1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,480 This episode is brought to you by the Artsong Preservation Society of New York, 2 00:00:04,480 --> 00:00:06,960 whose support helps make this show possible. 3 00:00:07,840 --> 00:00:12,080 I'm Blair Boone-Maguirra, the founder of the Artsong Preservation Society of New York, 4 00:00:12,080 --> 00:00:16,880 and I'm inviting you to join us for our Summer of Song Festival 2025, 5 00:00:16,880 --> 00:00:18,960 hosted by Manhattan School of Music. 6 00:00:18,960 --> 00:00:23,280 Join us for enchanting artsong recitals and masterclass performance workshops 7 00:00:23,280 --> 00:00:24,880 led by international artists. 8 00:00:24,880 --> 00:00:32,000 Visit www.artsongpreservationsocietyny.org for details. 9 00:00:32,000 --> 00:01:00,000 And join us in this realm where music speaks and words sing. 10 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:24,160 Welcome to the Piano Pod, everyone. 11 00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:28,080 Today, I am so thrilled to introduce our guest, 12 00:02:28,080 --> 00:02:33,680 concert pianist, sign-way artist, and improviser, Mr. Mark Markham. 13 00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:39,520 Known for his mastery of tone production and extraordinary improvisational skills, 14 00:02:39,520 --> 00:02:43,680 he has built a remarkable career that spans solo performances, 15 00:02:43,680 --> 00:02:48,080 collaborations with renowned vocalists, and jazz improvisation. 16 00:02:48,640 --> 00:02:53,600 His expansive artistry and versatility have earned him a reputation 17 00:02:53,600 --> 00:02:56,400 as one of the leading pianists of our time. 18 00:02:56,400 --> 00:03:02,880 Mr. Markham was nominated as one of our guests for this season by Blair Boone-Maguirra, 19 00:03:03,440 --> 00:03:08,640 founder and executive director of the Artsong Preservation Society of New York, 20 00:03:08,640 --> 00:03:12,400 which also happens to be our sponsor for this month's episodes. 21 00:03:13,040 --> 00:03:19,760 So a big shout out to Blair for his dedication to keeping the artsong tradition alive 22 00:03:19,760 --> 00:03:22,000 and for supporting the Piano Pod. 23 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:25,840 For our first-time listeners and viewers, welcome to the Piano Pod. 24 00:03:25,840 --> 00:03:30,640 I am Yukimi Song, a classical pianist and educator from New York City. 25 00:03:31,280 --> 00:03:36,000 Whether you are pursuing a piano, working in the classical music industry, 26 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:42,000 or simply passionate about piano, this podcast is your backstage pass 27 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:44,400 to the fascinating world of piano music. 28 00:03:45,120 --> 00:03:49,040 In our bi-weekly episodes, we engage with remarkable guests 29 00:03:49,040 --> 00:03:52,320 who are shaping the future of classical music. 30 00:03:52,960 --> 00:03:58,320 Our mission is to create a vibrant community that embraces fresh perspectives, 31 00:03:58,320 --> 00:04:02,320 ensuring classical music thrives in our ever-evolving world. 32 00:04:03,120 --> 00:04:08,000 If you are new here, check out the introductory episode of season 5 33 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:10,000 to get a glimpse of what's ahead. 34 00:04:10,640 --> 00:04:15,040 And don't forget, you can catch up on all our previous seasons 35 00:04:15,040 --> 00:04:19,040 on your favorite podcast platforms or YouTube. 36 00:04:19,040 --> 00:04:23,920 Now let me tell you more about today's extraordinary guest, Mr. Mark Markham. 37 00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:30,080 Mr. Markham is a world-renowned pianist celebrated for his wide-ranging artistry 38 00:04:30,080 --> 00:04:33,520 from his solo performances and collaborations with singers 39 00:04:33,520 --> 00:04:35,920 to his improvisational brilliance. 40 00:04:35,920 --> 00:04:41,040 He has graced the stages of iconic venues such as Carnegie Hall, 41 00:04:41,040 --> 00:04:45,040 Royal Festival Hall, and the Salzburg Festival. 42 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:51,280 One of his most notable collaborations was with legendary soprano Jesse Norman, 43 00:04:51,280 --> 00:04:56,080 with whom he performed nearly 300 concerts across 25 countries, 44 00:04:56,080 --> 00:04:59,920 including the acclaimed Sacred Ellington program, 45 00:04:59,920 --> 00:05:03,520 where he served as both pianist and music director. 46 00:05:04,480 --> 00:05:09,840 Mr. Markham is also the recipient of the Distinguished Alliance 47 00:05:09,840 --> 00:05:14,320 Distinguished Alumnus Award from Johns Hopkins University, 48 00:05:14,320 --> 00:05:19,120 a testament to his outstanding contributions to the world of music. 49 00:05:19,120 --> 00:05:22,480 Mr. Markham currently resides in Baltimore, Maryland, 50 00:05:22,480 --> 00:05:27,680 and serves on the Advisory Board of the Arts Song Preservation Society of New York. 51 00:05:29,280 --> 00:05:34,960 Before we dive in, I want to thank our incredible TPP fans and loyal listeners 52 00:05:34,960 --> 00:05:37,440 for your ongoing support for the show. 53 00:05:37,440 --> 00:05:42,480 If you enjoy today's episode, please take a moment to rate and review it 54 00:05:42,480 --> 00:05:48,400 on your GoToPodcast platform, because every review helps others discover the show. 55 00:05:48,880 --> 00:05:53,840 Now let's uncover the secrets behind Mr. Markham's multifaceted career 56 00:05:53,840 --> 00:05:57,840 as a classical pianist, jazz artist, and collaborator. 57 00:05:58,560 --> 00:06:00,080 Please enjoy the show. 58 00:06:00,080 --> 00:06:04,640 You are listening to the PianoPod, where we talk to the brightest minds in the industry 59 00:06:04,640 --> 00:06:07,600 about how they are bringing the piano into the future 60 00:06:07,600 --> 00:06:10,640 and thriving in a complex, ever-evolving world. 61 00:06:12,800 --> 00:06:15,120 Welcome to the PianoPod, Mr. Markham. 62 00:06:15,120 --> 00:06:16,640 Oh, Mark, we're... 63 00:06:16,640 --> 00:06:18,640 Thank you. 64 00:06:18,640 --> 00:06:21,680 I am so delighted to have you with us today. 65 00:06:21,680 --> 00:06:25,200 And then the last time we spoke was at the end of the show, 66 00:06:25,200 --> 00:06:27,040 and we were talking about the piano, 67 00:06:27,040 --> 00:06:32,480 and you were with us today, and then the last time we spoke was back in August, I believe. 68 00:06:32,480 --> 00:06:34,240 So how have you been? 69 00:06:34,240 --> 00:06:37,920 I've been great, you know, just dealing with hurricanes, 70 00:06:38,480 --> 00:06:44,960 which, you know, affected people and affect concerts and travel and all those things. 71 00:06:44,960 --> 00:06:51,200 And, you know, you don't think about it when it's so far away, but it does affect a lot of people. 72 00:06:51,200 --> 00:06:53,440 Yeah, of course. Yeah, I didn't think of that. 73 00:06:53,440 --> 00:06:56,160 I grew up on the Gulf of Mexico, so I know all about hurricanes. 74 00:06:56,160 --> 00:06:57,280 Mm-hmm, yes. 75 00:06:57,280 --> 00:06:58,960 It's down there, it's time of year. 76 00:06:58,960 --> 00:07:01,440 Yeah, I've experienced hurricanes myself, too. 77 00:07:01,440 --> 00:07:04,240 I used to live around the area, so it's a huge deal. 78 00:07:04,800 --> 00:07:11,280 Now, but besides that, how has this concert season been treating you, besides all the storms? 79 00:07:12,160 --> 00:07:17,920 Let's see, last Thursday, I was in Atlanta for a private concert 80 00:07:17,920 --> 00:07:22,560 to raise money for the second Jesse Norman School of the Arts. 81 00:07:22,560 --> 00:07:26,080 They opened the first one over 20 years ago in Augusta, in her hometown, 82 00:07:26,080 --> 00:07:29,440 and some people in Atlanta decided that it was time. 83 00:07:30,240 --> 00:07:34,160 And they got together and they have a place and they have students. 84 00:07:34,160 --> 00:07:38,800 They kind of did a soft opening this summer and asked me, would I come down? 85 00:07:38,800 --> 00:07:44,720 And that was to be in conjunction with the annual gala in Augusta, 86 00:07:44,720 --> 00:07:48,160 which was to have been on Sunday, but they had to postpone because their city is, 87 00:07:48,160 --> 00:07:52,960 a lot of it is in very, very bad shape. 88 00:07:53,840 --> 00:07:55,200 Oh, really? Wow. 89 00:07:55,840 --> 00:07:59,760 That was a big hurricane thing, and I didn't know if Atlanta would postpone, 90 00:07:59,760 --> 00:08:02,800 and that went on for a week trying to figure out what's the best thing to do. 91 00:08:03,440 --> 00:08:07,600 And so that has pretty much, that was a big focus. 92 00:08:08,800 --> 00:08:12,480 I was down in Virginia playing a recital with a wonderful singer, 93 00:08:13,360 --> 00:08:16,880 all German repertoire, so it started off slowly. 94 00:08:16,880 --> 00:08:20,000 I have a big, big center to my season this year, 95 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:22,240 which I've been focusing on for the last year, 96 00:08:22,240 --> 00:08:28,080 making sure that the work is done in advance so I can actually enjoy what I want to do. 97 00:08:30,240 --> 00:08:32,960 When you play so many different types of repertoire. 98 00:08:33,600 --> 00:08:34,560 Right, yes. 99 00:08:34,560 --> 00:08:40,240 I mean, speaking of, you have such a wide range, a rich and exciting career, 100 00:08:40,240 --> 00:08:44,960 spending, you know, from solo to jazz improvisation, 101 00:08:44,960 --> 00:08:50,080 to collaborations with some of the world's most celebrated vocalists, 102 00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:56,240 you mentioned Jesse Norman, and also other big name vocalists. 103 00:08:56,240 --> 00:09:03,760 And also, I didn't realize you were also part, be part of this big chamber groups in the past. 104 00:09:03,760 --> 00:09:08,560 So given this rich and varied path, I'd love to start by asking, 105 00:09:08,560 --> 00:09:13,120 what has been the driving force behind your longstanding success, 106 00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:20,400 and what continues to inspire your passion to, for exploring these diverse musical avenues? 107 00:09:21,920 --> 00:09:23,040 I'm in love with music. 108 00:09:24,480 --> 00:09:29,840 I think that that's, that is what this is all about, is my relationship with it. 109 00:09:30,720 --> 00:09:36,720 Not my talent, not my luck, not my, what are opportunities, 110 00:09:36,720 --> 00:09:41,840 it's about your relationship to the music that you want to perform in front of people, 111 00:09:41,840 --> 00:09:45,440 because that is the only thing that we all have in common. 112 00:09:46,400 --> 00:09:50,720 That your relationship with whatever it is in your life, whether it's with a person, 113 00:09:50,720 --> 00:09:55,920 whether it's with playing the piano or music or your job, whatever. 114 00:09:55,920 --> 00:09:58,080 I mean, it's a huge thing. 115 00:09:58,080 --> 00:10:01,200 Somebody actually asked kind of a very similar question the other night, 116 00:10:01,200 --> 00:10:08,240 wanting to know, how do you deal with insecurity when you didn't grow up steeped in all of this music 117 00:10:08,240 --> 00:10:10,640 that you now take to places all around the world? 118 00:10:10,640 --> 00:10:13,440 And I said that it's your relationship with music, 119 00:10:14,480 --> 00:10:18,240 that in the pieces that you're playing, that you're so inside them, 120 00:10:18,240 --> 00:10:21,920 you don't know if there's one person in the room or 10,000. 121 00:10:23,120 --> 00:10:24,480 And it doesn't make a difference. 122 00:10:25,760 --> 00:10:28,400 You still have to play the same. 123 00:10:28,960 --> 00:10:33,040 You have to fight for your connection constantly to this and to prepare. 124 00:10:33,040 --> 00:10:36,960 And for me, no one ever said there were different categories. 125 00:10:36,960 --> 00:10:39,520 You can only do this, you can only do that. 126 00:10:39,520 --> 00:10:41,680 That works for people who organize things. 127 00:10:41,680 --> 00:10:43,200 That works for concert halls. 128 00:10:43,200 --> 00:10:44,720 Sometimes it works for agents. 129 00:10:44,720 --> 00:10:50,480 Sometimes those people, it makes their life easier, but it doesn't make my life fun 130 00:10:51,840 --> 00:10:55,440 to be fit in this little track of, yes, you do this. 131 00:10:56,640 --> 00:10:59,120 You know, I debuted with orchestra when I was 18. 132 00:10:59,120 --> 00:11:01,440 And then, oh, do this, do this, do this. 133 00:11:01,440 --> 00:11:05,440 And then that summer, I was sent to a concert hall. 134 00:11:05,440 --> 00:11:09,280 And then that summer, I was sent to an opera training program. 135 00:11:09,760 --> 00:11:11,840 And I was 18 years old and I got there. 136 00:11:11,840 --> 00:11:14,080 I never played anything in my life with opera. 137 00:11:15,040 --> 00:11:16,400 I fell in love with all of this. 138 00:11:16,400 --> 00:11:22,160 And, you know, it's just, and I was always playing improvisations when I was a child 139 00:11:22,160 --> 00:11:24,080 and no one ever said it was hard. 140 00:11:25,280 --> 00:11:30,240 So you realize that's the thing that carries you through this life. 141 00:11:30,240 --> 00:11:37,200 People go to concerts to not avoid life, but to take a break. 142 00:11:38,160 --> 00:11:43,920 They sometimes need two hours of being with someone else 143 00:11:43,920 --> 00:11:49,200 and to participate in that relationship with them as they guide you through music. 144 00:11:50,080 --> 00:11:51,040 And that's what we do. 145 00:11:51,040 --> 00:11:53,440 We're just a vessel where this passes through us. 146 00:11:54,640 --> 00:11:57,200 And that's what I protect. 147 00:11:57,200 --> 00:11:58,320 That's what I nourish. 148 00:11:58,320 --> 00:11:59,600 That's what I look for. 149 00:11:59,600 --> 00:12:03,600 I try to instill that in my students and that that is the only, we serve. 150 00:12:04,320 --> 00:12:05,760 Music does not serve us. 151 00:12:05,760 --> 00:12:06,800 We serve it. 152 00:12:08,400 --> 00:12:12,800 A big shift right now that I'm having to go up against a lot 153 00:12:12,800 --> 00:12:18,560 because people like to use music to make them more important. 154 00:12:19,520 --> 00:12:20,640 And that's not the story. 155 00:12:20,640 --> 00:12:22,240 That's not, that's not the purpose. 156 00:12:22,240 --> 00:12:26,320 That's why it's, that's why it's very tricky, especially in this country, culturally. 157 00:12:26,320 --> 00:12:29,120 We're dealing with Western European music. 158 00:12:30,720 --> 00:12:31,120 Right. 159 00:12:31,120 --> 00:12:36,880 And we're trying to feed it into this culture, which is, you know, deeply based in money. 160 00:12:37,440 --> 00:12:38,960 That is part of the United States. 161 00:12:38,960 --> 00:12:41,040 And so what starts to make money? 162 00:12:41,760 --> 00:12:44,240 Sadly, it starts to run ahead of everything else. 163 00:12:44,720 --> 00:12:46,800 But, you know, this country is from Europe. 164 00:12:47,920 --> 00:12:49,280 Europeans founded this country. 165 00:12:49,280 --> 00:12:54,240 So this music, you know, I was fortunate enough to study with people who trained with people 166 00:12:54,240 --> 00:12:55,440 who were European. 167 00:12:55,440 --> 00:12:59,520 Who were steeped into this and know what the sounds were. 168 00:12:59,520 --> 00:13:05,360 I mean, they were around when Brahms was alive and they heard people playing his music. 169 00:13:05,360 --> 00:13:09,280 I trust them when they tell me this is the sound. 170 00:13:10,960 --> 00:13:12,960 This is the reason for the sound. 171 00:13:14,320 --> 00:13:15,360 And that's what it's about. 172 00:13:16,320 --> 00:13:19,120 So that's how I guess I've been doing all this stuff. 173 00:13:19,600 --> 00:13:22,240 And, you know, my brother's very funny. 174 00:13:22,240 --> 00:13:22,880 He's a lawyer. 175 00:13:22,880 --> 00:13:25,680 And he said, you really don't care about what other people think. 176 00:13:27,200 --> 00:13:28,320 And what do you mean? 177 00:13:28,320 --> 00:13:32,480 Because you just, you're clear with what you believe in. 178 00:13:32,480 --> 00:13:33,360 And I said, yeah. 179 00:13:34,320 --> 00:13:38,400 I said, it's my business to be involved in my business, not somebody else's. 180 00:13:38,400 --> 00:13:41,360 And I understand people love to get into everyone else's business. 181 00:13:42,400 --> 00:13:44,480 But that's not, that's never been me. 182 00:13:45,520 --> 00:13:50,720 Maybe that's why I can do the broad scope of things that I enjoy doing. 183 00:13:50,720 --> 00:13:51,680 Wonderful. 184 00:13:51,680 --> 00:13:59,280 Well, now then you also performed at some of the most prestigious venues as a soloist 185 00:13:59,280 --> 00:14:03,600 and performed traditional to contemporary music sometimes as well. 186 00:14:03,600 --> 00:14:05,120 And also piano concerti. 187 00:14:05,120 --> 00:14:08,480 I think I believe there's one concert coming up. 188 00:14:08,480 --> 00:14:09,680 You're performing Ravel, no? 189 00:14:10,560 --> 00:14:12,160 Ravel concerto for the left hand. 190 00:14:12,160 --> 00:14:16,560 For the first time in my career, it's Ravel's 150th birthday next year. 191 00:14:16,560 --> 00:14:19,920 And I thought, okay, I'm going to do it. 192 00:14:19,920 --> 00:14:20,640 Okay. 193 00:14:20,640 --> 00:14:21,600 I can play either. 194 00:14:21,600 --> 00:14:26,000 You know, I've played the G major concerto many times and I thought I've never played 195 00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:31,600 the left hand concerto and I've always had this thing for it, but the opportunity didn't 196 00:14:31,600 --> 00:14:37,280 arise and I didn't feel that I was where I wanted to be with the piece. 197 00:14:37,920 --> 00:14:44,560 And I kind of asked some people, I proposed it and everyone said yes. 198 00:14:45,440 --> 00:14:48,800 So it's coming out for the first time in January. 199 00:14:48,800 --> 00:14:50,960 And that's an experience. 200 00:14:51,920 --> 00:14:56,400 It is truly an experience that does not equal anything else. 201 00:14:56,400 --> 00:15:01,760 I played Rachmaninoff third, Prokofiev third, the other Ravel concerto, all these other 202 00:15:01,760 --> 00:15:02,400 big things. 203 00:15:02,400 --> 00:15:04,560 And this is from another planet. 204 00:15:05,440 --> 00:15:07,120 Can you elaborate a little bit more? 205 00:15:08,560 --> 00:15:13,920 Well, you're dealing with only one hand, which if you close your eyes, you sometimes think 206 00:15:13,920 --> 00:15:20,000 there are three hands because Ravel was so clever in how he did things, but he was near 207 00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:27,680 the end of his life and having, you know, not mental problems, but problems in his brain, 208 00:15:29,040 --> 00:15:30,400 you know, with a disease. 