The great cellist Mstislav Rostropovich was committed to the composers of our time. Any composer who hoped to write for the cello in the 20th century fantasized about Rostropovich playing their work. As astonishing as it sounds, he performed 105

“Ideas lie everywhere like apples fallen and melting in the grass for lack of wayfaring strangers with an eye and a tongue for beauty, whether absurd, horrific, or genteel.” – Ray Bradbury, writer

“Today, much more than in the past, no one can hope to play well who does not use his fingers correctly,”C. P. E. Bach. From our earliest time at the piano, we are taught a “5-finger position”, which follows the

Following my earlier article about respect between the teacher, student and parent of the student, I would now like to celebrate the “virtuoso parent”.

Respect is a crucial part of teaching – mutual respect between teacher and pupil, and also between teacher and parent/the person paying the teacher’s fees. From my side of the bargain, respect towards my students and their parents includes:

Oblique Strategies (subtitled Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas) is a deck of 7 by 9 centimetres (2.8 in × 3.5 in) printed cards in a black container box, created by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt and first published in 1975.

A busy professional pianist will need to have several programmes of music “in the fingers” at any given time, which can be made ready for some kind of performance at any given time. Alongside that there is new repertoire to

Practising is a habit. If we are serious about our music, our progress with our repertoire and our technical and artistic development, we need to establish good and regular practising habits, as regular as cleaning one’s teeth. No one, not