(instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music) - Playing in an orchestra is quite an educational experience for
any pianist and I highly recommend it because pianists
have to be so versatile. Its wonderful to be able to
be a soloist and most pianists grew up dreaming of
being a famous soloist. But, as most of us know
that's not very realistic. And, so we have to learn to
be able to make money in many different ways and that may
be accompanying other soloists or teaching lessons, or
playing in a large ensemble such as an orchestra. Or perhaps, accompanying
maybe a chorale rehearsal. With the all star orchestra we
use two keyboard instruments. There was the piano and
there was the celeste. Celestes are a very special
instrument. They have an interesting touch which
sometimes is difficult to manage but you just have to learn
how to produce the sound. Pianos tend to have an even
touch along the keyboard and celestes aren't quite as even. (instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music) - When I was about 4 years old my grandmother in Orlando, FL had
a Baldwin Acrosonic piano in her living room that she
enjoyed playing hymns out of the church hymnal. I would hear
her play and one day I went and picked out tunes on the
keyboard and my grandmother thought, well we should
have her take piano lessons. I was the first grandchild
in our family and so my aunt who was a school
teacher took me to the Iris Daniel Engel School of
Music which was a huge southern plantation style house in Orlando. I started lessons there at five years old. From there, I studied
with Iris Daniel Engel and her daughter Drucilla Engel. Then I moved over to Dr. Gary Wolf at the University of Central Florida. I continued with him
during my college studies. When I decided to go back to
school for my Masters degree I had been in the musical
workforce for a couple years and at that point I had been
teaching, accompanying, doing some solo playing, I had a diverse background. When I decided to go back to
school I thought well what is going to help me to make a living as a musician and be a pianist. I decided that the most practical
thing for me to do would be to pursue a degree
in collaborative piano. The teachers at Julliard on
the collaborative piano faculty were very well versed in all
of those disciplines of what I was interested in and I knew
by studying each one of them I'd have a firm background
for any opportunities that may present themselves to me in the future. (instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music) Anyone thinking about wanting
to go into music I would suggest starting with the piano
because it gives the basic foundation of all musical
that needs to be known. Particularly, harmonic
understanding so that if you play the piano you
already know how to read notes on the treble clef and the base clef possibly others if your piano teacher
is very thorough there are other clefs too. That would give you the basis
of learning key signatures and time signatures and then
you could take that and apply that to any other instrument
that you would want to learn to play. Playing the piano specifically, I would say to find a teacher that teaches the fundamentals and a teacher that is personally compatible with the student. Not only is it important what
you learn, but to have that compatibility is important
too and continuity week to week. So if the student enjoys
going to see the teacher every week and looks forward to doing
their homework then they're going to have a productive
time learning how to play. How to become specialized,
I think as a professional musician that has to lie deep
in the desires of the child. If they want to pursue music
as a career that's a very big decision and so they would
have to approach taking piano lessons very seriously,
knowing they were going to be doing a lot of practicing. I suggest studying music for
everyone because it helps instill discipline and you
can translate many things you learn about music into
other things in life. (instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music) (instrumental music)