209 00:15:30,400 --> 00:15:33,040 And some days it was good, some days it wasn't good. 210 00:15:34,080 --> 00:15:41,440 And this piece, I find rather apocalyptic that when it starts, it sounds like it's coming 211 00:15:41,440 --> 00:15:48,320 from the depths of a sleeping volcano someplace and you just feel the rumblings of the earth 212 00:15:48,320 --> 00:15:52,320 shaking and you're trying to figure out what instrument is that that's playing these 213 00:15:53,520 --> 00:15:55,120 sounds down there at the beginning. 214 00:15:56,000 --> 00:16:02,560 And by the time the piano comes in, it's outrageous in the most extraordinary way. 215 00:16:03,760 --> 00:16:06,640 And you feel this battle of creation. 216 00:16:06,640 --> 00:16:11,200 It's probably with his own personal experience, what he was going through, because there's 217 00:16:11,200 --> 00:16:14,560 not much else in his repertoire that's like this. 218 00:16:15,760 --> 00:16:20,560 Little moments of other pieces, of course, because he's still the same composer, but 219 00:16:20,560 --> 00:16:24,880 that he went off and did something for only the left hand. 220 00:16:26,320 --> 00:16:32,560 He kept his honor, he kept his dignity, he stayed, it was integrity. 221 00:16:33,280 --> 00:16:34,800 He was true to himself. 222 00:16:34,800 --> 00:16:37,680 You know, a lot of people think it might be flashy. 223 00:16:37,680 --> 00:16:40,000 There is nothing flashy about it. 224 00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:42,720 It is profound music. 225 00:16:44,160 --> 00:16:49,440 It tells a very deep story and that's, it's a completely different experience than the 226 00:16:49,440 --> 00:16:50,480 G major concerto. 227 00:16:51,760 --> 00:16:55,920 Movements of that, which are the first and last movement, the second movement is of 228 00:16:55,920 --> 00:17:00,240 another place, but in a different way, much more light. 229 00:17:00,240 --> 00:17:05,920 The concerto has a lot of darkness, but at the same time, these huge bolts of light that 230 00:17:05,920 --> 00:17:12,560 shine through and you feel the tension, which is in the creation of it all, which I find 231 00:17:12,560 --> 00:17:19,120 fascinating as a mature musician, not as a 25 year old, nothing wrong with being 25, 232 00:17:19,120 --> 00:17:22,880 but you know, certain things in life by the time you get to where I am now, you've been, 233 00:17:22,880 --> 00:17:26,480 you've experienced quite a bit, so you can bring all that to it. 234 00:17:26,480 --> 00:17:30,640 Oh, exciting. 235 00:17:30,640 --> 00:17:36,640 Always tackling on new pieces is what keeps us really motivated and young too. 236 00:17:36,640 --> 00:17:38,640 And yeah, but it's not easy. 237 00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:40,320 Right. 238 00:17:40,320 --> 00:17:42,960 You stay involved with this process. 239 00:17:42,960 --> 00:17:49,920 And now that I can, a little hindsight, I look back and I see artists, similar age to 240 00:17:49,920 --> 00:17:54,720 mine, same place, whatever, and I'm like, oh, I'm going to be a musician. 241 00:17:54,720 --> 00:18:00,720 And same place, whatever, you know, time wise in the career, they got to play the same six 242 00:18:00,720 --> 00:18:04,400 concerti for 35, 40 years. 243 00:18:05,760 --> 00:18:08,160 I don't think that would have worked for me. 244 00:18:08,720 --> 00:18:10,160 I am not that person. 245 00:18:11,760 --> 00:18:13,120 I couldn't do it. 246 00:18:13,120 --> 00:18:16,320 I was told when I was 20 years old, you should leave school and go directly to the 247 00:18:16,320 --> 00:18:17,520 Metropolitan Opera House. 248 00:18:19,200 --> 00:18:22,320 And I just looked at the person, I was a faculty member and I looked at him like, 249 00:18:22,320 --> 00:18:23,920 oh, you're very talented. 250 00:18:23,920 --> 00:18:28,880 I said, yes, I might be, but I still have many things to learn before I go jumping 251 00:18:28,880 --> 00:18:33,600 into a, on a ship like that to be eaten alive pretty much. 252 00:18:34,160 --> 00:18:36,240 But you did or you waited? 253 00:18:36,240 --> 00:18:37,040 No, I didn't. 254 00:18:37,040 --> 00:18:42,960 I, I, I, people said things and suggested things and I thought about it and I thought, 255 00:18:42,960 --> 00:18:45,440 no, that, that bothers me inside. 256 00:18:45,440 --> 00:18:52,560 I had to listen to me inside and when something is put in front of me, I'm usually a 257 00:18:52,560 --> 00:18:57,600 pretty good judge about determining whether or not does that make me feel good? 258 00:18:57,600 --> 00:18:59,680 Is that throw me off center? 259 00:18:59,680 --> 00:19:03,120 Am I doing strange things to try to fit it? 260 00:19:04,560 --> 00:19:09,360 And that's, that's a tricky thing because there are people who want to work, you know, 261 00:19:09,360 --> 00:19:10,720 and they're told, we'll get you this job. 262 00:19:10,720 --> 00:19:11,680 We'll get you this job. 263 00:19:11,680 --> 00:19:13,120 Well, I want to play this instead. 264 00:19:13,120 --> 00:19:15,680 Well, you got to do this job first. 265 00:19:15,680 --> 00:19:20,480 Opera singers, they end up singing the same bloody five roles for 30 years. 266 00:19:21,200 --> 00:19:25,040 And then you get bored out of their minds and they don't practice well and they don't 267 00:19:25,360 --> 00:19:31,840 try things and then, you know, some crazy staging has other ideas and they haven't 268 00:19:31,840 --> 00:19:32,800 been doing their work. 269 00:19:32,800 --> 00:19:34,080 So they get in trouble. 270 00:19:34,960 --> 00:19:38,400 I think they're just kind of, you know, sleepwalking through things after a while. 271 00:19:38,400 --> 00:19:46,960 Or to keep renewing, refurbishing, renewing your commitment over and over the same 272 00:19:46,960 --> 00:19:48,080 repertoire all the time. 273 00:19:50,080 --> 00:19:53,440 There are things I play now that I've played for since I was 12 years old. 274 00:19:54,640 --> 00:19:55,440 Wonderful. 275 00:19:55,440 --> 00:20:02,320 But you have to bring it to today and bringing it sometimes is really a lot of work. 276 00:20:02,320 --> 00:20:07,440 I played the Sweet Berga Musk last week in Atlanta and I decided because all the pieces 277 00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:12,240 were written by young people in their twenties to talk about my relationship to music and 278 00:20:12,240 --> 00:20:12,800 everything. 279 00:20:13,680 --> 00:20:20,480 The amount of energy that I had to put into that a week before trying to, because I made 280 00:20:20,480 --> 00:20:27,120 the decision late, of course, I still have it memorized, get it to where it's speaking 281 00:20:27,120 --> 00:20:34,240 from me today versus me doing a karaoke version of what I had done before. 282 00:20:35,040 --> 00:20:40,880 That is, either you love doing that or you don't. 283 00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:45,760 And I'm not that person who's going to try to play it again. 284 00:20:46,800 --> 00:20:47,280 Right. 285 00:20:47,280 --> 00:20:47,760 Yeah. 286 00:20:47,760 --> 00:20:50,960 Because you keep reinvesting in yourself, no? 287 00:20:51,440 --> 00:20:52,960 Every day is a new day. 288 00:20:53,760 --> 00:20:55,280 You got to play it again. 289 00:20:55,280 --> 00:20:57,280 Every day is a new day. 290 00:20:57,280 --> 00:20:58,480 You have to work. 291 00:20:58,480 --> 00:20:59,440 That's hard work. 292 00:21:00,480 --> 00:21:01,680 Life is real. 293 00:21:01,680 --> 00:21:07,040 When life comes along and throws you something that's real life that's really not pleasant, 294 00:21:07,040 --> 00:21:10,240 you somehow have to deal with that and all these other things at the same time. 295 00:21:11,440 --> 00:21:15,920 It's a great journey, but I know I'm happy. 296 00:21:16,880 --> 00:21:17,920 Wonderful. 297 00:21:17,920 --> 00:21:21,360 All the dreams, the pieces, I think, oh, I'd love to play that. 298 00:21:21,360 --> 00:21:25,040 Most of them I've been able to manifest. 299 00:21:25,520 --> 00:21:26,880 Oh, my goodness. 300 00:21:26,880 --> 00:21:28,080 That's a dream come true. 301 00:21:28,080 --> 00:21:29,200 It is. 302 00:21:29,200 --> 00:21:31,200 It is, and that you get to enjoy it. 303 00:21:32,240 --> 00:21:37,520 Some things I wish I would get more than one chance or that it could come back around. 304 00:21:38,160 --> 00:21:40,160 But I'm not that old. 305 00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:44,080 I still have a chance for it to keep coming back. 306 00:21:44,080 --> 00:21:46,960 And I hope this works for another 20 years. 307 00:21:46,960 --> 00:21:53,760 So what are some memorable moments as a soloist, like pieces or maybe events? 308 00:21:54,640 --> 00:22:01,280 I've listened to your Liszt Transcendental Etude, Poulenc improvisations, which are so lovely. 309 00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:05,280 Aren't they those amazing pieces? 310 00:22:05,280 --> 00:22:10,400 That was because I was trying to put together a program called Dances and Improvisations. 311 00:22:11,760 --> 00:22:15,280 And this all happened, the pandemic, as horrible as it was, 312 00:22:15,280 --> 00:22:22,400 it really put things in your face to deal with them because you didn't have anything else to do. 313 00:22:23,280 --> 00:22:26,720 You had to confront what the reality was. 314 00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:34,960 And for the first couple of weeks, I probably sat around here and was sad and cried and all those different things wondering, what am I going to do for a job? 315 00:22:35,920 --> 00:22:37,920 Nothing was working. 316 00:22:37,920 --> 00:22:41,360 And then I had a little meeting with myself and said, you know what? 317 00:22:41,360 --> 00:22:45,680 The last time you played Bach in public was in 1980. 318 00:22:46,640 --> 00:22:48,640 I think it is time. 319 00:22:48,640 --> 00:22:50,640 This is coming back. 320 00:22:50,640 --> 00:22:56,880 And you will have to excavate because that is truly from another lifetime. 321 00:22:58,320 --> 00:23:01,360 And I brought back the second French Suite. 322 00:23:02,800 --> 00:23:09,280 And a lot of the time, sadly, we're all trying to do things with a lot of pressure on our batteries. 323 00:23:09,280 --> 00:23:14,560 To get it ready, to be ready, and then to put it away and run to something else. 324 00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:16,560 Well, during the pandemic, there was none of that. 325 00:23:18,560 --> 00:23:20,560 You had all the time in the world. 326 00:23:21,360 --> 00:23:23,360 You had hours and hours every day. 327 00:23:24,160 --> 00:23:26,160 So I sat with it every day. 328 00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:29,360 And Bach is usually one note at a time. 329 00:23:30,880 --> 00:23:37,200 And I had to find my relationship with that music where I am today. 330 00:23:37,200 --> 00:23:41,520 Where I was three years, four years ago. 331 00:23:42,400 --> 00:23:50,400 To confront all of that and whatever these things, ideas we have about the world music as a pianist. 332 00:23:50,400 --> 00:23:52,400 And all these different things. 333 00:23:52,400 --> 00:23:54,400 And it was quite eye-opening. 334 00:23:55,760 --> 00:23:57,760 Those were my dances. 335 00:23:57,760 --> 00:24:00,880 And then the Vos Noble e Sentimentale of Ravel. 336 00:24:00,880 --> 00:24:02,880 I wanted those. 337 00:24:02,880 --> 00:24:04,400 That kind of came together. 338 00:24:04,400 --> 00:24:07,360 And then these Poulenc improvisations, when I found those. 339 00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:10,160 It was... 340 00:24:10,160 --> 00:24:12,160 And I found those years ago. 341 00:24:12,160 --> 00:24:14,160 And decided, you know what? 342 00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:16,160 This is part of this program. 343 00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:19,120 It's got to be such original pieces. 344 00:24:19,120 --> 00:24:22,640 He always said his piano music was not very well written. 345 00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:25,360 He thought his piano writing in the songs was much better. 346 00:24:25,360 --> 00:24:29,360 So he was talking down about his solo piano music. 347 00:24:29,360 --> 00:24:34,640 And I wanted to prove him wrong. 348 00:25:29,360 --> 00:25:38,240 Also, I realized that you are so engaging. 349 00:25:38,240 --> 00:25:41,760 You're not just performing and do the traditional bow. 350 00:25:41,760 --> 00:25:43,760 Maybe that was for streaming. 351 00:25:43,760 --> 00:25:48,720 But you were also explaining about the selection of each piece. 352 00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:51,680 Which is really untraditional. 353 00:25:51,680 --> 00:25:54,080 But people are starting doing it. 354 00:25:54,080 --> 00:25:57,600 Because otherwise, most of the audience that you deal with. 355 00:25:57,600 --> 00:26:00,560 They have no idea what you're playing. 356 00:26:00,560 --> 00:26:01,680 I mean, a lot of people... 357 00:26:03,840 --> 00:26:04,480 It's like... 358 00:26:04,480 --> 00:26:08,480 Come on, I remember when I was in school, in the library. 359 00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:09,600 There was a card catalog. 360 00:26:11,200 --> 00:26:12,880 One day the card catalog disappeared. 361 00:26:14,320 --> 00:26:15,840 And they said, oh, we have computers. 362 00:26:15,840 --> 00:26:17,040 Look it up that way. 363 00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:18,160 I didn't know what that was. 364 00:26:19,840 --> 00:26:21,200 I didn't know what a cell phone was. 365 00:26:21,200 --> 00:26:23,040 There were no cell phones at that time. 366 00:26:23,680 --> 00:26:26,000 Didn't take pictures when we were on tour. 367 00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:28,160 You went, did your work and you came home. 368 00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:33,360 So all these new things for the older people came in. 369 00:26:33,360 --> 00:26:35,600 And so trying to figure out... 370 00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:39,280 All right, who knows what about what? 371 00:26:42,080 --> 00:26:45,440 And when you choose a piece of music, you have to find what can... 372 00:26:45,440 --> 00:26:48,960 If you want the room to have people from 15 to 85 years old. 373 00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:55,200 Then you've got to find what in that will spark a little bit of interest for the young ones. 374 00:26:55,200 --> 00:26:58,640 As well as the more mature, the traditional audience in this country. 375 00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:04,160 And I'm very tough with people about that when they do talk. 376 00:27:04,160 --> 00:27:07,360 And I said, don't talk longer than the piece lasts, please. 377 00:27:08,480 --> 00:27:09,200 Make it quick. 378 00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:14,480 Tempt us, lure us in to make us more open to listening. 379 00:27:16,320 --> 00:27:17,200 That's something that... 380 00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:20,240 I was asked... 381 00:27:21,600 --> 00:27:22,400 What was it? 382 00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:25,200 Almost 35 years ago by Johns Hopkins University. 383 00:27:25,760 --> 00:27:28,080 I was a new faculty member at Peabody. 384 00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:32,240 And someone contacted me and said, we'd like for you to go out and lecture 385 00:27:32,960 --> 00:27:36,160 on music representing Johns Hopkins. 386 00:27:36,160 --> 00:27:39,840 At all the alumni associations in the United States. 387 00:27:40,800 --> 00:27:42,240 And I said, wow, okay. 388 00:27:43,040 --> 00:27:44,320 Well, what should I talk about? 389 00:27:45,360 --> 00:27:47,760 Well, what about the history of rock and roll? 390 00:27:47,760 --> 00:27:49,760 And I remember looking at the phone like... 391 00:27:52,080 --> 00:27:53,840 And it really upset me inside. 392 00:27:53,840 --> 00:27:56,160 I didn't say no, but I... 393 00:27:56,880 --> 00:27:57,440 Oh, okay. 394 00:27:57,440 --> 00:27:58,960 Let me think about this. 395 00:27:59,920 --> 00:28:04,320 And I hung up the phone and I thought, and I talked to a couple of friends. 396 00:28:04,320 --> 00:28:08,080 And one person, very wise, just said very calmly to me, 397 00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:11,040 Mark, if you're going to speak in public about something, 398 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:15,840 you must have a relationship with someone who's a rock star. 399 00:28:15,840 --> 00:28:19,120 You must have a relationship to that topic. 400 00:28:20,320 --> 00:28:22,320 You cannot read something. 401 00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:25,680 You cannot read somebody else's story. 402 00:28:25,680 --> 00:28:27,840 You've got to find your... 403 00:28:27,840 --> 00:28:30,800 Because if I'm engaged, I know the room is engaged. 404 00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:32,640 That I do. 405 00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:34,960 That's how communication works. 406 00:28:34,960 --> 00:28:38,400 And when people sense that I'm engaged, then that works. 407 00:28:39,360 --> 00:28:40,720 Trying to find a program. 408 00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:42,560 And I came up with A Night at the Opera, 409 00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:44,880 which made people think of all different things, 410 00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:48,320 whether it's the Mark brothers in their crazy movie, 411 00:28:48,320 --> 00:28:52,000 or something modern today and talking. 412 00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:55,120 I have talked about the history of opera and the crazy stories 413 00:28:55,120 --> 00:28:58,560 and the crazy singers and the Chopin-Bellini 414 00:28:58,560 --> 00:29:00,640 and playing a Chopin ballade 415 00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:04,480 and then playing a Liszt transcription at the end of The Waltz from Faust. 416 00:29:05,120 --> 00:29:08,000 But in an hour that you put all this in there, 417 00:29:08,560 --> 00:29:11,680 everybody in every situation in the room was always thrilled. 418 00:29:11,680 --> 00:29:14,960 There was something there for everybody that I believed in. 419 00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:18,320 Nothing filled in, just to kind of take up space, 420 00:29:18,320 --> 00:29:20,800 because you can't do it for real. 421 00:29:21,760 --> 00:29:23,040 You can read things. 422 00:29:24,640 --> 00:29:26,080 Not very interesting to people. 