I wish!! Master classes are the one-off opportunities to learn from true masters. I was very lucky to have had the opportunity to meet and play for professor Carol Leone two Sundays ago. She teaches at SMU Meadows School of the Arts in Dallas, Texas, and is considered the world’s leading performer, teacher, and researcher on alternate-sized piano keyboards for the benefit of pianists with smaller hand-spans.
I performed the last 4 variations of the Beethoven I’m working on, and she helped me a lot with sound production. It’s always hard to adapt to a new teacher on the spot, and being in front of spectators adds even more pressure. But it’s so important to dive in and do these types of things precisely for that reason! It’s absolutely necessary to see how things go under pressure, because it reveals exactly what needs the most work. Sometimes we surprise ourselves! Parts that we thought were secure end up crumbling, and sections we’ve been slaving over we just sail through! The most important thing is that we learn everything we can from the experience. And I sure learned a lot!!
While one of the main points of a master class is to improve your own playing, you also are given the opportunity to develop stronger musical concepts through other students’ playing. When there are a group of people, each individual usually gets 20-30 minutes of one-on-one time. That means the professor has to immediately address the individuals’ issues and offer ways to improve on them, knowing full well that the student is most likely terrified! 😅Professor Leone could see I needed work on my soft playing, and could tell I was uncomfortable with it because I knew this. The latter part is clearly the more difficult to address. Yet, she explained things in a few different ways to make sure I understood, and was patient with me until it finally clicked.
What makes these professors masters is not just their skills, but also what else they can share with us. In my next post, I will share what Carol Leone taught us about keyboard sizes… a whole new world! One which I was very excited to be introduced to. In the meantime, check out this video of her playing Scarlatti on a beautiful Fazioli piano. 💕