Getting a chance to speak with the lovely Barbara Hill Moore is such a pleasure; she is warm and wise, and her generousity of spirit and joy in life is immediately apparent. Here she discusses her involvement with ACMF, and the evolution of the festival over the years.
(Apologies for the background noise. This was one of our first interviews and the ideal location was not yet hit upon).
Boris Slutsky is not a fan of limitations. One would expect, on having the duty of giving a morning masterclass on the last day of a fully loaded recital, that he would be eager to stop on time. But with every student, he would get so immersed into teaching that the five-minute warnings were rightful annoyances to the adventure.
Usually when I hear “piano duo concert” I think of this:
It’s generally not a bad idea to keep to having only one pianist on the stage. Except for…
The Festival Duo!
Vigilantes against stereotypes, the festival darlings of Jim Giles and Yoshikazu Nagai strode calmly to their pianos, perfunctorily bowing and launching immediately into a perfectly coordinated Lutoslawski wi...
Having each young artist's concert take place in a different venue is such a smart concept. Imaginations need to be fed from reality, and the opportunity to play in breath-taking vistas are unforgettable additions to the reservoir of inspiration that young pianists can cull from.
Whereas the beauty of Sorrento’s Parco dei Principi came from its dramatic...
It was a pleasure to sit down and chat with Hee Song Joo, a lovely new addition to the ACMF piano faculty of 2014. She takes some time to sit down with me and discuss how much her students have benefitted from being in Italy, and the differences that she's noticed between Asian and American musical training.
When Boris Slutsky teaches, he gets this glint in his eye. Like he has some sort of secret, just for you, and he’s going to help you find it. That’s the fascinating thing about masterclasses. When you’re in a lesson with Slutsky, you don’t really notice his expression because you’re so immersed in the very pithy things he’s telling you. But when you’re watching him from...
Yoshikazu Nagai likes to listen. He poses a question to you and then waits with slightly unnerving calm as you fumble, because the questions he asks are not ones that really have a right answer. They are ones that ask for your interpretation, opinion, and feelings.
In Tuesday’s masterclass, he made it a point to begin each commentary with a direct question to the st...