423 00:29:27,680 --> 00:29:30,160 The Hungarian Franz Liszt, who was a man of the world, 424 00:29:30,160 --> 00:29:31,520 spoke many languages. 425 00:29:31,520 --> 00:29:34,080 He was one of the great pianists of the 19th century. 426 00:29:34,080 --> 00:29:36,960 And he has credit for creating the piano recital. 427 00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:39,680 This idea that they put a piano on the stage 428 00:29:39,680 --> 00:29:41,920 and that one person comes out and plays it all night 429 00:29:41,920 --> 00:29:43,360 and you all sit here and listen. 430 00:29:43,360 --> 00:29:46,080 Some of these programs, when you go back and look, 431 00:29:46,080 --> 00:29:48,080 they lasted three to four hours. 432 00:29:49,040 --> 00:29:50,320 It's a long time to be there, 433 00:29:50,320 --> 00:29:52,320 but this was the only way that people could hear music. 434 00:29:53,360 --> 00:29:56,400 He wrote a series of the transcendental etudes, 435 00:29:56,400 --> 00:29:57,600 there are 12 of them. 436 00:29:58,160 --> 00:30:00,720 The first time around it was so difficult that no one could play them, 437 00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:01,760 except him. 438 00:30:01,760 --> 00:30:03,280 So we had to revise them. 439 00:30:04,160 --> 00:30:07,200 Then he revised them a second time and no one still could play them. 440 00:30:07,200 --> 00:30:09,920 So finally we got to the third version. 441 00:30:09,920 --> 00:30:11,200 This is one of those pieces, 442 00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:37,440 I'm going to describe. 443 00:30:41,200 --> 00:30:58,960 I'm also curious about your recital at the Lexington Bach Festival, 444 00:30:58,960 --> 00:31:01,600 Bach and the Art of Improvisation. 445 00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:02,640 What is this all about? 446 00:31:03,280 --> 00:31:04,640 The Lexington Bach Festival, 447 00:31:04,640 --> 00:31:07,120 I think next year is their 25th anniversary. 448 00:31:07,120 --> 00:31:11,040 It's up in this little town on what lake is that here on? 449 00:31:11,040 --> 00:31:13,680 I don't remember for sure, in September. 450 00:31:14,240 --> 00:31:17,520 And Bach is the thing. 451 00:31:17,520 --> 00:31:19,840 Everything is, it doesn't have to have Bach, 452 00:31:19,840 --> 00:31:22,080 but you try to have something based around that 453 00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:23,920 and the music around it or something that relates. 454 00:31:24,640 --> 00:31:28,960 And so the dances and improvisations were part of that. 455 00:31:29,840 --> 00:31:34,640 So my improvisations are based a lot of the times on the American songbook. 456 00:31:34,640 --> 00:31:37,680 I can do an improvisation out of nothing, 457 00:31:37,680 --> 00:31:40,160 just make up stuff that doesn't bother me. 458 00:31:40,880 --> 00:31:44,800 I mean, it's fine, but I haven't gone that far yet. 459 00:31:45,840 --> 00:31:47,760 I haven't programmed that yet in public. 460 00:31:49,040 --> 00:31:51,920 It's always something because I want people to feel, 461 00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:54,320 I want them to have something that I, my take on it. 462 00:31:55,360 --> 00:31:56,880 I play the song Moon River. 463 00:31:58,080 --> 00:32:01,040 I have a certain thing in my head that I hear with that song. 464 00:32:01,040 --> 00:32:02,160 I don't know why. 465 00:32:02,160 --> 00:32:05,440 For a while, it's been a few years, it's in the same vein. 466 00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:09,680 And I didn't realize what I was doing the first time I did it. 467 00:32:09,680 --> 00:32:12,240 It just kind of happened on the stage and I was 468 00:32:13,360 --> 00:32:15,520 rather alarmed by it in a good way. 469 00:32:15,520 --> 00:32:18,000 Wow, that's something. 470 00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:20,640 So I keep playing with it and maybe the next time I play it, 471 00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:22,000 it'll be completely different. 472 00:32:23,600 --> 00:32:25,760 And that's where that came from. 473 00:32:25,760 --> 00:32:28,560 And you're in a church with 250 people. 474 00:32:28,560 --> 00:32:33,120 With a beautiful piano, a beautiful acoustic, and they are there for music. 475 00:32:34,800 --> 00:32:39,120 And I was given the great opportunity to be able to share that. 476 00:32:40,640 --> 00:32:47,200 Yeah, but you know, playing improvisation is, it takes a really courage. 477 00:32:47,200 --> 00:32:52,000 I mean, as much as playing Chopin etude, Liszt etude, they're very difficult 478 00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:55,520 and they perform live takes so much practice and everything. 479 00:32:55,520 --> 00:32:59,360 But improvisation is another thing, but you are known to do that. 480 00:32:59,360 --> 00:33:05,120 And you've played, you also play like in your solo concert toward the end. 481 00:33:05,120 --> 00:33:06,880 Don't you play like a transcription of... 482 00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:10,640 I play transcriptions of different things and sometimes 483 00:33:10,640 --> 00:33:12,480 on-chores that I play with orchestra. 484 00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:19,920 You know, there was a night in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania during the pandemic 485 00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:22,400 and they were given permission to have a concert. 486 00:33:22,400 --> 00:33:27,200 Pandemic and they were given permission to have a concert in October of 2020. 487 00:33:28,400 --> 00:33:31,600 And I thought, okay, and this was the beginning of this. 488 00:33:31,600 --> 00:33:35,600 The first time the Bach was coming out, I agreed to do it. 489 00:33:35,600 --> 00:33:38,160 But I decided two days before I would go to Philadelphia 490 00:33:38,160 --> 00:33:40,320 and play this at the home of some friends. 491 00:33:41,520 --> 00:33:43,920 Well, of course, we had all the COVID restrictions 492 00:33:43,920 --> 00:33:45,440 and people wanted to be safe. 493 00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:48,320 They opened all the windows and the doors to their house. 494 00:33:48,320 --> 00:33:49,280 We have people inside. 495 00:33:49,280 --> 00:33:50,960 Some people sat outside on the lawn. 496 00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:54,720 Some people sat on the front porch and I played wonderfully. 497 00:33:55,360 --> 00:34:00,320 I finished that, got the next day, got up, packed my bags, 498 00:34:00,320 --> 00:34:03,680 was looking at my phone to see the directions to drive to Harrisburg. 499 00:34:03,680 --> 00:34:05,680 So I was going to play the following night in Harrisburg. 500 00:34:06,800 --> 00:34:08,240 And I looked at the phone. 501 00:34:08,240 --> 00:34:09,920 I kept my glasses on my face. 502 00:34:10,960 --> 00:34:15,040 I'm carrying two pieces of luggage down a staircase with my glasses on, 503 00:34:15,040 --> 00:34:16,560 which are only to see close up. 504 00:34:16,560 --> 00:34:19,040 I looked down and I thought I saw the steps. 505 00:34:19,040 --> 00:34:21,840 I did not see the steps clearly and I fell. 506 00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:24,160 So I'm plummeting down. 507 00:34:24,160 --> 00:34:26,960 I only missed two steps, but it's a wall 508 00:34:26,960 --> 00:34:29,120 and I didn't want to smash my face in the wall. 509 00:34:29,120 --> 00:34:32,560 So my arm came up and stopped that and this arm was back like this. 510 00:34:33,280 --> 00:34:36,080 And I landed and my friends are screaming, are you okay? 511 00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:36,400 Are you okay? 512 00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:40,080 Because I landed with all of my weight when you fall two steps. 513 00:34:40,800 --> 00:34:42,080 And no, I'm fine. 514 00:34:42,080 --> 00:34:42,480 I'm fine. 515 00:34:42,480 --> 00:34:47,600 And I took my step to the car and I thought, I wonder if my leg is going to be my ankle, 516 00:34:47,600 --> 00:34:50,720 my foot, you would think I landed on all of that weight. 517 00:34:50,720 --> 00:34:51,920 There should be a problem. 518 00:34:51,920 --> 00:34:53,040 There wasn't a problem. 519 00:34:53,040 --> 00:34:56,320 I got in the car and drove for an hour and a half, two hours, got to Harrisburg, 520 00:34:56,320 --> 00:34:57,280 got out of the car. 521 00:34:57,280 --> 00:34:58,080 I felt fine. 522 00:34:58,720 --> 00:34:59,920 I said, well, lucky me. 523 00:35:00,720 --> 00:35:02,480 That certainly woke me up for the trip. 524 00:35:03,120 --> 00:35:06,320 But then when I got to the hall and started practicing on the piano, 525 00:35:06,320 --> 00:35:11,440 I realized that my right arm would not move quickly left to right. 526 00:35:12,400 --> 00:35:16,880 They just, I didn't have the, I didn't have freedom in the muscles. 527 00:35:16,880 --> 00:35:20,160 The muscles had kind of seized up a little bit. 528 00:35:20,160 --> 00:35:26,640 And so playing the, was it on Dante's Pianato in Grand Polonaise of Chopin, 529 00:35:27,520 --> 00:35:28,640 you are moving a lot. 530 00:35:29,280 --> 00:35:33,360 It's a lot of left to right constant motion like that. 531 00:35:33,360 --> 00:35:36,000 And I just couldn't, it didn't feel comfortable. 532 00:35:36,800 --> 00:35:40,960 So that concert then turned into Bach, Ravel and Poulenc on the first half. 533 00:35:41,840 --> 00:35:45,200 And the second half was all improvisations on the American songbook. 534 00:35:45,200 --> 00:35:49,200 There were 49 people in the room because the government said at one point, 535 00:35:49,200 --> 00:35:50,240 you can have 50 people. 536 00:35:50,240 --> 00:35:53,600 Then the week before they said 150 people and it dropped down to 35. 537 00:35:53,600 --> 00:35:59,120 And by the time they made their final announcement, it was set and people didn't buy, 538 00:35:59,120 --> 00:36:03,440 they couldn't buy tickets because it was, but we had 50 people or so in the room. 539 00:36:04,080 --> 00:36:06,480 And that's where that came from. 540 00:36:06,480 --> 00:36:11,680 That entire evening sat there on the stage for half an hour. 541 00:36:11,680 --> 00:36:17,600 And I told them very, as clearly as I could, I said, I have no idea what I'm going to do. 542 00:36:17,600 --> 00:36:19,280 This is all a surprise to me. 543 00:36:20,480 --> 00:36:24,160 I said, I'll, I think it will be clear when I'm finished with each group. 544 00:36:24,160 --> 00:36:25,920 I'll probably play three different sets. 545 00:36:26,640 --> 00:36:31,600 They were absolutely thrilled, but we looked back at it, how important music was during 546 00:36:31,600 --> 00:36:33,120 the pandemic for people. 547 00:36:34,160 --> 00:36:35,840 It was so important. 548 00:36:35,840 --> 00:36:37,920 I didn't realize how important it was for me. 549 00:36:37,920 --> 00:36:41,840 The performance of Bach that evening is on YouTube. 550 00:36:41,840 --> 00:36:43,200 The French is there. 551 00:36:43,200 --> 00:36:46,560 And it was the very first time I ever played the piece in public. 552 00:36:47,520 --> 00:36:48,480 And that is there. 553 00:36:48,480 --> 00:36:50,640 And there are things in it to this day. 554 00:36:50,640 --> 00:36:56,160 I'd sit there and listen going, I don't know where that came from, but I had to trust that 555 00:36:56,160 --> 00:37:01,440 music was going to carry the day, carry the evening, so to speak. 556 00:37:04,640 --> 00:37:06,640 It was, it was, it's an interesting thing. 557 00:37:06,640 --> 00:37:11,840 It was, it's an interesting time to be in that place and people that you can feel they 558 00:37:11,840 --> 00:37:18,640 want music and to take these old songs, which I know all for whatever reason, I memorized 559 00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:20,240 words back when I was a child. 560 00:37:20,240 --> 00:37:23,440 I learned all these songs out of books, what I was doing. 561 00:37:23,440 --> 00:37:26,160 I just sat there and played and learned all the words. 562 00:37:26,960 --> 00:37:32,400 And it really is kind of strange that a little, you know, eight, nine year old is doing this 563 00:37:32,400 --> 00:37:32,960 type of thing. 564 00:37:32,960 --> 00:37:35,600 That's what I did and no one ever said it was hard. 565 00:37:36,320 --> 00:37:43,600 I'm just playing an instrument that I know very well and I know their instrument, you 566 00:37:43,600 --> 00:37:44,160 know. 567 00:37:44,160 --> 00:37:44,720 Right. 568 00:37:44,720 --> 00:37:49,920 So that's how you started like doing improvisation as a child. 569 00:37:49,920 --> 00:37:53,120 You flipped through all these songs and... 570 00:37:53,120 --> 00:37:54,400 I flipped through these songs. 571 00:37:54,400 --> 00:37:56,800 I remember I got a hymnal from the church. 572 00:37:57,440 --> 00:38:00,640 I would open it up and put it there on the piano and thought I was playing it. 573 00:38:00,640 --> 00:38:02,480 I knew the hymn. 574 00:38:02,480 --> 00:38:03,440 Look at the words. 575 00:38:03,440 --> 00:38:05,360 I probably couldn't even read the music well. 576 00:38:06,080 --> 00:38:07,280 I was playing something. 577 00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:10,720 I said, this is how it goes. 578 00:38:10,720 --> 00:38:11,520 Right, right, right. 579 00:38:11,520 --> 00:38:14,160 No one ever said stop doing that or no, that's wrong. 580 00:38:14,160 --> 00:38:14,720 Don't do this. 581 00:38:14,720 --> 00:38:15,360 Don't do that. 582 00:38:16,080 --> 00:38:19,680 A lot of people are fearful of, oh my goodness, that's going to destroy the hands. 583 00:38:19,680 --> 00:38:20,480 Oh, that's going to do this. 584 00:38:20,480 --> 00:38:21,680 Oh, they're going to have bad habits. 585 00:38:21,680 --> 00:38:22,720 Oh, they're going to have this. 586 00:38:23,760 --> 00:38:26,560 I was never taught by fear. 587 00:38:26,560 --> 00:38:30,080 And a lot of energy that people had to deal with with me. 588 00:38:30,080 --> 00:38:30,480 There's no doubt. 589 00:38:30,480 --> 00:38:35,920 My dear teacher, Anne Schein, she said to me a few years ago, I said, what was it like teaching me? 590 00:38:35,920 --> 00:38:37,600 And she goes, the energy of six people. 591 00:38:41,600 --> 00:38:43,120 I never thought of it. 592 00:38:45,120 --> 00:38:46,640 I just loved what I did. 593 00:38:46,640 --> 00:38:52,000 And I mean, she suffered through many times when I had three vocal recitals to play. 594 00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:55,600 I was supposed to be preparing my master's recital. 595 00:38:55,600 --> 00:39:04,720 And I played three recitals in a week with three different singers and then had to get in there and learn the Barber Sonata and Schumann Fantastica and all that stuff. 596 00:39:04,720 --> 00:39:05,920 And I did. 597 00:39:05,920 --> 00:39:08,160 But it didn't make everybody calm around me. 598 00:39:08,160 --> 00:39:09,920 There were those who were trying to guide me. 599 00:39:09,920 --> 00:39:11,440 They had to really watch. 600 00:39:11,440 --> 00:39:17,120 They knew when to lean in to say, hey, you've got to take care of this. 601 00:39:17,120 --> 00:39:20,160 But I learned, you know, that I had to learn how to do it. 602 00:39:20,160 --> 00:39:27,200 I learned how to do this, but I learned, you know, this is why I think I can handle it now that I understand I look ahead. 603 00:39:27,200 --> 00:39:31,040 I don't wait for one project to be finished and then look at the next project. 604 00:39:31,040 --> 00:39:31,840 You can't. 605 00:39:31,840 --> 00:39:32,800 Right. 606 00:39:32,800 --> 00:39:36,800 The Ravel Left Hand Concert does not happen in three months. 607 00:39:36,800 --> 00:39:38,800 No. 608 00:39:38,800 --> 00:39:41,600 It is little bits and pieces. 609 00:39:41,600 --> 00:39:45,600 And sometimes I don't play it for two weeks. 610 00:39:45,600 --> 00:39:51,200 And then I come back and I realize, wow, all the work I did is still there. 611 00:39:51,200 --> 00:39:56,400 My body and my mind and my spirit all came together and it works. 612 00:39:56,400 --> 00:40:04,640 But did you have any like improvisation lessons from like a jazz people with a jazz background or no? 613 00:40:04,640 --> 00:40:05,440 No. 614 00:40:05,440 --> 00:40:06,400 Wow. 615 00:40:06,400 --> 00:40:07,760 No, I just did it. 616 00:40:07,760 --> 00:40:12,320 I remember it was probably in the late 90s. 617 00:40:12,320 --> 00:40:16,400 We were having Thanksgiving at Jesse Norman's house in London. 618 00:40:16,400 --> 00:40:18,240 And we had eaten upstairs. 619 00:40:18,240 --> 00:40:21,280 And then after dinner, we start wandering downstairs. 620 00:40:21,280 --> 00:40:25,600 There might have been 20 people in this little house of hers in the center of London. 621 00:40:25,600 --> 00:40:33,280 And I went to the piano and started playing, you know, show tunes or American songbook, just improvising. 622 00:40:33,280 --> 00:40:42,240 And a few minutes later, she's come down steps and you see this head kind of bend around the corner looking like, who is playing the piano? 623 00:40:42,240 --> 00:40:44,560 She had no idea it was me. 624 00:40:44,560 --> 00:40:49,520 And then I see this look in her eyes of, you do that too? 625 00:40:49,520 --> 00:40:52,240 And I thought, oh, no. 626 00:40:52,240 --> 00:40:58,560 And that was the beginning of it all because then the next year she was doing this Duke Ellington project. 627 00:40:58,560 --> 00:40:59,280 Yes. 628 00:40:59,280 --> 00:41:01,280 I was going to... 629 00:41:01,280 --> 00:41:09,360 On our recital at Carnegie Hall, she wanted to do some of these Duke Ellington pieces with the Alva Daily dancers. 630 00:41:09,360 --> 00:41:12,560 I mean, it was the most... 631 00:41:12,560 --> 00:41:17,360 Not insane, but it was out there to finish a vocal recital with piano. 632 00:41:17,360 --> 00:41:20,240 And at the end, they push everything around. 633 00:41:20,240 --> 00:41:28,880 And then the last group of songs is with dancers and Jesse and me and a string quartet and a bass player and all this stuff going on. 634 00:41:28,880 --> 00:41:30,160 It was something. 635 00:41:30,160 --> 00:41:32,720 But I remember those rehearsals. 636 00:41:32,720 --> 00:41:34,880 Ron Carter was the bassist. 637 00:41:34,880 --> 00:41:39,360 Ron is the most recorded instrumentalist in history. 638 00:41:39,360 --> 00:41:41,760 Three of us guys were still friends. 639 00:41:41,760 --> 00:41:43,520 Grady Tate, a drummer. 640 00:41:43,520 --> 00:41:45,200 Grady no longer with us. 641 00:41:45,200 --> 00:41:47,040 They were playing. 642 00:41:47,040 --> 00:41:50,400 And I showed up to the first rehearsal at Carnegie and we're in a rehearsal space. 