Seven artists who started with classical piano. Who are they?

Answers at the end of this blog.

1. He was set to represent the United States at the 1966 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow but was disqualified because he was also a pop star and composer of “Calendar Girl” and “Breaking up is Hard to Do.”

2. He studied five years at the Royal Academy of Music in London, playing Chopin and Bach, and became famous for his outrageous costumes and electrifying pop songs.

3. He emulated the technique of Polish pianist Paderewski and, at 20, played Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto with the Chicago Symphony. Despite his superb technique, he was better known for his velvet tuxedos, candelabra and flamboyant attitude.

4. This jazz superstar studied with Paul de Marky, who studied with Istvan Thoman, who studied with Franz Liszt. As a child he practiced four to six hours a day, and when someone asked how he got his great technique, he answered “Czerny and Hanon.”

5. The sixth of eight children born to a poor family in North Carolina, she was refused admission to the Curtis Institute of Music because of her racial background. Vladimir Sokoloff took her on as a private student. Her musical style fused gospel and pop with classical music as she went on to record more than 40 albums.

6. He was awarded a Master of Music from Juillard in 2013 and is the current bandleader for Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show.

7. This American singer-songwriter studied classical piano until she was 18, practicing six hours a day since the age of seven. She credits classical music with giving her the discipline, focus, work ethic and knowledge that “unlocked the ability to write my own music.”

Answers:

1. Neal Sedaka

2. Elton John

3. Liberace

4. Oscar Peterson

5. Nina Simone

6. Jon Batiste

7. Alicia Keys

Lady Gaga’s radical approach to “The Star Spangled Banner” — and February piano events

If you’ve ever wondered why it’s important to learn music theory and meter, listen to Adam Neely’s entertaining description of how Lady Gaga changed the time signature from 4/4 to 3/4 in her inauguration rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner.” In this video he provides a measure by measure analysis of Lady Gaga's interpretation of the national anthem and the powerful effect of her meter and chord changes.

Upcoming performances (online):

Jan 29. The New School’s Mannes School of Music will present Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas at 4:00 pm (PST). The concert is free at coparemote.com/mannessounds .

Feb 6. Last month I mentioned that the Seattle Chamber Winter Festival starts Feb 3. In addition to last month’s recommendations, I’ll add Robert Schumann’s “Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano in D minor, Op. 121.”

Feb 12 — 19. Simone Dinnerstein is an inventive pianist who created an intimate online recital from her living room, where the album was recorded during quarantine. The performance is presented free by the Meany Center for the Performing Arts.

Ongoing: Jon Batiste (Stephen Colbert’s bandleader and classically-trained pianist) is featured — along with a cat — in a new Disney movie called “Soul”, available at movies.disney.com

Dave’s Blog for January 2021

Hello — and welcome to my first blog post.  I plan to use this blog to keep my students and other interested parties updated on concerts and lectures, at this point, all digital/streaming.  The focus will be piano — solo, chamber, or concerti.  Most will be classical, but I like all sorts of music.  So who knows?

The Seattle Chamber Music Festival, seattlechambermusic.org, is a renowned festival featuring world-class performers.  There is a three-week festival held in Seattle (and online) during the summer and a week-long Winter Festival in January 2021.  There are two upcoming Winter Festival performances that should be interesting:  Beethoven’s Archduke Trio on Feb. 10 and Brahms’s Trio, Op. 8 on Feb. 13.  Each trio has a violin, cello, and piano.  It would be interesting to compare the Brahms trio to Beethoven’s (Brahms was born in 1833, six years after Beethoven’s death).

The Berlin Philharmonic has another excellent streaming site, digitalconcerthall.com , with many upcoming concerts.  Pay attention to the hip German pianist, Igor Levit, playing the Beethoven Piano Concert No. 5 in E Flat Major on March 6 at 10 am (PST).  Keep your eye open for him in other venues.  According to The New Yorker, “Igor Levit is like no other pianist."

Happy New Year, and Have a great 2021!