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Associate Professor of Piano at Eastern Michigan University since 2001
Piano Faculty of the Chautauqua Institution Piano Program since 1998
Personal Background and Philosophy
I grew up in a family of “preachers and teachers” who espoused a simple yet meaningful value system: One’s personal talents and energy are gifts. Extending these gifts to others is a responsibility and an opportunity to make the world more whole. My father was a minister and became a bishop later in life. My mother was a kindergarten teacher, as well as my first piano teacher. Most of my uncles, aunts, grandparents, and cousins are preachers and teachers, too. When I was young, it never crossed my mind that I would become a teacher, but this strong family commitment to nurturing and education planted the seed for my future career.
I was fortunate to encounter strong individuals along my path. My first piano teacher after my mother was Susan Akin. She encouraged and inspired me, and was adept at finding ways to challenge me. She cared deeply for me as a person and as a pianist and developed my sightreading, keyboard, and collaboration skills.
In high school, I met Ms. Enid Katahn, Professor of Piano at Vanderbilt University, and subsequently attended Vanderbilt to work with her. She woke up my ears – she made me listen and think. She introduced me to literature I didn’t know and I was thrilled. At Vanderbilt, I also studied with Dr. Craig Nies, a professor with an incredible mind and a musician with a beautiful sound and an enormous repertory. He taught me to think big.
During the summers, I studied at the Chautauqua Institution, where I met Ms. Rebecca Penneys, Professor of Piano at the Eastman School of Music. Her talent, the clarity of her instruction, and her whole philosophy of playing and expression amazed me, so much so that I attended graduate school at Eastman to work with her. Her demonstrations inspired me, her expectations and demands stretched me, her directness hit me, and her belief in my abilities empowered me. Most significantly, the teacher and the artist in me were born. Her philosophy of integrating life and music with one’s whole person resonated with me.
These individuals have shaped who I am as a person and as a teacher. Just as I occasionally hear my mother or father when I say something or see them when I look in the mirror, I often hear the voices of these outstanding teachers when I teach my own students.
Performing music demands the highest level of functioning physically (technique), mentally (analysis), emotionally (communication), and spiritually (artistry). When I teach, I attend to all parts of a person. As a musician develops in one area, it becomes more apparent that another area needs attention. As the body (technique) strengthens, one must turn attention to the mental component (musical intent and analysis). As musical understanding increases, one needs to make more discoveries in the body to carry more musical intent.
One needs to be a good pianist (craft – technique – control of the keyboard), a good musician (historical understanding – theoretical application), and ultimately one needs to become an artist (personal statement – bringing the self and imagination to performance – transcending craft and analysis). My students don’t grow one-dimensionally, but mulit-dimensionally. When one area develops too quickly, tension results. For example, expression not grounded in historical understanding and intelligent analysis is eccentric and irrelevant.
What fascinates me so much about teaching is working with the whole person in this way. Since no two people are ever in the same place or on the same course, every lesson is a new adventure.
I take pride and honor in knowing my students well and them knowing me. Creating a sense of community within the studio adds support, meaning, motivation, and context for everyone.
Teaching piano is also about building a relationship between the student and the music. In order to do that effectively, one needs to understand the person as well as the instrument and the repertoire.
I feel extremely rewarded and gratified by teaching. I love meeting and knowing the individuals who study with me and am fascinated by working daily with the elements of music and expression.
I believe in direct, honest, warm, and encouraging communication and instruction. Humor is important. Being able to laugh at oneself is important.
I expect my students to be responsible at a level that they are capable of. There is a place for toughness but never a place for destructiveness.
Intuition is undervalued in teaching and in the world at large. Most people work with the obvious – what is on the surface. Often what is below the surface is more important and more true. This approach is not quantitative – it is qualitative. Some of my favorite moments teaching are when the students smiles deeply and says “how did you know that?” or “how did you figure that out?” The most meaningful discoveries are often made by maintaining a flow between mental observation and an open intuitive consciousness.
I don’t encourage students to “over” practice. Three to four hours a day is sufficient. I emphasize efficiency. For success, it is vital to be efficient. I teach my students how to use their time, how to practice, and how to teach themselves.
Much of my work in this area was influenced by Dr. Ray Gottlieb. In his attention and memory work with Chautauqua students, he simulates an optimum state of learning consciousness. Through this work, one begins to recognize this state and be able to go to this place where one is always optimally challenged. Good practice means engaging the self on all levels – physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. The imagination should work in relationship with the analytical mind to solve physical problems and create musical results.
During lessons I often practice alongside the student so that he or she learns how to develop proficiency quickly. Chopin’s students remarked that one could not fail to improve because he practiced with them. I use this as my model for creating organized learning situations.
I encourage students to listen to music recordings because artistic growth can be inspired by the work of past and contemporary artists. Listening – to symphonies, string quartets, and vocal music as well as piano repertoire – engenders an understanding of style, history, and a sense of sound and phrasing.
Recorded music is a supplement, not a substitute, for live performances. A life-long commitment to concert-going is vital for an artist’s ongoing development. In addition, meeting artists and working with them in master class settings is crucial for inspiration and modeling.
Technique
My physical approach to the keyboard revolves around naturalness, efficiency, and balance. Technique is built from a relaxed and natural approach into the key using the arm weight and ending in a balanced and appropriately supported hand. I work with students to build an effective communication between small muscles and big muscles. Both are necessary in healthy, virtuosic, and free piano technique.
Those students who do not have a perfect technique by 18 or even 25 should not be discouraged. With smart, consistent practice and a keen understanding of physical principles, it is possible to build the foundations of a good technique later in life.
Demonstration
Demonstration is a crucial component of my teaching. I want my students to hear beautiful piano sound, pedaling, style, articulation, and phrasing. I use words in combination with sound to communicate ideas.
For any kind of expression to be soulful, it must be connected to the breath. The breath is life’s first gift at birth, and it’s the last to part at death. In most religions, breath correlates with the spirit - the spirit is breath. For playing to be full of spirit, it has to be motivated by and connected to the breath. For students to play soulfully, they have to physically connect movement, emotion, and communication to their breath.
CPE Bach says that the performer must always be aware of affect as they are performing. I encourage students to explore the emotional content of musical pieces. Building a narrative or an image can be helpful. It’s remarkable how a specific emotional quality can bring into focus the expressive elements of timing, phrasing, and touch..
How does the piano, and music in general, fit within the community and the world? This is a tough question. What role do we have? I frequently ask my students this question in lessons and in studio class. I even ask, “Why are you doing what you are doing?” and “What is this all about?” I am less concerned with an actual answer to this, and more interested in continuing to ask it. My sense is that there are many answers to the question about music’s role in the world, and I want to help students reach their own passionate conclusion about its importance.
What I have found is that most answers lie at the heart of what makes us most human. The answers are related to issues of communication, expression, self-knowledge, and extending one’s gifts to the world. By continuing to ask this question, I keep music relevant to these students in their own lives. I recently enjoyed composer Joan Tower’s essay on NPR’s “This I Believe.” She speaks to this question of what music means in society.
For music to be extremely emotional and human, every parameter of expression must be fluid – nothing can be static. This includes pedaling, voicing, color, phrasing, timing and rubato, gesture, and articulation. The greatest pianists model this varied expression in the most natural way.