643 00:41:50,400 --> 00:41:56,160 And they come up to me saying, Mark, can you tell me how this is going to work here? 644 00:41:56,160 --> 00:41:57,840 Can you explain this to me? 645 00:41:57,840 --> 00:41:59,040 And I did. 646 00:41:59,040 --> 00:42:00,480 I didn't know who they were. 647 00:42:00,480 --> 00:42:01,760 This was 1999. 648 00:42:01,760 --> 00:42:05,200 So I did not know who they were, what they'd done. 649 00:42:05,200 --> 00:42:07,760 And I said, sure. 650 00:42:07,760 --> 00:42:09,600 So we started talking about it. 651 00:42:09,600 --> 00:42:11,840 And they were depending on me. 652 00:42:11,840 --> 00:42:13,920 And I started thinking, well, OK, fine. 653 00:42:13,920 --> 00:42:18,800 Well, after it was the concert's over, people started telling me, do you realize who you worked with? 654 00:42:18,800 --> 00:42:20,720 And I said, we have Ron and Grady. 655 00:42:20,720 --> 00:42:22,080 Cool guy. 656 00:42:22,080 --> 00:42:23,360 Mark. 657 00:42:23,360 --> 00:42:25,120 And then they explained to me. 658 00:42:25,120 --> 00:42:26,480 I'm like, oh my goodness. 659 00:42:26,480 --> 00:42:29,120 And they're asking me for things. 660 00:42:29,120 --> 00:42:32,800 I'm over here listening, trying to figure out what do you play? 661 00:42:32,800 --> 00:42:34,960 And Grady would be very funny about it. 662 00:42:34,960 --> 00:42:37,520 And he was always very direct. 663 00:42:37,520 --> 00:42:38,880 That's too much. 664 00:42:38,880 --> 00:42:40,720 Why are you playing there? 665 00:42:40,720 --> 00:42:42,000 Why are you playing the left hand? 666 00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:43,120 Stop it. 667 00:42:43,120 --> 00:42:44,480 And he would do this in rehearsal. 668 00:42:44,480 --> 00:42:47,280 I mean, he would say things to Jessie. 669 00:42:47,280 --> 00:42:48,960 Are you really going to sing it like that? 670 00:42:51,200 --> 00:42:53,440 Oh, no, that was priceless. 671 00:42:53,440 --> 00:42:54,960 He would say these things to me. 672 00:42:54,960 --> 00:42:58,800 And while it would make me a little, because you play by yourself. 673 00:42:58,800 --> 00:42:59,600 That's one thing. 674 00:42:59,600 --> 00:43:00,880 You get into a trio. 675 00:43:00,880 --> 00:43:02,560 You're in a quintet. 676 00:43:02,560 --> 00:43:06,880 And you're dropping things in where they need to be dropped. 677 00:43:07,760 --> 00:43:08,800 You're not doing something. 678 00:43:08,800 --> 00:43:13,040 You have to sense where is the moment to put this down, to play this chord, to put what beat. 679 00:43:14,080 --> 00:43:22,000 And I was lucky that I had these people who were around me, who said they were willing to say things. 680 00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:26,320 Because I was their little liaison between the jazz world and Jessie's world. 681 00:43:26,320 --> 00:43:30,880 I had to be the person in between because it's her show. 682 00:43:31,360 --> 00:43:37,760 I'm watching what she needs and trying to get them to do what we need to make sure she's happy. 683 00:43:37,760 --> 00:43:43,680 But at the same time that I'm not trying to guide the group in a way that doesn't sound authentic. 684 00:43:44,560 --> 00:43:53,440 So that's kind of where Miss Jessie Norman started singing these non-classical songs, 685 00:43:53,440 --> 00:43:58,960 but probably inspired by your playing, improvising. 686 00:43:58,960 --> 00:44:04,320 She had done some of this music with John Williams before. 687 00:44:04,320 --> 00:44:05,840 They did some orchestral things. 688 00:44:05,840 --> 00:44:07,520 They even recorded an album. 689 00:44:08,160 --> 00:44:11,600 And there's a recording of her singing Just the Way You Are by Billy Joel. 690 00:44:11,600 --> 00:44:14,080 If you've never heard that, you need to go and listen to it. 691 00:44:14,080 --> 00:44:15,520 It will blow your mind. 692 00:44:15,520 --> 00:44:16,960 You won't know who it is. 693 00:44:16,960 --> 00:44:19,840 When I heard it the first time, I thought, who is this? 694 00:44:20,880 --> 00:44:21,920 It's that good. 695 00:44:21,920 --> 00:44:23,680 It's that good. 696 00:44:23,680 --> 00:44:29,360 It's that was so far removed from singing Ariadne off Naxos. 697 00:44:30,560 --> 00:44:32,640 But then she did an album with Michel LeGrand. 698 00:44:33,920 --> 00:44:34,880 And that was fine. 699 00:44:34,880 --> 00:44:35,760 Michel was wonderful. 700 00:44:35,760 --> 00:44:37,120 He would always come to our concerts. 701 00:44:38,320 --> 00:44:42,080 But he had his own style of playing and was really, really big. 702 00:44:42,080 --> 00:44:47,040 But then when the Ellington Project started and then she started mixing a traditional 703 00:44:47,040 --> 00:44:54,080 classical recital and choosing very specific, more popular pieces to place within that program, 704 00:44:55,040 --> 00:44:59,600 not just at the end, but within the same group that you'd find Schubert, 705 00:44:59,600 --> 00:45:04,160 Hugo Wolf, Poulenc, and Gershwin, for example. 706 00:45:05,680 --> 00:45:07,840 That was just a random example. 707 00:45:08,720 --> 00:45:09,920 But she made it work. 708 00:45:11,360 --> 00:45:16,160 And that was, you know, we both started playing with that and trying to figure out, 709 00:45:16,160 --> 00:45:17,360 you know, I get the list. 710 00:45:17,360 --> 00:45:20,320 She'd send it to me and I'm like, what arrangement? 711 00:45:20,320 --> 00:45:21,680 Oh, we'll figure it out. 712 00:45:21,680 --> 00:45:22,800 You'll come up with something. 713 00:45:24,240 --> 00:45:25,040 Fun. 714 00:45:25,040 --> 00:45:25,540 Wow. 715 00:45:26,000 --> 00:45:27,760 She wanted to sing Summertime the first. 716 00:45:27,760 --> 00:45:33,040 We were at the Temple of Dandour as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. 717 00:45:33,040 --> 00:45:36,640 And she said she was going to sing Aida and she was going to sing Summertime. 718 00:45:36,640 --> 00:45:37,520 I'm like, Summertime? 719 00:45:38,960 --> 00:45:40,080 What do you mean Summertime? 720 00:45:40,720 --> 00:45:41,280 What key? 721 00:45:42,320 --> 00:45:42,960 Oh, I don't know. 722 00:45:42,960 --> 00:45:44,080 Wow. 723 00:45:44,080 --> 00:45:46,880 Okay, I know you're not going to sing in the original key because that's too high. 724 00:45:48,240 --> 00:45:49,760 Okay, just sing the beginning. 725 00:45:51,040 --> 00:45:55,040 And she closed her eyes and laid back and starts, and came in. 726 00:45:55,040 --> 00:45:56,000 And I found the first note. 727 00:45:56,000 --> 00:45:58,800 She sang a C sharp and I said, fine, you're an F sharp minor. 728 00:46:00,080 --> 00:46:03,600 And I started improvising the song in F sharp minor, trying to find 729 00:46:04,400 --> 00:46:07,280 this atmosphere that worked with her voice. 730 00:46:08,400 --> 00:46:11,520 And the harmony and the color and the rhythm. 731 00:46:11,520 --> 00:46:13,600 And the swaying and all these different things. 732 00:46:14,800 --> 00:46:18,480 But there wasn't anything in the back of my head of, no, you can't, no, you can't, 733 00:46:18,480 --> 00:46:20,160 no, you can't because no one ever told me that. 734 00:46:21,920 --> 00:46:24,800 And I'm grateful for that because I know a lot of people who were told, 735 00:46:25,440 --> 00:46:26,480 oh, no, you can't do that. 736 00:46:27,200 --> 00:46:34,000 Improvising itself is not a comfort zone for so many classical musicians. 737 00:46:34,000 --> 00:46:39,440 But at the same time, you are improvising with someone like Jesse Norman, right? 738 00:46:39,440 --> 00:46:44,560 Jesse Norman, right? For me, it's very strange when people say, oh, I think they can't do it 739 00:46:44,560 --> 00:46:45,680 or they're afraid to do it. 740 00:46:45,680 --> 00:46:50,800 I think if you play Chopin etudes, if you play Beethoven's sonatas, you play the Debussy 741 00:46:50,800 --> 00:46:55,040 Preludes, don't you have atmospheres for those pieces? 742 00:46:55,040 --> 00:46:56,240 Or you just learn their notes. 743 00:46:57,600 --> 00:46:59,920 And that's a big, big thing right there. 744 00:46:59,920 --> 00:47:02,960 That people learn the notes and they never ask why. 745 00:47:03,840 --> 00:47:04,880 Why these notes? 746 00:47:05,840 --> 00:47:07,280 What did they, what's the composer trying? 747 00:47:07,280 --> 00:47:09,120 What is the message behind all of this? 748 00:47:09,120 --> 00:47:13,760 Why did they choose these notes to communicate this thing? 749 00:47:13,760 --> 00:47:18,000 And did you, are people clear with what do you believe the composer really is trying 750 00:47:18,000 --> 00:47:18,640 to put in the room? 751 00:47:20,240 --> 00:47:23,760 Because we musicians, we put sound into a room to change a room. 752 00:47:24,640 --> 00:47:28,720 And we can change the room by the color of sound, by how we phrase something, 753 00:47:29,360 --> 00:47:30,880 by the volume of sound. 754 00:47:30,880 --> 00:47:36,080 And when people don't do it, they don't learn their music well. 755 00:47:36,080 --> 00:47:39,280 We have a physical part, we have a mental part, but there's also a spiritual part. 756 00:47:40,000 --> 00:47:42,720 And these three things have to work together. 757 00:47:43,680 --> 00:47:44,240 They must. 758 00:47:45,200 --> 00:47:48,880 Because when we perform live performance, is those three things coming together, 759 00:47:48,880 --> 00:47:54,240 they merge together and just, they must march into the room as one. 760 00:47:55,200 --> 00:47:57,680 And a lot of people think they can take it all apart. 761 00:47:59,920 --> 00:48:01,840 And I'm just going to work on technical things. 762 00:48:02,960 --> 00:48:05,200 Well, you really can't because it's still a technical thing. 763 00:48:05,200 --> 00:48:06,480 You really can't because it's still music. 764 00:48:07,840 --> 00:48:12,400 If you learn technical things with no expression behind it, then what have you done? 765 00:48:12,400 --> 00:48:15,600 You've created a pile of nonsense over here. 766 00:48:16,320 --> 00:48:19,040 You can learn things by being expressive all the time. 767 00:48:19,040 --> 00:48:23,200 And I was told very young, even when you're practicing slowly and everything, 768 00:48:23,200 --> 00:48:24,880 it's still with intention. 769 00:48:24,880 --> 00:48:30,240 It's still with expression, with meaning, because that's what connects you to the public. 770 00:48:30,240 --> 00:48:32,000 That's what connects you to the music. 771 00:48:32,000 --> 00:48:34,800 So you can have communion at that moment. 772 00:48:34,800 --> 00:48:38,960 But with improvisation, they know the keyboard well, I would assume. 773 00:48:39,760 --> 00:48:43,280 Though there are some situations nowadays when I ask someone, I say, what key is, 774 00:48:43,280 --> 00:48:44,560 what key, what chord is that? 775 00:48:45,200 --> 00:48:46,400 And I use this example. 776 00:48:46,400 --> 00:48:48,800 We were in, she was playing in the key of A flat major. 777 00:48:49,600 --> 00:48:56,160 And all of a sudden going along, a chord came up of D, F sharp, and A. 778 00:48:57,920 --> 00:49:01,040 And I stopped and said, hold that chord, please. 779 00:49:01,040 --> 00:49:04,880 Then they stopped and said, what chord is that in this key? 780 00:49:06,080 --> 00:49:06,960 Is it F major? 781 00:49:09,120 --> 00:49:10,320 And I said, shame on you. 782 00:49:11,760 --> 00:49:12,720 D, F sharp, A. 783 00:49:14,000 --> 00:49:15,200 You're a grad student. 784 00:49:15,920 --> 00:49:17,040 You're not eight. 785 00:49:18,640 --> 00:49:23,360 In A flat major, D major is about as far away as you can go. 786 00:49:24,320 --> 00:49:28,400 It is just completely, it should take your breath away. 787 00:49:28,400 --> 00:49:31,120 That's what the moment was in the piece. 788 00:49:31,120 --> 00:49:41,040 But when I saw that that wasn't understood, how music is built, that harmony is everything. 789 00:49:42,160 --> 00:49:47,360 If you don't understand harmony, how do you know? 790 00:49:49,840 --> 00:49:55,680 In the sense of harmony, of how something is phrased, where is a release, 791 00:49:55,680 --> 00:49:57,040 what are you building towards? 792 00:49:57,040 --> 00:50:02,800 And that's monstrous for me, because that tells me everything about a piece. 793 00:50:03,600 --> 00:50:05,840 I can learn so much just understanding the harmony. 794 00:50:05,840 --> 00:50:10,560 And when you don't know harmony, I would be terrified about doing improvisation too. 795 00:50:12,720 --> 00:50:15,680 Because you're on a certain chord, you listen to Chopin sometimes. 796 00:50:15,680 --> 00:50:20,160 I'm sorry, when Chopin got older, the man, it sounded like he was on some special med. 797 00:50:21,520 --> 00:50:26,960 He would take one little note and go chromatically with that one note on the inside of the chord. 798 00:50:26,960 --> 00:50:29,520 And everything else would wander in another direction. 799 00:50:30,400 --> 00:50:34,240 Great theory teacher of Peabody years and years ago in a class only on Chopin, 800 00:50:35,200 --> 00:50:39,040 who analyzed harmonically all of these things. 801 00:50:39,040 --> 00:50:43,120 And when you look to see how that man could hold something together with one little note, 802 00:50:43,920 --> 00:50:47,360 and how he moved it through, and if you didn't know where that little line was, 803 00:50:47,360 --> 00:50:51,360 all these other things are going, jumping all around, it made no sense. 804 00:50:52,240 --> 00:50:54,720 And it became much more difficult, and you didn't understand 805 00:50:54,720 --> 00:50:56,720 where is the tension in the line? 806 00:50:58,800 --> 00:51:00,320 Because it's built in. 807 00:51:00,320 --> 00:51:06,320 I mean, Richard Strauss does the same thing, that one little note just keeps running through chromatically. 808 00:51:07,760 --> 00:51:10,960 And if you find where that is, you can hold it all together. 809 00:51:12,240 --> 00:51:13,760 And I do when I improvise. 810 00:51:14,960 --> 00:51:17,760 I'm feeling something that keeps me grounded. 811 00:51:17,760 --> 00:51:21,440 I just don't randomly choose something. 812 00:51:21,440 --> 00:51:23,520 Come on, this is like when people paint, when they 813 00:51:23,520 --> 00:51:24,720 know I've created something new. 814 00:51:24,720 --> 00:51:26,240 No, you haven't created anything new. 815 00:51:27,520 --> 00:51:30,080 It's all, all of this is connected. 816 00:51:32,080 --> 00:51:34,720 And before, and that's the beauty of it all that 817 00:51:35,520 --> 00:51:38,160 these sounds have been around for who knows how long. 818 00:51:38,800 --> 00:51:40,000 How they're organized. 819 00:51:41,520 --> 00:51:44,160 That's why we have these amazing composers who do this for us. 820 00:51:45,440 --> 00:51:46,720 I'm not going to do people. 821 00:51:46,720 --> 00:51:48,160 Oh, do you compose? 822 00:51:48,800 --> 00:51:49,920 Good Lord, no. 823 00:51:50,960 --> 00:51:52,240 That's a whole other job. 824 00:51:52,240 --> 00:51:53,440 That's a whole other job. 825 00:51:54,400 --> 00:51:56,240 Completely different job. 826 00:51:59,440 --> 00:52:06,880 Then this Sacred Ellington program became like a concert program that you toured with 827 00:52:07,520 --> 00:52:11,120 Miss Norman, and they also became a CD album, right? 828 00:52:12,080 --> 00:52:14,800 No, the Sacred Ellington was never recorded. 829 00:52:14,800 --> 00:52:17,040 I think they tried to at St. John the Divine. 830 00:52:18,240 --> 00:52:20,800 Last performance with that, that was an amazing night. 831 00:52:20,800 --> 00:52:25,760 But it was just, it was, it involved so many people with chorus and the jazz band and string 832 00:52:25,760 --> 00:52:31,680 quartet and me and a dancer and Jesse and, you know, it was huge. 833 00:52:32,320 --> 00:52:35,600 But it was one of the most thrilling things to get to do. 834 00:52:36,080 --> 00:52:40,640 The works that we recorded were Roots, My Life, My Song. 835 00:52:40,640 --> 00:52:41,440 Yes, okay. 836 00:52:41,440 --> 00:52:49,120 Which involved spirituals and hymns and French music and Ellington and all these different 837 00:52:49,120 --> 00:52:50,880 elements of her life. 838 00:52:51,760 --> 00:52:55,040 She wanted to try to bring all of that together. 839 00:52:55,840 --> 00:52:59,040 But that was one of those experiences when she told us, okay, this is what we're doing 840 00:52:59,040 --> 00:53:04,320 and sent the list and I'm looking at this playlist going, well, what are these things? 841 00:53:05,440 --> 00:53:06,240 What is this? 842 00:53:06,960 --> 00:53:08,240 I didn't even know what it was. 843 00:53:09,440 --> 00:53:10,560 I said, where's the score? 844 00:53:11,200 --> 00:53:12,080 Nobody knew. 845 00:53:12,080 --> 00:53:13,120 There wasn't a score. 846 00:53:14,080 --> 00:53:16,800 And then somebody showed her the saxophone player. 847 00:53:16,800 --> 00:53:20,480 He turned in the rehearsal and said, here, and handed me a chart. 848 00:53:21,520 --> 00:53:23,600 Okay, I know harmony so I can play a chart. 849 00:53:24,640 --> 00:53:26,400 That doesn't scare me. 850 00:53:26,400 --> 00:53:31,200 A lot of people freak out completely trying to read plus five and, you know, all these 851 00:53:31,200 --> 00:53:33,520 minor ninths chords and this, that and the other. 852 00:53:34,720 --> 00:53:39,040 And we started coming up with our arrangements. 853 00:53:39,040 --> 00:53:39,840 Wow. 854 00:53:41,200 --> 00:53:44,960 Now, as much as this episode is about you, 855 00:53:44,960 --> 00:53:51,040 but it's at this point unavoidable to talk about your collaboration with Miss Jessi Norman. 856 00:53:51,040 --> 00:53:55,040 We've already, you know, in length, you've talked about her. 857 00:53:55,040 --> 00:54:01,440 So you must talk to us about because we are curious working with her, but also how did 858 00:54:01,440 --> 00:54:04,000 this collaboration for us come to you and so on. 859 00:54:04,800 --> 00:54:09,760 Before continuing this inspiring conversation with our guest, let's take a moment to hear 860 00:54:09,760 --> 00:54:14,080 from our valued sponsor of the month, who would support helping us to make this video 861 00:54:14,080 --> 00:54:16,560 would support help to make this podcast possible. 862 00:54:17,360 --> 00:54:20,240 Are you ready to immerse yourself in a world of music. 863 00:54:20,240 --> 00:54:25,440 The art song preservation society of New York, or asps and why for short, is thrilled to 864 00:54:25,440 --> 00:54:31,360 announce our summer song festival 2025, hosted at the iconic Manhattan School of Music. 865 00:54:31,360 --> 00:54:36,080 Join us for a spectacular week filled with breathtaking recitals, illuminating performance 866 00:54:36,080 --> 00:54:41,200 workshops and collaborative opportunities, led by extraordinary artists like pianist 867 00:54:41,200 --> 00:54:43,200 Mark Markham and Jose Melendez. 