There is a good article recently in the New York Times which discusses a recent master class by Barbara Cook at Juilliard. The writer reports that Ms. Cook spent a majority of the time talking and working with the performers on getting out of their own way while performing. She would help the student stripe away the “tricks” and methods they had developed to manufacture the emotions of the songs. By just living the words, the students apparently were able to move to that place were you stand naked in the music. And the audience and Ms. Cook responded.

Funny how its the samething with the piano. There comes a point for me in a piece where I shift from struggling with the notes to being comfortable with them and then onto that next level were there is a combination of playing from memory and some reading. That’s happening with the first half of the Sinfonia. And today I found, as I shifted into this next level, that I was starting to move more. Physically that is. I remembered an observation from a past teacher that any extraneous swaying etc is really the music “trying to get out”. And the thing to do is to stop. Channel that feeling and impulse into the music.

So as I played thru the first half I felt this shift which then was causing wrong notes as my body moved and my fingers reacted to the new movements. As soon as I calmed down and went to that core center quiet place and played from there – then … It happens. Its like any performance activity – getting to the zone. For me its as if the music is flowing thru my fingers and when I am really in the zone, I am not aware of any physical technique. These moments are for me one of the reasons to be playing again. Can’t get this anywhere else.

And now from the sublime to the
corporate world.