evolve until the mid-1800s, when a curiosity to explain the relation between music and culture, ideology, race, ethnicity, and nationality emerged. It is a field that attempts to explain the “fundamentals” of a person and how they influence their creations.  In t

Let me be blunt. I hate method books. Not mildly. Not secretly. I actually actively encourage peers to step away from them. I teach piano without method books, and here is why. But let's begin with a little bit of context.  When I started piano, at about 8 or 9 years old, I went to a piano academy. Like many programs, they used the Alfred series, though my initial private teacher there used Faber.  I was a quick learner and sightread my way through most of it. So I frequen

It brings me so much joy to see the surge of so many people wanting to learn the piano. Even when they do not have the means to take lessons, they are tenacious enough to try to teach themselves. Yet, it is incredibly overwhelming for any self-taught beginner pianist to face the wall of immense and conflicting information.  “What does technique even mean? This person says to rotate, but this other person says to hold your hand still. I don’t even know how to hold my hand. Wh

Technique is a pillar of piano playing. It must not be neglected. Leon Fleisher, a transformative performer and pedagogue who passed away in recent years, stated it best: “Piano technique is merely the ability to do what you want. Any technique is the ability to achieve what you want.”  (Young Leon Fleisher) I bet that you have students who want to play flashy pieces and others who want to play lyrical. Technique is needed for both!  In my experience, many students have dis

I remember the first time that Arvo Pärt ’s music enchanted me. Concert reports were required for many semesters in my undergraduate studies, and, like a responsible student, I waited until the last month to find performances or livestreams to listen to. I was ecstatic to find that schools like Carnegie Mellon and Curtis uploaded livestreams of their concerts and recitals. And under one of them, I don’t believe it is still posted, was a performance that changed my life.  No,

Ever since I was a little pianist, I have always dreamed of playing in chamber ensembles. Especially those with strings. I loved seeing and hearing the dynamic between the players. It was as if watching a conversation unfold in a way that symphonies or solo piano performances couldn’t catch. More intimate than a symphony and less lonely than only a piano. And I had only played a few occasional piano duets before college, with many people that I either didn’t like or were laz

Performance. It’s a topic that creates a wide array of reactions, doesn’t it? Personally, for the longest time, performing was my least favorite thing about music. Sometimes I loathed it. And even currently, I cannot say that I have an overwhelming love for it.  (Vladimir Horowitz) For a young student, they typically spend a couple of hours a week for their teacher’s studio recital. Some avid competitors spend hours a day creating the most refined and reliable performance th