868 00:54:43,200 --> 00:54:47,600 Experience the emotional depth of art song as you engage with a vibrant community of 869 00:54:47,600 --> 00:54:50,480 musicians and enthusiasts who share your passion. 870 00:54:50,960 --> 00:54:55,920 Whether you're a budding performer, emerging recitalist or devoted music lover, this is 871 00:54:55,920 --> 00:54:59,680 your chance to enhance your skills and connect with fellow artists. 872 00:55:00,160 --> 00:55:04,880 Picture yourself among the inspiring atmosphere of Manhattan School of Music, where every 873 00:55:04,880 --> 00:55:07,760 corner resonates with creativity and talent. 874 00:55:07,760 --> 00:55:13,120 Mark your calendars for June 8 through the 21st summer 2025 and be part of this 875 00:55:13,120 --> 00:55:14,960 extraordinary celebration of song. 876 00:55:15,600 --> 00:55:22,800 Visit art song preservation society NY dot org to learn more about our lineup of performers 877 00:55:22,800 --> 00:55:28,400 schedule of events and how you can register as an audience member or in some select cases 878 00:55:28,400 --> 00:55:30,400 as a performer or participant. 879 00:55:30,800 --> 00:55:35,200 Don't miss this opportunity to enrich your musical journey at our summer of song festival 880 00:55:35,200 --> 00:55:38,080 2025. 881 00:55:38,080 --> 00:55:42,320 Join us in this realm where music speaks and words sing. 882 00:55:44,000 --> 00:55:49,200 Your collaboration with Miss Jessie Norman, we've already, you know, in length, you've 883 00:55:49,200 --> 00:55:50,480 talked about her. 884 00:55:50,480 --> 00:55:59,200 So with whom you collaborated and performed together nearly 300 concerts in 25 countries 885 00:55:59,200 --> 00:56:02,960 and that's like more than 20 seasons, right? 886 00:56:03,680 --> 00:56:04,720 20 seasons, right. 887 00:56:04,720 --> 00:56:05,520 Oh my goodness. 888 00:56:06,080 --> 00:56:07,120 I heard her play. 889 00:56:07,120 --> 00:56:11,440 I heard her sing the very first time at the Kennedy Center in the spring of 1982, my first 890 00:56:11,440 --> 00:56:12,160 year of Peabody. 891 00:56:12,880 --> 00:56:16,560 And a friend of mine called me and said, I have bought the last two tickets for Jessie 892 00:56:16,560 --> 00:56:18,560 Norman's recital tomorrow. 893 00:56:20,720 --> 00:56:21,520 Sunday afternoon. 894 00:56:22,480 --> 00:56:23,520 You want to go? 895 00:56:23,520 --> 00:56:24,240 I said, sure. 896 00:56:24,880 --> 00:56:25,920 Well, I had a car. 897 00:56:26,880 --> 00:56:28,160 So kind of helped out. 898 00:56:28,960 --> 00:56:29,680 I made that work. 899 00:56:29,680 --> 00:56:33,840 So the two of us go down there, two pianists, and we're on the very last row of the Kennedy 900 00:56:33,840 --> 00:56:38,400 Center in the very top corner, as far, the furthest away you could ever be. 901 00:56:39,040 --> 00:56:42,800 And there we sat and she came on stage and opened her mouth and the wall started to shake. 902 00:56:43,680 --> 00:56:46,400 And you're going, what is this? 903 00:56:47,120 --> 00:56:50,720 And I had heard her at Tanglewood before live. 904 00:56:51,520 --> 00:56:56,320 And that was amazing with the orchestra, but to be there and recital and to hear the pianist. 905 00:56:56,320 --> 00:57:00,240 And when she finished, we got to the end, we stood up and everyone is exhausted because 906 00:57:00,240 --> 00:57:03,680 we've had half a dozen encore and people screaming and beating their hands together. 907 00:57:04,400 --> 00:57:07,920 And I turned to my friend and said, you know, I think I could do that job. 908 00:57:09,600 --> 00:57:11,280 And she looked at me like, oh, okay. 909 00:57:12,320 --> 00:57:14,880 And that was then I didn't think of it. 910 00:57:14,880 --> 00:57:19,840 Well, I didn't know this, but Jessie Norman and my teacher and shine had known each other 911 00:57:19,840 --> 00:57:21,280 from the 1960s. 912 00:57:21,280 --> 00:57:23,120 Jessie had sung at her wedding. 913 00:57:24,080 --> 00:57:26,000 So they were friends in Washington, D.C. 914 00:57:26,000 --> 00:57:30,800 And in the 80s, when I was in school, people wrote letters to each other. 915 00:57:32,000 --> 00:57:36,080 And she was writing Jessie letters telling about her family, her children. 916 00:57:36,080 --> 00:57:37,920 And then she said, she told me this later. 917 00:57:37,920 --> 00:57:42,000 She goes, I would mention you saying I have a wonderful student who loves vocal music. 918 00:57:43,920 --> 00:57:46,400 And Jessie would write, oh, that sounds he sounds lovely. 919 00:57:46,400 --> 00:57:47,120 And that was it. 920 00:57:48,000 --> 00:57:51,360 You know, just, oh, my teacher's writing to a famous singer about me. 921 00:57:51,360 --> 00:57:53,920 How in that nice, anything of it. 922 00:57:53,920 --> 00:57:57,600 And then I don't know, but was 1992, 93, somewhere around there. 923 00:57:57,600 --> 00:57:59,040 She wanted to have dinner one night. 924 00:57:59,040 --> 00:57:59,760 We had dinner. 925 00:57:59,760 --> 00:58:06,960 And she tells me that Jessie was going on a tour and that she had written her about me. 926 00:58:07,840 --> 00:58:12,400 But Jessie responded with, well, Mark sounds lovely, but we've never worked together. 927 00:58:13,200 --> 00:58:15,440 So they worked together for a couple of seasons. 928 00:58:16,240 --> 00:58:22,240 And then I was playing in Brussels with Derek Lee Reagan, who sang in the movie Farinelli. 929 00:58:22,240 --> 00:58:27,680 And we had a tour and we got to Brussels and we do the first half of our concert. 930 00:58:27,680 --> 00:58:32,160 And I'm in my dressing room and all of a sudden someone banging on my door and I opened the door 931 00:58:32,720 --> 00:58:37,680 and the promoter standing there and she goes, Jeff, Jessie Norman's pianist is dead. 932 00:58:37,680 --> 00:58:38,800 He died in January. 933 00:58:38,800 --> 00:58:40,560 She's looking for a pianist and you're it. 934 00:58:41,360 --> 00:58:43,840 I'm telling her, I'm calling her tomorrow. 935 00:58:44,880 --> 00:58:46,080 And I said, you know what? 936 00:58:46,080 --> 00:58:48,480 That poor man's body is probably still warm. 937 00:58:48,480 --> 00:58:49,040 It's Mark. 938 00:58:49,040 --> 00:58:52,720 You know, and you're telling me this during my concert and people love to talk. 939 00:58:52,720 --> 00:58:55,200 And I didn't know that I just met this person two hours before. 940 00:58:55,200 --> 00:58:57,040 And I said, that's very nice. 941 00:58:57,040 --> 00:58:57,600 Uh-huh. 942 00:58:57,600 --> 00:58:58,720 Let me finish the concert, please. 943 00:58:59,520 --> 00:59:00,240 And I did. 944 00:59:00,240 --> 00:59:02,960 And she did do that. 945 00:59:03,360 --> 00:59:06,960 So Jessie was hearing it from two sides at that time. 946 00:59:07,920 --> 00:59:14,320 And then in May, I get a phone call saying that Jessie's looking for a pianist 947 00:59:15,120 --> 00:59:17,360 and her office called and she said, I'm sorry. 948 00:59:17,360 --> 00:59:20,080 And her office called and said, are you available? 949 00:59:20,080 --> 00:59:21,680 These two days, three dates. 950 00:59:21,680 --> 00:59:23,360 And I said, yes, I am. 951 00:59:23,360 --> 00:59:27,920 I was, it was really sandwiched in perfectly with concerts right on either side. 952 00:59:28,720 --> 00:59:30,720 And they said, okay, fine. 953 00:59:30,720 --> 00:59:31,920 She'll call you tonight at 8 30. 954 00:59:33,280 --> 00:59:36,240 And she called and she goes, hello, Mark. 955 00:59:36,240 --> 00:59:37,040 I said, hello. 956 00:59:37,040 --> 00:59:38,880 She goes, I hear we have some work to do together. 957 00:59:40,000 --> 00:59:41,040 I said, yes, we do. 958 00:59:42,320 --> 00:59:43,680 Did you get the program? 959 00:59:43,680 --> 00:59:44,080 Yes. 960 00:59:44,080 --> 00:59:44,960 Do you like it? 961 00:59:44,960 --> 00:59:48,000 And I kind of laughed at myself like, what am I supposed to say? 962 00:59:49,520 --> 00:59:50,720 No, please don't sing that. 963 00:59:50,720 --> 00:59:51,920 Could you sing this instead? 964 00:59:51,920 --> 00:59:55,920 So I showed up at her house a few weeks later in London. 965 00:59:56,800 --> 00:59:57,680 She had never met me. 966 00:59:58,480 --> 00:59:59,680 She had never heard me play. 967 01:00:00,880 --> 01:00:04,320 And she took it on other people's word that I could do my job well. 968 01:00:05,840 --> 01:00:09,280 And I showed up and we had our first rehearsal, which was fantastic. 969 01:00:09,280 --> 01:00:12,720 And at the end, leaving the house and she puts her hand on my shoulder and says, 970 01:00:12,720 --> 01:00:15,360 they told me you were good and they were right. 971 01:00:16,720 --> 01:00:22,960 And I thought, okay, I didn't know whether I was being seduced by the famous diva or how to take it. 972 01:00:22,960 --> 01:00:26,000 And I just had to go into your work and get back to work tomorrow. 973 01:00:26,000 --> 01:00:29,040 And I did my work and we finished the three concerts. 974 01:00:29,040 --> 01:00:34,880 And at the end of the third concert in Norway, she called me to her dressing room and I walked in and she goes, 975 01:00:34,880 --> 01:00:37,200 I just have to thank you for being so prepared. 976 01:00:37,200 --> 01:00:42,400 And I looked at her and said, well, isn't that, that's just what you do. 977 01:00:43,440 --> 01:00:47,280 No, you wouldn't believe the nonsense that I've put up with for the last few months. 978 01:00:48,080 --> 01:00:51,600 People who want to be on the ride, but don't do the work. 979 01:00:52,800 --> 01:00:57,040 Think that the person who's singing or whoever you're working with wouldn't notice the difference. 980 01:00:59,360 --> 01:01:03,600 So that's how it started, us being prepared. 981 01:01:03,600 --> 01:01:04,640 Her sister was there. 982 01:01:04,640 --> 01:01:09,440 Last week at the concert in Georgia and she said, yeah, give us people want to know. 983 01:01:09,440 --> 01:01:14,720 And she's Mark was it because Mark was prepared and they got along. 984 01:01:14,720 --> 01:01:22,160 And, and the biggest thing, I think that to work with someone who's already had a 25 year career in front of the world 985 01:01:22,960 --> 01:01:30,480 and they're flying at that altitude and you're asked to join while the mission is ongoing. 986 01:01:30,480 --> 01:01:36,320 There's no time to stop the career and let me figure out what I'm going to do. 987 01:01:37,280 --> 01:01:44,480 It was up to me to be able to have the strength, the talent, the dedication, all those things to be able to get on the ride. 988 01:01:45,360 --> 01:01:52,080 Already in motion, join without creating any excess weight, any difficulty for her. 989 01:01:52,080 --> 01:01:56,080 The very first concert in Glasgow, people are asking me the stage people and the managers there. 990 01:01:56,080 --> 01:02:00,720 Now, you miss Norman had worked together a lot. What is she going to need? 991 01:02:01,600 --> 01:02:04,240 And I said, I'm sure that's in her, in her contract. 992 01:02:04,240 --> 01:02:06,640 Why don't you just check that out? I don't want to forget anything. 993 01:02:06,640 --> 01:02:12,320 I wasn't about to tell them it was my first concert because when they heard you play, they heard us together. 994 01:02:12,320 --> 01:02:13,120 No one knew. 995 01:02:13,840 --> 01:02:21,280 They thought that we had been together for years and that's just because we're both, we were both always very well prepared. 996 01:02:21,280 --> 01:02:26,880 So that whatever happened, we could deal with it. 997 01:02:26,880 --> 01:02:36,800 But the, you know, some interest, Cassie of collaboration like her part and your part, you know, ensemble, I hear it. 998 01:02:36,800 --> 01:02:38,800 Earl Koenig. 999 01:02:38,800 --> 01:02:40,000 Right. 1000 01:02:40,000 --> 01:02:48,800 Yeah, I heard that and Brahms and some other piece of songs that I heard online and I was like, oh, I'm going to do this. 1001 01:02:48,800 --> 01:02:55,840 The songs that I heard online and they're so together, they're so in sync, just so beautiful. 1002 01:02:55,840 --> 01:03:09,200 And I've done some of those pieces in the past and I really almost made me want to go back playing for singers again, because yeah, you know, those pieces are so fun as a pianist. 1003 01:03:10,320 --> 01:03:12,240 Song song cycles are so fun. 1004 01:03:12,240 --> 01:03:22,640 So but did you do like a lot of those song cycles together with her and did you also sometimes play Arias for her? 1005 01:03:22,640 --> 01:03:28,400 Like she was singing Arias from Carmen, Lila, things like that. 1006 01:03:28,400 --> 01:03:41,200 Not much more than that in recital, but, you know, lots of German repertoire, lots of French repertoire, even some Spanish, a little bit of Italian. 1007 01:03:41,200 --> 01:03:44,000 Lots of songs in English. 1008 01:04:11,200 --> 01:04:31,680 So that relationship with her professionally and then obviously you both became such good friends, I'm sure. 1009 01:04:31,680 --> 01:04:42,960 And so then I watched a short video clip of you playing Deep River arranged by you and it was at her funeral. 1010 01:04:42,960 --> 01:04:48,240 I think a very emotional performance and a lot of people are there. 1011 01:04:48,240 --> 01:04:51,680 So can you tell me about that event, occasion? 1012 01:04:53,040 --> 01:04:55,120 Well, a funeral is a funeral. 1013 01:04:55,120 --> 01:05:04,080 And for her, it was rather shocking and I spoke to the family and they said, Mark, if you want to play something, please. 1014 01:05:05,040 --> 01:05:05,920 Love you to do it. 1015 01:05:06,560 --> 01:05:07,520 And I said, yes. 1016 01:05:08,480 --> 01:05:15,280 And it was put as the very first musical tribute of a four and a half hour funeral. 1017 01:05:15,280 --> 01:05:25,120 And it went on for ever with people praying and sermons and eulogies and music and all these different things. 1018 01:05:25,120 --> 01:05:33,840 And I thought of all the pieces that we did together, that was something I think that could mean something. 1019 01:05:34,960 --> 01:05:40,160 And her sound in that piece was unique. 1020 01:05:40,160 --> 01:05:45,840 That was just the color of her voice with that piece, it worked. 1021 01:05:46,880 --> 01:05:50,000 And so I decided to put something together. 1022 01:05:50,000 --> 01:05:57,040 But it was, you know, in those moments as a musician, as an artist, you're trying to, you want to make the contribution. 1023 01:05:57,040 --> 01:06:06,160 But you're also your emotions have to be not kept in check, but you have a responsibility to the musical performance. 1024 01:06:06,160 --> 01:06:15,280 And to feel the pain in the room, you know, they called me from my dressing room and said, you're next. 1025 01:06:15,280 --> 01:06:18,720 And I walked out on, walked backstage and there was a woman praying. 1026 01:06:19,920 --> 01:06:21,760 Eight minutes later, she was still praying. 1027 01:06:22,480 --> 01:06:26,240 I said, please let me know when she's finished. 1028 01:06:26,240 --> 01:06:35,600 When she's finished praying, I'm trying to, I've got to stay in this place to be able to do what I want to do. 1029 01:06:35,600 --> 01:06:40,320 And feeling all of that, I mean, I've known, I knew the family for 25 years. 1030 01:06:42,880 --> 01:06:52,880 We shared holidays together and just, you know, showing up to play a tribute for someone because they were famous and you're famous. 1031 01:06:52,880 --> 01:06:58,640 Very different thing. Like, you know, it's a Metropolitan Opera when they did the big tribute for her there. 1032 01:06:58,640 --> 01:07:04,640 I played, it was very different for me than it was for the people I played for. 1033 01:07:06,000 --> 01:07:12,640 Well, thank you for sharing this beautiful tribute and stories with me and with my audience. 1034 01:07:12,640 --> 01:07:23,040 So now also you work with some other wonderful renowned singers like, you know, Janaye Bridges and so on. 1035 01:07:23,040 --> 01:07:28,240 What's the secret you will want to have as a pianist to collaborate with singers? 1036 01:07:29,120 --> 01:07:30,560 You have to play your part well. 1037 01:07:31,360 --> 01:07:32,400 You have to know it well. 1038 01:07:33,200 --> 01:07:37,440 You have to be able to, you know, the language you understand how a singer breathes. 1039 01:07:37,440 --> 01:07:42,560 If you can't sing the piece, if you can't sing the piece and play your part, then how's it going to work? 1040 01:07:43,280 --> 01:07:48,160 You have to be able to sing the song and play simultaneously because that is what's going to happen. 1041 01:07:49,520 --> 01:07:53,920 And the fun part is never do the song the same way twice. 1042 01:07:54,960 --> 01:07:57,120 Why? How boring? 1043 01:07:58,400 --> 01:08:03,360 You know, Arthur Rubinstein did not play the same way two nights in a row. 1044 01:08:03,360 --> 01:08:09,520 That's part of being, I think, an artist that you in that moment, you have to be able to fly. 1045 01:08:10,400 --> 01:08:12,720 And you want to play with someone who's singing. 1046 01:08:12,720 --> 01:08:17,440 Then if you don't know the poetry, if you don't know that pronunciation, you don't know what those words mean. 1047 01:08:17,440 --> 01:08:19,680 How can you play inside the word? 1048 01:08:20,320 --> 01:08:29,280 You're playing inside the color of a word, inside the sound of a word, how it's pronounced, how it's caressed. 1049 01:08:29,280 --> 01:08:39,360 And you think about all those things and you try to come up with probably, I would always, the joke was I would come up with a hundred different ways to play a song and then get to a rehearsal with Jessie and she'd come up with a hundred and one. 1050 01:08:40,720 --> 01:08:43,520 And I just kind of laugh and roll my eyes sometimes go, uh-huh. 1051 01:08:44,320 --> 01:08:46,800 Oh, fine. And then I could change something else. 1052 01:08:46,800 --> 01:08:51,200 And we both knew it so well that we could, you know, you start flowing together with it. 1053 01:08:52,320 --> 01:08:53,360 Then it's fun. 1054 01:08:53,360 --> 01:09:02,640 Who wants to do the same thing day in and day out? How boring. Sure. But that's it. You want to play for a singer? If you don't love words, do something else, please. 1055 01:09:03,600 --> 01:09:11,840 You've got to love all that. Singers can be a little crazy at times, just like a violinist can be crazy and a pianist can be crazy, but singers take a hard rap. 1056 01:09:11,840 --> 01:09:15,440 But as I say all the time, they're the only people facing the public. 1057 01:09:15,440 --> 01:09:26,000 The rest of us get to turn sideways, turn around, do all these different things. They are there facing the public, telling stories through these words, through this music, and they have to count on their breath. 1058 01:09:26,720 --> 01:09:29,520 When you get nervous, the first thing that goes is your breath. 