I'm constantly inspired by meetings of specific people, in specific places, at specific times, and the incredible art that often comes out of these encounters. Such is the case with Mozart's Dissonance String Quartet. Here is a brief exploration of the six string quartets that Mozart composed and the impact that composer Joseph Haydn had on Mozart’s work. In 1781, Mozart.became acquainted with Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn and they attended various quartet parties together. These quartet parties were something of a tradition. On February 16th, 1785, at a quartet party during a ten week visit to the Mozart household in Vienna, Haydn approached Mozart's father, Leopold, and relayed what has become one of Haydn's most well known quotes.

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In 1982, the autographed copy of a piano trio composed by a teenaged Claude Debussy was discovered in the effects of one of Debussy's piano students. I will get to that after I explore a bit of history. An early Debussy composition, Piano Trio in G Major is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a world beating composition. However, it does give me an opportunity to delve a little bit more deeply into the life of the teenaged Debussy and to look for seeds of potentiality which would then manifest themselves later on in his life as a mature composer, teacher, writer, thinker about music, culture, art. Achille Claude Debussy was born in 1862 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and died in 1918 in Paris. Debussy came from rather humble beginnings. When he was very young, he and his parents lived over a china shop that his parents owned.

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Brazilian composer, one of my very favorite, under the radar composers that is not necessarily too widely known. I'm hoping that will change. Francesca Chiquinha Gonzaga, born in 1847 in Rio. A colorful life story, to put it mildly. Her mother Rosa was a Mestizo slave in Brazil and her father, Jose Basilio, was actually a relatively high-ranking military officer. He decided to claim Chiquinha as his daughter, marry Rose, and therefore Chiquinha was set on a pathway where she was, as the child of a military officer, going to apparently receive quite a good education, including piano study. Chiquinha composed her first piece at the age of eleven, apparently for a Christmastime celebration in their local church and she never looked back.

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How is it that a buffoonish, conniving, misshapen cultural icon of Western and eastern European culture since the Renaissance worked its way into music? In this post, I present a brief exploration of one of my favorite cultural figures, and of course, how that figure manifests musically, especially in Western and Eastern European musical traditions. Of course, we're talking Pulcinella. For my purposes, from a pianistic standpoint, I'm focusing on the French version of the original Italian character, Polichinelle, and I'll have two wonderful piano pieces in the video at the end of this blog that really highlight the importance of the Pulcinella character. Let's look into a little background, a little history of Pulcinella.

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1720 saw the publication of Eight Great Suites for the harpsichord and provide a window into Handel’s unique relationship to the art of keyboard playing. His use of counterpoint was less rigid than that of composers such as JS Bach and Handel’s love of forms which rely on a repeated (ostinato) bass line or harmonic progression allowed him to create a continuous series of variations, Handel said of this set of suites, “I have been obliged to publish some of the following Lessons because surreptitious and incorrect Copies of the had got Abroad. I have added several new ones to make the Work more useful.” These suites were possibly composed for his student Princess Anne, daughter of King George II.

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As I have often sought inspiration in the methods, thought processes, and stories of great teachers for my own work, the monumental work of Nadia Boulanger as pedagogue, performer, conductor, composer, and thinker has been a constant touchstone. Her imprint on the evolution of 20th century American music is without peer. In the words of American composer and critic (and early Boulanger pupil) Virgil Thomson: “At one point every American town had two things: a five and dime and a Boulanger pupil.”What were some of the early influences that shaped Madame Nadia’s’ approach towards teaching and leading an artistic life? In a nutshell, it’s all about family.

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Through her legacy of research, teaching and recordings, Mme. Landowska’s devotion to 17th and 18th century keyboard music laid much of the groundwork for the resurgence of Early Music studies later in the 20th century. She succeeded in attracting a popular following at a time when other harpsichordists met with little or no success. Her commitment to her artistic vision was unwavering throughout the course of her life, taking her from Poland, Germany, France and later to the US. This commitment to her art and her prodigious talents make Wanda Landowska one of my keyboard heroes.

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For the first time in well over a year, I’m preparing to play in a public concert. Reflecting our current reality, this will be a performance shared with an appropriately distanced and masked audience of 50 (already maxed out) and also to an online audience via live-stream. My three colleagues and I will be continuing our annual Palm Sunday tradition of performing Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time” at Covenant Presbyterian Church in the Bucktown neighborhood of Chicago.

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Spring is often a time of renewal…and for good reason. Seeing the world around us wake up and become green again is nothing short of miraculous. For those of us whose lives are tied to the academic musical calendar, however, autumn can also bring renewed attention to artistic goals and methods and, as is certainly the case for me, the art and science of practicing.

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I LOVE French music — especially that which is written for the piano. Mr Ericourt and the Theory of the Half Circle sounds like the title of an Agatha Christie novel. No, it’s a concept of how we might deal with the shaping of music sound — a concept which eluded me for YEARS. More on that later. During my first two years of college I had the great good fortune to study with French pianist Daniel Ericourt (1903-1998).

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