The power of enthusiasm“Enthusiasm is the greatest asset in the world. It beats money, power and influence.” Henry Chester
Technology and the future of musicThe future direction of music demands that musicians today lose themselves in technology and learn from their mistakes. In the past, musicians tended to view technology as a nuisance—something someone else did so they could be left alone to create. But technology and music are merging rapidly—forcing musicians to view software as part of their […]
Hilary Hahn on technique, practise mentality, and performanceViolinist Hilary Hahn on practice and technique: I’ve always worked hard at my technique … But I’ve worked hard at my musicality as well. When I was doing my etudes my teachers always made sure I didn’t go onto the next until I had the first really good. But it wasn’t good unless it was […]
Beauty Around UsTitle: Beauty Around Us Composer: Greg Smith Based on text by: Bernhard Severin Ingemann Instrumentation: Piano Product medium: PDF score Related products: – Beauty Around Us (hymn version) – Beauty Around Us (easy piano version) – Beauty Around Us (mp3) SAMPLE:
A man is not a failure until …What is luck? Is it being in the right place at the right time? I think it is something more. Luck is the active process of creating the life you want. So don’t just sit back and hope that good things will happen to you. Be courageous and go after what you want. Commit to […]
Rising after we fall“Our greatest glory is, not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” — Oliver Goldsmith (1762) The citizen of the world: or, letters from a Chinese philosopher, residing in London, to his friends in the east, Dublin: printed for George and Alex. Ewing, 1762, letter 7, p. 30. Digitally archived at https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/ecco/004776950.0001.001/1:9?rgn=div1;view=fulltext, […]
Part of the bigger pictureLeopold Stokowski conducted the American premier of Berg’s opera Wozzeck in 1930 (a joint effort of The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Phildelphia Grand Opera, and Curtis Institute). Abram Chasins recalls a rehearsal: I attended his second rehearsal with the orchestra in the pit and singers on the stage. After some twenty minutes of singing and acting, […]
Tchaikovsky as a teacherTchaikovsky disliked teaching at the best of times, but he particularly didn’t enjoy teaching female students, most of whom, in this period of history, were of an amateur status: Although it is a dreary business to have been forced to explain to my young men’s classes for eleven consecutive years what a triad consists of, […]
The inner drama of manIt is not what the artist does that counts. But what he is. Cézanne would never have interested me if he had lived and thought like Jaques-Emile Blanche, even if the apple he had painted had been ten times more beautiful. What interests us is the anxiety of Cézanne, the teaching of Cézanne, the anguish […]
Creativity“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.” — Mary Lou Cook, American community activist and author Reagan, M., Phillips, B. (1995) The All-American Quote Book. United States: Harvest House, p. 68.