1059 01:09:30,640 --> 01:09:36,400 And things get a little tight. You hear that and you have to understand what that sounds like and what it feels like. 1060 01:09:37,120 --> 01:09:41,040 I love when people, they love to make fun of singers. Pianists will do the same thing. 1061 01:09:41,040 --> 01:09:47,200 I said, well, good. Have you stood, let me hear you sing something. It shuts them up very quickly. 1062 01:09:47,840 --> 01:09:56,480 I was singing in public since I was four years old. But for me, it was just part of being, saying everything. Everything was sung. 1063 01:09:57,360 --> 01:10:09,600 And so my playing has that feature to it that everything was sung. And if you don't understand all that and what it feels like, and that's what I'm trying to do. 1064 01:10:09,600 --> 01:10:13,120 I want people to understand what it feels like and understand what it feels like to be in their shoes. 1065 01:10:15,920 --> 01:10:17,600 Those are not easy moments. 1066 01:10:19,280 --> 01:10:24,880 Jesse and I did the 10th anniversary of 9-11 at Lincoln Center. 1067 01:10:25,760 --> 01:10:31,760 You're in a hall with 3,000 people and you're doing, you're representing the country at that point. 1068 01:10:31,760 --> 01:10:39,120 Those emotions and the families are there and here you are thrown on stage to do seven minutes of something. 1069 01:10:40,320 --> 01:10:47,760 It's supposed to be perfect and great and expressive and free and like, okay, you got to get to that. 1070 01:10:47,760 --> 01:10:51,200 You got to get to that place very quickly, but you have to know where that place is. 1071 01:10:52,240 --> 01:10:52,800 Yes. 1072 01:10:53,520 --> 01:10:56,640 You have to know what that is. And that's how you build that when you do your work. 1073 01:10:56,640 --> 01:11:03,360 It's not luck. It's not, oh, I hope it's going to work out. Hope is 50-50. It's a lovely word. 1074 01:11:04,720 --> 01:11:06,000 Hope is 50-50. 1075 01:11:07,680 --> 01:11:13,120 Now I'm going to go back to you being the pianist, the soloist. 1076 01:11:13,120 --> 01:11:17,280 These are specific questions, technique and tone production. 1077 01:11:17,280 --> 01:11:34,320 Your performances are known for your expressive power and clarity and it comes to, when it comes to piano technique and tone production, how do you work to achieve that clarity of sound and curious about your thoughts on technique and service of the music? 1078 01:11:34,320 --> 01:11:37,920 Well, you have to know what you're going to serve. 1079 01:11:38,880 --> 01:11:39,920 We are serving. 1080 01:11:40,640 --> 01:11:41,600 You serve. 1081 01:11:42,240 --> 01:11:43,520 You're serving food. 1082 01:11:43,520 --> 01:11:48,080 It would be nice if it was well thought out and well put together and looks nice on the plate when it hits the table. 1083 01:11:49,120 --> 01:11:53,840 Not running if somebody running over saying, oh, I forgot this. Let me sprinkle this on. Oh, let me chop this on here. 1084 01:11:53,840 --> 01:11:55,840 No, I don't want to see all that. 1085 01:11:55,840 --> 01:11:57,200 Oh, I forgot chicken. 1086 01:11:57,200 --> 01:11:58,880 No, that's not how it works. 1087 01:11:58,880 --> 01:11:59,680 You prepare. 1088 01:12:00,560 --> 01:12:10,080 And with the piano, with the instrument itself, its capacity to do everything that you can. 1089 01:12:10,080 --> 01:12:15,200 The whole orchestra can do that is in your imagination. 1090 01:12:15,200 --> 01:12:17,200 If you want it to sound like a drum, you can. 1091 01:12:17,200 --> 01:12:19,200 If you want to sound like a flute, you can. 1092 01:12:19,200 --> 01:12:30,720 If you want it to sound like a clarinet and oboe, a trumpet, all of these different things that this instrument has the capacity to do. 1093 01:12:30,720 --> 01:12:38,240 And this is where I think the piano is an extraordinary for me that it is my pleasure to be able to do this. 1094 01:12:38,240 --> 01:12:44,160 It's an extraordinary for me that it is my playing field because all the things are there. 1095 01:12:44,160 --> 01:12:48,960 All those opportunities, anything that I can dream of can happen here. 1096 01:12:48,960 --> 01:12:55,840 And we're playing more than one note at a time, which a lot of people can only play one note. 1097 01:12:55,840 --> 01:13:03,040 We are dealing with harmony and line and direction and color and the shape of things. 1098 01:13:03,040 --> 01:13:17,840 If you actually understand what it is you want to communicate and understand why that piece was written in the first place, try to get into the composer's psyche about those things, 1099 01:13:17,840 --> 01:13:27,840 you then your body actually has the capacity to release and you can trust all the work that you've done. 1100 01:13:27,840 --> 01:13:33,440 If you've practiced and you know where that you know your fingering, fingering is hugely important. 1101 01:13:33,440 --> 01:13:39,120 If you don't understand great fingering, you'll never get a sound. 1102 01:13:39,120 --> 01:13:43,600 And singers are born with a sound in their throat, and that is their voice. 1103 01:13:43,600 --> 01:13:51,520 For pianists, we have to cultivate our sound so that no matter where you go, you still sound like you. 1104 01:13:51,520 --> 01:14:01,200 The freedom that you feel inside, you can then trust that your hands when you touch that keyboard, you're touching the keyboard for a reason. 1105 01:14:01,200 --> 01:14:09,760 Not just to put down a note, because when we put down a note, our next responsibility is how to get out of that note. 1106 01:14:09,760 --> 01:14:20,880 Because we must feel the release of that that takes us to the next, whether it's the finger door, whether it's three octaves away, that that release is not there. 1107 01:14:20,880 --> 01:14:25,120 Then you can't get to the next note. So it means your your your story has broken. 1108 01:14:25,120 --> 01:14:31,120 And the fluidity of sound of of line, the color you're pedaling. 1109 01:14:31,120 --> 01:14:37,760 There's so many young people now don't understand what the pedal is even for that it's either on or off and trying to explain. 1110 01:14:37,760 --> 01:14:44,400 No, no, no, there are about five thousand different variations of the pedal and how you can move it constantly to set off. 1111 01:14:44,400 --> 01:15:00,480 But you play the pedal with your ears and it gives the piano every piano has a certain capacity and your job in that little bit of time that you get prior to concert is to try to understand the capacity of the instrument you have. 1112 01:15:00,480 --> 01:15:06,960 And the hall that you're in and bring yourself, because can you change the way you play? 1113 01:15:06,960 --> 01:15:18,320 No. Technique easiest way to do something, the simplest way to do something. But finding what is simple in life is always the most confusing. 1114 01:15:18,320 --> 01:15:25,360 It can be the most challenging. It's easy to make something simple, complicated, but it's very hard to make something complicated simple. 1115 01:15:25,360 --> 01:15:36,800 And that's a whole thing for me, constantly studying and paying attention through the phrase to find out what is the simplest way for me to achieve. 1116 01:15:36,800 --> 01:15:42,960 But it means I understand what the what I want to achieve before touching the piano. 1117 01:15:42,960 --> 01:15:51,440 And that scares a lot of people when I say, oh, I can learn a piece before I ever touch a keyboard. 1118 01:15:51,440 --> 01:16:00,400 And people are afraid of that. I think why would you be afraid? You can't look at the score and hear things you don't have to hear every note perfectly. 1119 01:16:00,400 --> 01:16:06,240 But when I first played when I worked on Schoenberg Opus 11, the very first time. 1120 01:16:06,240 --> 01:16:13,440 You can't sit down at the piano and play it. It's too crazy. But you can still look at the rhythm. 1121 01:16:13,440 --> 01:16:18,800 You can see the shape of a phrase. You can hum all these things. You can make it up. 1122 01:16:18,800 --> 01:16:24,240 You learn the shapes and what a conductor's do. They spend their lives with nothing in front of them. 1123 01:16:24,240 --> 01:16:31,200 And they have to look at a score and imagine things how they'd like to hear it. 1124 01:16:31,200 --> 01:16:42,960 And that is the aim. Then I'm actually free to you'll hear me, you'll hear my spirit ringing in that instrument, through that instrument into the room. 1125 01:16:42,960 --> 01:16:49,360 If I've really had the time and the possibility to settle down. 1126 01:16:49,360 --> 01:16:53,760 You know, and that's that to me is where my sound comes from. 1127 01:16:53,760 --> 01:16:59,600 That I know where the release is before I play, but also know where the release is after I play. 1128 01:16:59,600 --> 01:17:07,040 And what is the journey to the next note and the next one after that? And how do things move as fluidly as possible? 1129 01:17:07,040 --> 01:17:15,200 But, you know, practicing slowly with expression. That's not everyone's favorite thing. 1130 01:17:15,200 --> 01:17:17,920 Oh, I know. 1131 01:17:17,920 --> 01:17:26,480 And for young people, that is really the hardest part, because I would have teachers tell me a long time ago, practice slowly, practice slowly and underline it three times. 1132 01:17:26,480 --> 01:17:33,840 And I thought, why didn't anyone tell me? Why didn't you tell me why? 1133 01:17:33,840 --> 01:17:40,160 Had you told me why? Way back then, maybe I would have understood a little bit sooner. 1134 01:17:40,160 --> 01:17:46,400 But then I think, you know what, my path is my path. Things happen when they happen. I arrive, whenever I arrive. 1135 01:17:46,400 --> 01:17:50,800 Some people might not have liked certain things at a certain time. 1136 01:17:50,800 --> 01:17:56,800 You know, and I've heard everything from, you know, the best to the worst. 1137 01:17:56,800 --> 01:18:13,680 I remember the reactions back in the day when I was in my process of learning how to organize all of this energy and all the things I felt and the ideas and the plans that I had in my head someplace for a piece of music and what I thought it represented. 1138 01:18:13,680 --> 01:18:22,000 And that's a, for me, that takes another artist, teacher, to understand. 1139 01:18:22,000 --> 01:18:35,440 Not just someone who teaches the piano. It's a wonderful thing to be able to teach piano, but to be able to teach artists how to actually stay an artist and not get caught up and confused and all that. 1140 01:18:35,440 --> 01:18:43,440 And to sense sometimes people, sometimes people bloom late. You know, I know this, the system, the media loves everybody. 1141 01:18:43,440 --> 01:18:54,000 The pianist is blooming at 16. A lot of these kids, 18 years old, they're stars by the time they're 30 years old. They don't want to play the piano anymore. 1142 01:18:54,000 --> 01:19:01,360 Maybe even before. They're burned out. They're bored with it. Why am I doing this? 1143 01:19:01,360 --> 01:19:11,200 You know, if you're all the list, Transcendental Atriids, when you're 18 years old, I'll be very curious to see what you're doing when you're 30. 1144 01:19:11,200 --> 01:19:19,120 Because life is, while it's short, a career is a long road. 1145 01:19:19,120 --> 01:19:24,880 And to be able to tell stories when you're older, it's fabulous. 1146 01:19:24,880 --> 01:19:33,360 It really is, because honestly, you just don't care about what everybody else thinks. 1147 01:19:33,360 --> 01:19:46,960 Wonderful place to be that this is my call. I'm going to prepare this. This is what I feel because of my life and how I've what I've studied and read and everything else about this composer and these pieces. 1148 01:19:46,960 --> 01:19:50,720 And then things work. 1149 01:19:50,720 --> 01:19:59,200 While it is admirable to play the notes, wonderful that you put down these notes. 1150 01:19:59,200 --> 01:20:09,520 You have to have a reason, because there are people who kind of work on playing the piano and then there are people who play the piano. 1151 01:20:09,520 --> 01:20:15,440 But we work so hard to play the piano to serve music. 1152 01:20:15,440 --> 01:20:22,880 And that's where an artist comes in that can you work with your gifts? And there are people who are frightfully talented. 1153 01:20:22,880 --> 01:20:35,040 You see these kids now seven, eight years old, and they're playing major works with what appears to be comprehension, which is astounding. 1154 01:20:35,040 --> 01:20:48,160 But the other side of it that Rubenstein talked about it a lot, that playing the piano is just part of your life. 1155 01:20:48,160 --> 01:21:04,640 It's a part of it. That food, that books, that painting, the architecture, all these different things, understanding where these things come from and why they why they're important. 1156 01:21:04,640 --> 01:21:09,680 Because we give concerts for what reason? 1157 01:21:09,680 --> 01:21:21,600 To show off what we do? And this is where it gets all lost. You know, you want people to come to these experiences and they should have an experience. 1158 01:21:21,600 --> 01:21:30,080 It should startle them sometimes when they discover their capacity to actually feel things. 1159 01:21:30,080 --> 01:21:33,200 I remember years ago in New York, I played a solo program. 1160 01:21:33,200 --> 01:21:44,320 And afterwards, there's a line for people to meet me. And it happened like two or three times. These businessmen shook my hand and then started crying. 1161 01:21:44,320 --> 01:21:52,000 And I thought, what is going on here? And it was just one of those nights where it touched. 1162 01:21:52,000 --> 01:21:57,840 It touched people in a way that they didn't realize they had the capacity to feel something. 1163 01:21:57,840 --> 01:22:04,320 And this is your responsibility as the artist. Yes, I have a connection with music. There is no doubt about that. 1164 01:22:04,320 --> 01:22:12,080 I always have since I was born. I remember it from the time I was a year and a half. What was in my life and all that stuff. 1165 01:22:12,080 --> 01:22:20,400 And that you have, OK, fine. Do I have hand-eye coordination? Yes. Everyone else in my family played sports. 1166 01:22:20,400 --> 01:22:27,280 My father was a minor league baseball player. His brothers, they all played sports. And this hand-eye coordination was astounding. 1167 01:22:27,280 --> 01:22:36,800 My grandfather was an artist, but he couldn't make his living just doing that. So he created an outdoor advertising company in the 40s or late 30s. 1168 01:22:36,800 --> 01:22:46,160 And so it exists in there. But for me, that it went directly to music. Did I have other skills? Yes, I was comfortable playing the piano. 1169 01:22:46,160 --> 01:22:57,200 It didn't faze me. I enjoyed all that. I thought it was fun. But when you realize, wow, my responsibility is to work with this. 1170 01:22:57,200 --> 01:23:11,600 Not to not try to be famous with it. And this is where it gets a little strange because I'm sure the public wonders, well, who's the next young thing to come along? 1171 01:23:11,600 --> 01:23:18,320 Not what does this person who's been doing this for 50 years, what are they going to say? 1172 01:23:18,320 --> 01:23:30,640 I mean, that does happen. That does exist. But there's a lot in between that's kind of just filling spaces. 1173 01:23:30,640 --> 01:23:39,600 And that's a hard one to... It's a hard one. I had only played solo repertoire all these years. 1174 01:23:39,600 --> 01:23:48,560 I think I would not be this... I might not even be the same person because all the different things influence... 1175 01:23:48,560 --> 01:23:56,960 My solo playing influences how I play with singers. My physical skills at the instrument are strong enough, 1176 01:23:56,960 --> 01:24:10,720 and dependable enough, that I can play anything for the voice. The El Carniche is not something I enjoy playing because it was so horribly challenging on different pianos. 1177 01:24:10,720 --> 01:24:22,160 You know, you get an action that fights back. You can have a rough evening. But that's why you develop your strength and your coordination. 1178 01:24:22,160 --> 01:24:30,720 The mindset that understands how to get you through things when other stuff gets in the way. 1179 01:24:30,720 --> 01:24:38,800 I had a piano a couple of weeks ago. Wonderful piano! I sat down in the rehearsal on stage, and I played the first chord, and I heard... 1180 01:24:38,800 --> 01:24:43,840 I played the next chord and boom! And I went back and forth between the two chords, and it... 1181 01:24:43,840 --> 01:24:52,240 Every time after I hit, something like a little boom, boom inside the instrument. A beautiful nine-foot starwood. Gorgeous piano. 1182 01:24:52,240 --> 01:24:59,520 And I thought, huh. And I stopped and brought the stage people out, and they're looking at it like how dogs when they go... 1183 01:24:59,520 --> 01:25:06,640 turn their heads to hear something. And I thought, are you not hearing that? And then the sound person came out because it was being streamed, 1184 01:25:06,640 --> 01:25:15,040 and he's like, oh no, no, this is not good. I said, thank you. They wheeled the piano out. They bring me another one. 1185 01:25:15,040 --> 01:25:29,040 Really? Yes. Right before I'm getting ready to play a concert. So you end up completely readjust, recalibrate to be able to do these things. 1186 01:25:29,040 --> 01:25:37,280 And if your relationship with these pieces is not strong enough, it can take you down. 1187 01:25:37,280 --> 01:25:46,000 And some people can battle through and beat the piano down and type out all the notes, and everyone thinks that's wonderful. 1188 01:25:46,000 --> 01:25:53,360 And at the end of it, I'm going, but you're not going to come back. You were impressed in that moment, but you weren't touched. 1189 01:25:53,360 --> 01:26:03,200 There are two very different things. And that's a really tricky thing. And I think it's... 1190 01:26:03,200 --> 01:26:09,680 That's why I think it's so important to when I talk to people, I say, you know, it is important who you are as a human being. 1191 01:26:09,680 --> 01:26:19,840 This is part of the way you tell a story, that you understand what your responsibility is and how you tell these stories musically. 1192 01:26:19,840 --> 01:26:26,080 And what is your real intention? 1193 01:26:26,080 --> 01:26:33,760 Yeah. It's interesting to watch, especially now. Things have changed. 1194 01:26:33,760 --> 01:26:35,360 Sure, sure, sure. 1195 01:26:35,360 --> 01:26:42,000 For the last 45 years, which things do change. 1196 01:26:42,000 --> 01:26:51,760 Do you think it's a... You mean by technology? You mean how we live, how we think about life? 1197 01:26:51,760 --> 01:26:59,680 I think that we're further and further away from the origins of this music, especially the Western European music. 1198 01:26:59,680 --> 01:27:08,640 This country is further and further in time away because there are very few people now teaching with that connection. 