one of America´s most respected pianists and teachers. “People who have no background at home in music, suddenly hear Beethoven at the age of 16 and decide to learn the piano- sure they can learn something, but it´s too late. A doctor could explain it better, but like a tennis player or a swimmer, musicians have to develop their talent early. Next, you need a teacher, a good teacher. It doesn´t necessarily have to be someone famous, as each case is different. And lastly, you need parental support, but not too much (that´s one of the problems in Asia, where parents make their kids practice 10 hours a day). There is definitely a risk of doing too much too soon- too many concerts and competitions. Personally I am totally against competitions- with some exceptions. I didn´t allow Lang Lang to play competitions. He would scream and cry and carry on, so I´d let him go to one, but basically he followed my advice. Same with Yuja Wang. Why? Well, they simply didn´t need to play competitions.” “Why do people go to competitions? It´s not just the money, you might win a thousand Dollars, but you have concerts. Managers are going to be there. Conductors might hear you. Even if it´s a small competition, you´ll play with the local orchestra, maybe you´ll be reengaged, and then other people will hear you. But the problem is: if you go to competitions, you always have to work on what you think you´re playing best, and then you are not learning new repertoire, because six months later there will be another competition. You don´t want to perform what you just learned in these six months because it´s not ready yet. But what you learned two years ago, is ready, so you end up playing the same repertoire.” “Then again, there are other cases, of course. Take Zhang Haochen, for example. Everyone said he was terrific, everyone called him wonderful, but he did not succeed. Managers said he was great, but they would have too many pianists on their lists already. Conductors thought he was a great talent but would only say they wanted to listen to him again two years later. So he went to the Cliburn (I had no objection!) and won a Gold Medal. Just to say that things can also work out that way! Each person plays differently, and each case is different”. Each competition is different as well, of course. Many offer ever greater freedom in the choice of repertoire, except one: the Fryderyk Chopin Competition in Warsaw.
Yuja Wang, Gary Graffman, Lang Lang and Emanuel Ax, celebrating Graffman´s 93th birthday in 2021 (©Archive)
Haochen Zhang ©Benjamin Ealovega
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