1199 01:27:08,640 --> 01:27:14,560 And other people learn from someone who taught them about these things, but they don't have any direct experience. 1200 01:27:14,560 --> 01:27:20,640 I lived in France for 12 years. It doesn't make me some specialist in French or French repertoire. 1201 01:27:20,640 --> 01:27:25,440 I was in love with French repertoire when I lived in Pensacola, Florida, when I was 12 years old. 1202 01:27:25,440 --> 01:27:38,560 But that thing of something being closer, but as further out of sight, out of mind, it's not absence makes the heart grow fonder. 1203 01:27:38,560 --> 01:27:45,920 That's a lovely sentiment that people like to use, but out of sight, out of mind. 1204 01:27:45,920 --> 01:27:50,640 And then, you know, we're getting further and further away from all of this music. 1205 01:27:50,640 --> 01:28:00,160 And these kids nowadays, they have these phones constantly, iPads and all these things, which gives them 30 seconds of something. 1206 01:28:00,160 --> 01:28:07,680 And then we're on to the next thing. So you're never trained to listen. 1207 01:28:07,680 --> 01:28:14,080 You have your little experience and you laugh or you whatever, and you go, wow, and then you swipe to the next one. 1208 01:28:14,080 --> 01:28:22,960 Life is swipeable. The experience of life is swipeable. You don't like this one, go to the next page. 1209 01:28:22,960 --> 01:28:27,120 You'll find one that you'll find one that fits it for that moment. 1210 01:28:27,120 --> 01:28:32,640 And I'm very grateful that I didn't have all that growing up. 1211 01:28:32,640 --> 01:28:40,480 That I had to be creative and, you know, do something with your time and your imagination. 1212 01:28:40,480 --> 01:28:47,680 Doesn't mean kids don't. I know plenty who do. Their parents pay close attention, though. 1213 01:28:47,680 --> 01:28:58,560 But it's that's where this music lives. I mean, it lives way, way up here in the in the in a divine space because of its power. 1214 01:28:58,560 --> 01:29:04,240 It's the best of humanity and its power to connect us as human beings. 1215 01:29:04,240 --> 01:29:16,960 It's extraordinary. And to find people who actually are willing to let it live there versus trying to bring it down to them and to show everybody, look what I can do. 1216 01:29:16,960 --> 01:29:23,040 And the same goes with singing, too. There are people who make extraordinary sounds. 1217 01:29:23,040 --> 01:29:31,440 No idea what's over what. And I live for that same thing at the piano as I do in the human voice. 1218 01:29:31,440 --> 01:29:39,120 And that freedom and that vulnerability to be vulnerable in that moment to to go with what you believe. 1219 01:29:39,120 --> 01:29:46,560 And, you know, you're in love with somebody or something. You don't question things. 1220 01:29:46,560 --> 01:29:54,160 And nobody can tell you otherwise. Worst thing to do is tell a teenager or a 20 year old that they're in love with the wrong person. 1221 01:29:54,160 --> 01:29:58,880 All you're going to do is get an explosion at you at that point. Better just stay quiet. 1222 01:29:58,880 --> 01:30:08,400 And hopefully it just fades out like the other person who they're with. But to tell someone, no, you can't do that. 1223 01:30:08,400 --> 01:30:18,400 So it's. That's where and I think I know I know with it with no question at all, but in the sound itself. 1224 01:30:18,400 --> 01:30:24,560 Lies the truth. And to be able to trust that in your sound. 1225 01:30:24,560 --> 01:30:29,760 Is everything that you can bring. 1226 01:30:29,760 --> 01:30:38,320 And but to maintain that sound, your connection through that line, that's called your job. 1227 01:30:38,320 --> 01:30:45,520 It's like I can't imagine having when I talk about how an actor has to memorize Shakespeare. 1228 01:30:45,520 --> 01:30:52,080 And that every syllable. Has to have intention. 1229 01:30:52,080 --> 01:30:58,960 That just blows my mind. And then they laugh at me going, yeah, and every note that you play doesn't. 1230 01:30:58,960 --> 01:31:03,840 And then you realize, wow, we're kind of the same thing. 1231 01:31:03,840 --> 01:31:12,320 Except we're lining it up vertically, trying to understand harmony, but then we're pushing it from left to right, trying to make sure that it tells a story. 1232 01:31:12,320 --> 01:31:19,840 So it's a. Very interesting. Experience. 1233 01:31:19,840 --> 01:31:27,120 Trying to find your vulnerability. So I feel like I'm really getting a. 1234 01:31:27,120 --> 01:31:37,920 Master class here, so you are a great teacher master teacher, so you have this extensive work in education as well. 1235 01:31:37,920 --> 01:31:42,560 Plus, you created this workshop called singing in Sicily. 1236 01:31:42,560 --> 01:31:49,520 Which nurtures young artists and so can you tell us a little bit more about this program? 1237 01:31:49,520 --> 01:31:54,240 For many, many years, I've after I stopped teaching. 1238 01:31:54,240 --> 01:31:58,480 In an institution. I. 1239 01:31:58,480 --> 01:32:05,120 I tried to assess what do they really what the students really, really need? What do young singers really need? 1240 01:32:05,120 --> 01:32:12,080 Because a pianist, if you're getting to the conservatory when you're 18 years old, you probably been playing the piano for 10 years. 1241 01:32:12,080 --> 01:32:21,120 Minimum. You've been you've started your lessons and you've been there every week and you played your competitions and you've already played concerti and you've done all these things. 1242 01:32:21,120 --> 01:32:28,800 A singer when they're 1617 years old, they open their mouth one day at school or a church and sing everyone starts to cry. Oh, you should be a voice major. 1243 01:32:28,800 --> 01:32:32,960 And the next thing you know, they're singing for every bloody school in the country. 1244 01:32:32,960 --> 01:32:36,800 Trying to get in because someone told them they had a beautiful voice. 1245 01:32:36,800 --> 01:32:43,200 And then they arrive at the conservatory. They're put into the exact same classes as everyone else. 1246 01:32:43,200 --> 01:32:49,760 The clarinetist who's been blowing on a clarinet since they were 7, the flute player since 9, the piano since 8. 1247 01:32:49,760 --> 01:33:03,040 Everybody else is 10 years ahead of them. They're supposed to be able to read music, learn four languages, sing in these languages, learn how to move on the stage to where it looks natural for them. 1248 01:33:03,040 --> 01:33:09,920 All this thing, but with the same confidence as everybody else and take theory class and say history classes and they're on and on and on. 1249 01:33:09,920 --> 01:33:14,080 And I thought it really needs to be redone. 1250 01:33:14,080 --> 01:33:28,560 The curriculum needs to be rethought, but because we love the system, everybody loves to have a system so that it can be critiqued and certified by this association and this group and this group. 1251 01:33:28,560 --> 01:33:32,160 Well, if you're training artists, it's a very different thing. 1252 01:33:32,160 --> 01:33:41,840 That's just my philosophy. I have ideas as to how it can be redone to where the singers coming in would be dealt with completely differently. 1253 01:33:41,840 --> 01:33:46,720 Because they don't come, maybe sometimes the singer has played piano since they were 5 years old. 1254 01:33:46,720 --> 01:33:53,360 Well, they have a huge advantage. They might not have a voice, but what's the story? 1255 01:33:53,360 --> 01:33:59,920 How do you balance this playing field so people actually have a chance when they're in the institution? 1256 01:33:59,920 --> 01:34:04,640 After looking at all of that, I decided, you know what, why don't I just create something? 1257 01:34:04,640 --> 01:34:12,160 I choose people, four or five people every year, who I decide I'm going to bring them in. 1258 01:34:12,160 --> 01:34:19,040 I was in Sicily at the time with visiting friends and I talked about an idea for that project and they said, 1259 01:34:19,040 --> 01:34:25,840 and a singer who studies with me was singing in Munich and they came down to work on repertoire, 1260 01:34:25,840 --> 01:34:29,920 a role they were doing and came down to Sicily. I rented a little keyboard. 1261 01:34:29,920 --> 01:34:33,520 It all worked out. It was great. I had the space to do it. 1262 01:34:33,520 --> 01:34:37,200 And when I finished, they asked me, so what do you, how was it? What did you think? 1263 01:34:37,200 --> 01:34:42,080 I said it was incredible. So wonderful to be able to sit there and look out the window. 1264 01:34:42,080 --> 01:34:48,080 And there's the Mediterranean Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea out there, out the window as I'm teaching. 1265 01:34:48,080 --> 01:34:53,600 And I said, I'd love to do a project. I've been thinking, I've dreamed about it for years when I was in France, 1266 01:34:53,600 --> 01:34:59,680 but it was always housing people. Count on hotels. You can't count on people canceling 1267 01:34:59,680 --> 01:35:05,200 because then money is lost left and right with hotels. And I said that and they said, 1268 01:35:05,200 --> 01:35:07,920 oh, we can show you a building where you can house the kids tomorrow. 1269 01:35:09,200 --> 01:35:13,120 I didn't know that they had inherited from their father all these different buildings. 1270 01:35:13,120 --> 01:35:16,880 And so we housed it. They said, oh, you can house the kids here. There's enough room for four. 1271 01:35:18,160 --> 01:35:21,680 Bathroom, they have their bedrooms, they have kitchens. I said, okay. 1272 01:35:22,240 --> 01:35:27,760 So we did that up until the pandemic. And I invite four singers. I don't have auditions. 1273 01:35:27,760 --> 01:35:34,480 I hear people, I get messages word of mouth. Someone sends me a little video. Someone tells 1274 01:35:34,480 --> 01:35:39,920 me about somebody. I meet them all in person, face to face before I had worked with them, 1275 01:35:40,640 --> 01:35:45,920 before I invite them. So to find out is the energy good, because it's 10 days, 1276 01:35:46,640 --> 01:35:52,400 four or five people, and it's every day. You might get half a day off, but you are working 1277 01:35:52,400 --> 01:35:59,920 seriously every day. And it's intense. But to show them this is the work, there must be. 1278 01:36:00,720 --> 01:36:08,240 So I created a nonprofit, 501 through Z, and I've been able to raise the money to do it. 1279 01:36:09,840 --> 01:36:16,000 Truly it's a huge blessing. And we've done seven years so far. And some wonderful, 1280 01:36:16,000 --> 01:36:22,320 wonderful singers, wonderful results. For many people, it's life changing. Because in 1281 01:36:22,320 --> 01:36:26,560 the school system, you're constantly running, doing this and doing this and doing this, 1282 01:36:26,560 --> 01:36:33,120 and they never get to stay. Which the reality of it all is, once you graduate and you get a job, 1283 01:36:33,120 --> 01:36:38,400 you could be stuck in a city for six weeks. I had students that that freaked them out 1284 01:36:38,960 --> 01:36:43,680 long ago, and they would call crying. I can't do this. I can't do it. I can't be here like this. 1285 01:36:43,680 --> 01:36:48,000 This is driving me crazy. I'm not at home. I don't feel comfortable. I hate this hotel. I don't like 1286 01:36:48,000 --> 01:36:53,840 my colleagues. You know, you're in an opera production, you could be there minimum a month. 1287 01:36:54,880 --> 01:37:00,960 And you're seeing the same people day in and day out. And here are human beings. Some days 1288 01:37:00,960 --> 01:37:04,560 they're good and some days are not. And when you're mixing all that together and you have to work 1289 01:37:04,560 --> 01:37:12,800 together, it's tricky. So I've used this opportunity, this gift, truly, to help them 1290 01:37:12,800 --> 01:37:21,360 to live their lives. And I'm very grateful for the gift, truly, that people have provided for me 1291 01:37:21,360 --> 01:37:26,480 to do this. And we have a great time. We do it now in Duxbury, Massachusetts, 1292 01:37:27,520 --> 01:37:34,960 down on the south shore from Boston. It's a little town I've been going to for 44 years. 1293 01:37:36,160 --> 01:37:42,560 I have very dear friends there. And when I was there visiting during the pandemic, 1294 01:37:42,560 --> 01:37:47,440 I was ashamed because they can't take care of the property where we house the kids in Sicily 1295 01:37:48,720 --> 01:37:54,480 because there's so many problems. There was a 7-story building, we'll have issues. And they 1296 01:37:54,480 --> 01:37:59,280 didn't have the workers and they didn't have the materials. And so I had to reinvent. I 1297 01:37:59,280 --> 01:38:04,480 didn't go to my apartment one year. And I'm glad that was only a one-time event. 1298 01:38:05,280 --> 01:38:10,400 And now we've been in Massachusetts for three years. And we're at a convent. And it is, 1299 01:38:10,400 --> 01:38:14,720 sisters said, please come, please, please, please. We'd love music, we'd love art. 1300 01:38:14,720 --> 01:38:24,160 We want you here. And we go and we have the best time. But it really is, it lets them feel what it 1301 01:38:24,160 --> 01:38:31,680 really is like to focus only on the stuff that they have to do. That they have to do. But there are 1302 01:38:31,680 --> 01:38:34,800 things, you know, it's like playing the piano. There are certain things you just have to do. 1303 01:38:35,920 --> 01:38:39,360 You want to get stronger, you want to be more coordinated, you want to feel this, 1304 01:38:39,360 --> 01:38:44,400 you have to do the work. You don't have a choice. I don't care who you are, I don't care how talented 1305 01:38:44,400 --> 01:38:52,800 you are. You must do that basic work. Boy. And that's a big factor of it, just pushing that 1306 01:38:52,800 --> 01:38:59,360 constantly. That if you're not enjoying this, who else can? And you have to practice that every day. 1307 01:39:01,120 --> 01:39:07,040 Not that it's, oh, this is so heavy. This is so hard. And it's very easy to get into that situation 1308 01:39:07,040 --> 01:39:14,160 if your life is tough. The situation is tricky for them. And, you know, I counsel people about it, 1309 01:39:14,160 --> 01:39:20,800 and they come to me asking, oh, this person or something, or this conductor. And I end up with 1310 01:39:20,800 --> 01:39:27,600 all sorts of ways trying to help people to understand. You can get through it. You have to adapt. 1311 01:39:29,360 --> 01:39:33,520 Not change who you are, but you have to change your reaction to things. So that you focus on 1312 01:39:33,520 --> 01:39:39,120 doing your job. Is the piano different everywhere you go? Yes, you've known that since you started 1313 01:39:39,120 --> 01:39:43,520 taking piano lessons. You have piano, your teacher has theirs. There's another one at the school. 1314 01:39:43,520 --> 01:39:47,520 There's another one at the church. There's another one in the back of a pickup truck. If you were 1315 01:39:47,520 --> 01:39:52,800 ever so lucky to be able to play in the back of a pickup truck, as I was when I was 17 years old 1316 01:39:52,800 --> 01:39:58,960 and got there, there were only maybe 72 keys. Uh-huh. Yes. Uh-huh. There were holes in some of 1317 01:39:58,960 --> 01:40:02,720 the spots where there should have been. And for whatever reason, I agreed in a park that I would 1318 01:40:02,720 --> 01:40:08,640 play for this festivity and there. Well, you know what? Nobody cares. You can complain all you want 1319 01:40:10,240 --> 01:40:14,880 until you might become more famous and respected, and then you get to choose what you'd like to have. 1320 01:40:16,880 --> 01:40:20,320 But you have to find your way because if you cancel every time you feel uncomfortable, 1321 01:40:20,320 --> 01:40:28,480 you won't have a job. And this is part of it, whether it's with singing, whether it was playing 1322 01:40:28,480 --> 01:40:33,040 the piano, that, you know, you're lucky enough to have a great instrument that you practice on all 1323 01:40:33,040 --> 01:40:41,040 the time. Fantastic. Good for you. You should play even better. About people say the other way, 1324 01:40:41,040 --> 01:40:45,520 oh, it's better to practice on a horrible instrument. That way when you arrive, you'll be 1325 01:40:45,520 --> 01:40:54,160 grateful for anything. I am not of that school. I do not want to practice that way. I have my piano. 1326 01:40:54,160 --> 01:41:02,080 It is a small miracle. I love it. It loves me back and it shows it shows me every possibility 1327 01:41:02,720 --> 01:41:07,600 that's out there. And that is, you know, that is why it was built the way it's built for me. 1328 01:41:08,960 --> 01:41:18,400 So now you also have a mentorship position or mentorship function at the Art of Preservation 1329 01:41:18,400 --> 01:41:27,680 Society of New York. Right. I'm on the board board board trying to. We talk about how to. 1330 01:41:29,280 --> 01:41:35,520 Why is this music relevant? What is there to learn? What is there to share? 1331 01:41:36,560 --> 01:41:39,200 What? How are we going to? How are you going to get people to show up? 1332 01:41:41,040 --> 01:41:45,760 And this is always the challenge because people come in trying to do things. 1333 01:41:45,760 --> 01:41:49,600 And I talk to them a lot about it and my students, I'm sure they watch this. They're 1334 01:41:49,600 --> 01:41:55,040 going to burst out laughing. It's lovely that you can do something. That's not the point. We're 1335 01:41:55,040 --> 01:42:01,520 not trying to show people that we do things. We're trying to be something through music so they can 1336 01:42:01,520 --> 01:42:06,400 their lives will shift a little bit for the better. Hopefully during the time that you're with them. 1337 01:42:07,600 --> 01:42:13,280 And with the Arts on Preservation Society this year for the first time, because we've tried other 1338 01:42:13,280 --> 01:42:19,440 things with me working with duet duos and it's tricky then because all my pianist canceled or 1339 01:42:19,440 --> 01:42:24,800 all this, all that and all that nonsense that goes on in this world. And so Blair asked me, 1340 01:42:24,800 --> 01:42:33,120 would I do American song? I said, sure. I love it. Why not? And I have a lot of experience and all 1341 01:42:33,120 --> 01:42:39,520 that. So he sent me videos of all these different singers and asked me to choose who would be in 1342 01:42:39,520 --> 01:42:46,320 the class. And I sat there that night on my couch listening and I texted Blair after the first couple 1343 01:42:46,320 --> 01:42:50,560 of people and I said, I think you sent me the wrong videos. These people are not singing in English. 1344 01:42:53,760 --> 01:42:59,200 And he writes me back, I'm sure I sent you the right ones. No, they're not singing in English. 1345 01:42:59,200 --> 01:43:04,240 This is not any, I don't understand anything. Finally, there was a song I knew. 1346 01:43:04,240 --> 01:43:10,160 I know all these composers, all the songs they write. All that I knew, I thought, oh my God, 1347 01:43:11,040 --> 01:43:19,120 people really don't know how to sing in the language they speak. So I chose the people 1348 01:43:19,840 --> 01:43:23,360 and then I told Blair, Blair's going to run a little bit differently this year. He said, 1349 01:43:23,360 --> 01:43:30,480 what do you mean? I said, I'm going to send out an email to those who I've chosen with homework. 1350 01:43:30,480 --> 01:43:37,840 That will be done prior to my class. I don't want to work with the first person and spend 45 minutes 1351 01:43:37,840 --> 01:43:43,840 with this person getting all of the stuff. And then the other's watching going, I have to change 1352 01:43:43,840 --> 01:43:50,000 this fast. I'm going to give it to them upfront. And that's what we did. And everybody had to come 1353 01:43:50,000 --> 01:43:56,080 in and whatever assignments I gave, and the biggest one was to recite their poem, their text, 1354 01:43:56,080 --> 01:44:08,800 from memory. Recite. Wow, was that not interesting? Mind boggling. How people could divorce themselves 1355 01:44:08,800 --> 01:44:18,240 completely from music and recite the poem like this. Oh, wow, this is great. I'm going to go 1356 01:44:18,240 --> 01:44:28,320 to the next one. They built nothing. They memorized some words. You know, but this is what, 1357 01:44:28,320 --> 01:44:35,520 if they've not been told that, that it's beyond that, then why would you, how can you expect that 1358 01:44:35,520 --> 01:44:42,560 of people? As an educator, it is your responsibility to inform people, to find the kind of people 1359 01:44:42,560 --> 01:44:48,800 you want to talk to. As an educator, it is your responsibility to inform people, to find the 1360 01:44:48,800 --> 01:44:55,680 kindest way possible. And writing, when I listed it all, I laughed and thought, this is good. 1361 01:44:56,480 --> 01:45:01,040 I think I'm going to do things like this more often, because it's always in a master class, 1362 01:45:01,040 --> 01:45:07,040 the first person gets hit with everything. The basic thing that you want to talk about with 1363 01:45:07,040 --> 01:45:11,120 peddling, with this, with fingering, with sound, with phrasing, and then the other people are 1364 01:45:11,120 --> 01:45:15,440 waiting their turn going, oh my God, and it freaks them out because they get in their head thinking, 1365 01:45:15,440 --> 01:45:20,480 oh, I have to change this before I get up there. I have to do this. And then it's not fun for them. 1366 01:45:20,480 --> 01:45:28,240 But if they at least have to show you some type of commitment and connection. Some people read 1367 01:45:28,240 --> 01:45:34,720 their poem with so much expression, it broke your heart. It was so beautiful. Others forgot what the 1368 01:45:34,720 --> 01:45:39,600 song was about, but came up with a whole new interpretation of the poem. So I got to see the 1369 01:45:39,600 --> 01:45:48,640 whole gap, which was great. But when there's a song involved, the composer chose the poem 1370 01:45:49,200 --> 01:45:53,760 because of what they feel about what the poem means. And that's what inspired them to write 1371 01:45:53,760 --> 01:46:00,800 that music. So your job then is to weave through two different things. Yeah, you have words in 1372 01:46:00,800 --> 01:46:06,080 front of you, but those words were set by a musician. And your responsibility as a musician 1373 01:46:06,080 --> 01:46:12,080 is to get into their psyche to find out why did they set it up. That's how you say those words. 1374 01:46:13,840 --> 01:46:20,400 And I find it fascinating, but to see how much they improved in three days, 1375 01:46:21,760 --> 01:46:28,000 because we had a class recital at the end of the week, that they stood up there and sang with such 1376 01:46:28,000 --> 01:46:33,280 incredible commitment, and they got to sing one song. Just the nightmare of all performance types 1377 01:46:33,280 --> 01:46:36,560 of things. You get one thing, you don't get to sing a group, you don't get to sing once and then 1378 01:46:36,560 --> 01:46:40,720 come back later and feel more warmed up. You had to jump up there and do your one little song. 1379 01:46:41,840 --> 01:46:47,360 And everybody delivered. That was, we talked about that afterwards, how every person raised their 1380 01:46:47,360 --> 01:46:54,080 level. That's all you can ask for is awareness. And I think that is a huge part of my job is just 1381 01:46:54,080 --> 01:47:00,720 awareness of getting people to realize, wow, there's another room to this house. 1382 01:47:00,720 --> 01:47:03,760 Yeah, there's a door there. Why didn't you open the door? 1383 01:47:07,760 --> 01:47:12,160 That'd be the first thing that I'd want to do. What's behind that door? I'd want to know. 1384 01:47:13,200 --> 01:47:18,640 But that's just the way I'm wired and everyone's wired differently. And everybody, 1385 01:47:19,280 --> 01:47:23,120 you know, some people might ask very nicely, I wonder what's behind that door? 1386 01:47:23,920 --> 01:47:26,160 When I'm probably the one to walk over and open it. 1387 01:47:26,160 --> 01:47:36,320 Yes. But that's all part of being a human being. And music does come from human beings. 1388 01:47:37,360 --> 01:47:42,640 It lives in a very divine space. But it's the best of humans, the best of humanity. 1389 01:47:42,640 --> 01:47:49,760 Just like great art is the very best of what we're capable of. And I tell people all the time, 1390 01:47:49,760 --> 01:47:59,120 we don't use music. You don't treat it, you don't use it. You serve it. It's a very different thing. 1391 01:47:59,120 --> 01:48:04,320 People use music to become famous. That's not how it works. It's the other way around. 1392 01:48:05,360 --> 01:48:11,600 You let it use you, you listen to it, it informs you. It can show you how to be a better human 1393 01:48:11,600 --> 01:48:17,440 being. When you listen to it and the clarity, when you listen to it, you're not going to be 1394 01:48:17,440 --> 01:48:22,160 a better human being. You're going to be a better human being. And that's the way it works. 1395 01:48:22,160 --> 01:48:26,720 And you listen to it and the clarity, when you sit and really pay attention in Bach, 1396 01:48:27,360 --> 01:48:35,680 you learn a lot about life. It's pure, it is so it's just, it's right there. 1397 01:48:38,000 --> 01:48:46,480 There's no craziness going on. But to be still enough inside to be able to listen, 1398 01:48:46,480 --> 01:48:52,240 to be able to listen inside, to trust that it's okay that they can just actually listen 1399 01:48:53,520 --> 01:48:57,760 to something in their head without having to see a video that goes with it. 1400 01:48:59,280 --> 01:49:01,920 Someone comes and brings a piece and they play it and I'm going, 1401 01:49:02,800 --> 01:49:08,240 have you heard this before? Oh yeah, I heard someone on YouTube. Well, who was it? I don't know. 1402 01:49:08,240 --> 01:49:15,040 I mean, wrong style, wrong whatever. And I'm going, you really have to look at, consider the source. 1403 01:49:16,400 --> 01:49:21,360 You know, if I want to hear a great Chopin, they're going to be just a few people I'm going to think 1404 01:49:21,360 --> 01:49:27,520 of. They will all be very, very different in their approach. But I want to hear those people. 1405 01:49:28,560 --> 01:49:33,520 Doesn't mean I'm going to discard everybody else. But there's a reason why those people are known 1406 01:49:33,520 --> 01:49:42,080 for their interpretation of a certain composer. And that's a, you know, I have an affinity with 1407 01:49:42,080 --> 01:49:48,240 French music, especially with Poulenc. And you feel those things and that's something you don't 1408 01:49:48,240 --> 01:49:54,000 even know when you're young. People around you notice things and they just kind of quietly just 1409 01:49:54,000 --> 01:50:00,160 keep feeding you things that they know make you happy. At the same time giving you stuff that they 1410 01:50:00,160 --> 01:50:08,720 know is going to challenge you. Now we're close to the end of our conversation, almost, but we have 1411 01:50:08,720 --> 01:50:19,440 a few more. You have received three degrees from Peabody and then also later you were honored with 1412 01:50:19,440 --> 01:50:27,680 the Distinguished Alumni Award from Johns Hopkins University, which is not an award that they just 1413 01:50:27,680 --> 01:50:35,280 give out very often, but it's very rare that one receives, right? So could you share more about 1414 01:50:35,840 --> 01:50:42,320 what this recognition means to you? I was stunned. I was living in New York at the time when this 1415 01:50:42,320 --> 01:50:46,160 letter arrived and said the office of the president, I thought, oh, they must want money. 1416 01:50:47,680 --> 01:50:53,520 They're always fundraising at Hopkins and I opened the, and it was only one piece of paper 1417 01:50:53,520 --> 01:50:59,280 inside instead of the envelope and this letter and this little shiny brochure. And there it was. 1418 01:50:59,280 --> 01:51:09,520 And I was like, wow. And I reached out to, I knew two other people who had received it, musicians, 1419 01:51:10,640 --> 01:51:18,000 because Peabody became part of Hopkins in 1977. So I thought, what do you, one of them said, oh, 1420 01:51:18,000 --> 01:51:23,360 I played with the orchestra. Well, that wasn't going, that didn't work out. We talked about that 1421 01:51:23,360 --> 01:51:28,720 a little bit. And the other person was a conductor. So he just conducted a concert because he was 1422 01:51:28,720 --> 01:51:35,920 already on the faculty. And I said, okay, it was strongly recommended that I just play a recital. 1423 01:51:38,160 --> 01:51:44,560 And it was getting later and later in the 16 season. And I said, 1424 01:51:44,560 --> 01:51:49,600 well, why don't we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Peabody Hopkins Union? 1425 01:51:50,880 --> 01:51:55,280 And I'll play a recital in honor of that. And you can present the award that night. 1426 01:51:56,160 --> 01:51:58,800 That's what they did in October of 2017. 1427 01:52:00,160 --> 01:52:10,400 Congratulations. Well deserved with all the amazing career paths you have had and plus 1428 01:52:10,400 --> 01:52:17,040 all the things that you do with your students and other initiatives and raising the future 1429 01:52:17,040 --> 01:52:26,640 classical musicians. And also plus reaching out to the audience in such a way that they're also 1430 01:52:26,640 --> 01:52:29,840 being educated, right? Through your concerts and things. Yeah. 1431 01:52:29,840 --> 01:52:33,840 And that to me, I have a friend, she's right here on the fireplace with me. 1432 01:52:33,840 --> 01:52:42,080 The lady in the middle, you can see her, Ruth Jeskowitz, the concert that I played on YouTube 1433 01:52:42,080 --> 01:52:49,360 are the Dances and Improvisations Community Concert Series. That was for her 99th birthday. 1434 01:52:50,560 --> 01:52:53,840 That concert was. Really? Now she's 102. 1435 01:52:54,960 --> 01:52:58,000 Oh, bless her heart. Her dear daughter, Amy, in the photo 1436 01:52:58,000 --> 01:53:04,160 graph she passed away last year of pancreatic cancer. But Ruth is still with us, 102 years old. 1437 01:53:04,160 --> 01:53:07,840 And I had dinner with her a couple of weeks ago and we're sitting there waiting for her son-in-law 1438 01:53:07,840 --> 01:53:12,160 to arrive. The two of us that we've known, I've known her since I was 19. She said, Ruth, 1439 01:53:12,160 --> 01:53:19,680 you realize I'm now older than you were when we met. Because she was 59 when we met and now I'm 1440 01:53:19,680 --> 01:53:26,800 beyond that. And she laughed and she said, you know, Mark, you just have to be willing to learn 1441 01:53:26,800 --> 01:53:36,720 something every day. And I think this is someone 102 years old telling me the reason why we are here 1442 01:53:37,920 --> 01:53:44,880 is to learn something every day. And I live by that philosophy and I just want to say, 1443 01:53:44,880 --> 01:53:50,480 I hear you very clearly. You know, that's how I live my life. She goes, oh, it's very clear. 1444 01:53:52,000 --> 01:53:58,720 And it's true that this is we're here to learn. And if you've been given special gifts, 1445 01:53:59,520 --> 01:54:05,360 then your responsibility is to share those gifts. Not just give it away, but to learn 1446 01:54:05,360 --> 01:54:11,280 the best you can as to how you can share that. And I think that's the way to learn. 1447 01:54:11,280 --> 01:54:15,600 And I think that's the way to learn the best you can as to how you can share that. 1448 01:54:17,600 --> 01:54:24,400 And that's these are the people in my life from for a long time who've watched the entire journey 1449 01:54:25,600 --> 01:54:29,200 who we still laugh about things that happened 45 years ago. 1450 01:54:30,400 --> 01:54:32,400 And that's, that's what it's about. 1451 01:54:32,880 --> 01:54:39,280 Well, by the way, you look so much younger than older than 59. But anyway, that's my just my 1452 01:54:39,280 --> 01:54:43,760 63 and feeling free. Oh my goodness. You look so much. 1453 01:54:45,200 --> 01:54:50,880 Tell me this beard makes me look older as this. I don't care. I'll keep trying it out. 1454 01:54:52,640 --> 01:54:59,600 It looks fine to me anyway, but as still you're very young, but what sort of legacy do you hope 1455 01:54:59,600 --> 01:55:09,920 to create cultivate? It's important to care about something. Anything to really care. 1456 01:55:11,680 --> 01:55:17,760 Not just stare at it, but care to make sure to give it the chance to grow, to nurture, 1457 01:55:18,720 --> 01:55:23,920 to share it. Whatever it is you have, you know, 1458 01:55:23,920 --> 01:55:31,760 isn't our guest so inspiring. I'm sure you're enjoying and learning from every bit of this 1459 01:55:31,760 --> 01:55:38,800 episode. So I need to ask you two things. First hit that like button on YouTube or subscribe. 1460 01:55:38,800 --> 01:55:43,760 If you're listening on your go to podcast platform, then follow us on the Instagram, 1461 01:55:43,760 --> 01:55:50,880 Facebook, LinkedIn, and tick tock at that piano pod or behind the scenes content, 1462 01:55:50,880 --> 01:55:58,240 episode updates and more. Stay connected and inspired to celebrate the past, present and 1463 01:55:58,240 --> 01:56:07,040 future of classical music. You told me about Rio Ravel left hand concerto. So what else is in your 1464 01:56:07,840 --> 01:56:15,040 this season's? I'm playing a recital with the soprano Karen Slack. It's a program called 1465 01:56:15,040 --> 01:56:23,520 Dream Variations that I created for her and me. She is a great fan of Jesse Norman. She admired 1466 01:56:23,520 --> 01:56:28,640 the program that we did the five seasons, which mixed classical things with the more popular music. 1467 01:56:28,640 --> 01:56:35,040 And I put three pieces, one of Tina, Nina and Lena, Tina Turner, Nina Simone and Lena Horn 1468 01:56:35,600 --> 01:56:41,440 on the program mixed in with Schubert and Brahms. It's it's. Oh, that is lovely. That'll be for 1469 01:56:41,440 --> 01:56:48,480 Chicago Lyric. OK. And what's at the end of February? What else? I'm playing a solo recital, 1470 01:56:49,440 --> 01:56:56,560 a program that I created called the Roaring Twenties, the genius of youth. And all the pieces 1471 01:56:56,560 --> 01:57:02,320 are written by composers when they were in their twenties. Bartok Bagatell's Opus Six, 1472 01:57:03,120 --> 01:57:06,960 the Brahms third piano sonata that he had a third not at the age of 20. 1473 01:57:06,960 --> 01:57:14,400 The F minor sonata and then the second half is Un Bac sur l'Océan of Ravel, Miroir, 1474 01:57:15,360 --> 01:57:21,600 Boat on the Ocean. And then a piece that I commissioned 25 years ago by a dear friend, 1475 01:57:21,600 --> 01:57:28,400 David Shapiro in Philadelphia, Through the Eyes of a Child, because I was doing a program 1476 01:57:29,120 --> 01:57:34,640 based on that was the title of the program. The piece is written by our four children, 1477 01:57:34,640 --> 01:57:41,840 Kenneth Seidman and Debussy. But the people who were in charge of the series decided they didn't 1478 01:57:41,840 --> 01:57:47,520 want that program. They wanted something more traditional. So that piece was kind of left to 1479 01:57:47,520 --> 01:57:51,440 the side. And throughout all these years, I've tried to find ways to incorporate it, to put it. 1480 01:57:51,440 --> 01:57:56,080 And I didn't couldn't find the right moment. Now we finally arrived at the moment. So here it is. 1481 01:57:56,080 --> 01:58:01,040 Twenty five years later, it will have its world. With another piece by a young composer who wrote 1482 01:58:01,040 --> 01:58:07,200 when he was 19 in Harrisburg and then finishing with the Armandie du Soir of Liszt. 1483 01:58:08,080 --> 01:58:12,880 Oh, wow. Nice. And then where you said you're performing with? 1484 01:58:12,880 --> 01:58:19,760 I'll do that. Here in Baltimore, there's a private concert. This is on the Market Square 1485 01:58:20,560 --> 01:58:26,160 concert series in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, at the end of February. February is the week after 1486 01:58:26,160 --> 01:58:31,360 the Ravel. I played with them on 15 and 16 and then the week later on the 22nd, I played the recital. 1487 01:58:32,080 --> 01:58:38,320 Wonderful. Well, if you are ever in New York, please let me know. And I would love that in 1488 01:58:38,320 --> 01:58:45,040 your concert or master class or thank you. Yeah. So for listeners, please go to 1489 01:58:45,600 --> 01:58:52,720 markmarkampianist.com to learn more about Mr. Markham's solo chamber career and his concert 1490 01:58:52,720 --> 01:58:58,720 updates. And you can also watch some of the his solo chamber concerts we discuss in this episode 1491 01:58:58,720 --> 01:59:06,240 on YouTube. All the links are listed in the show notes. Mark, this has been such an inspirational 1492 01:59:06,240 --> 01:59:13,280 fun conversation. So before I let you go, we have one more thing to do, which is the piano 1493 01:59:13,280 --> 01:59:19,520 pod rapid fire questions. And I in this segment, I get to ask silly questions, but each 1494 01:59:19,520 --> 01:59:27,120 question is a little tricky. So yeah, but I really need you to answer them as quickly as possible. 1495 01:59:27,120 --> 01:59:33,920 Whatever comes to your mind in a second. Okay. No judgment here. Okay. Question number one, 1496 01:59:33,920 --> 01:59:35,520 what is your comfort food? 1497 01:59:38,720 --> 01:59:44,960 Oh, wow. Gosh, I love too much food. Ice cream. Sounds great. Strawberry ice cream. 1498 01:59:44,960 --> 01:59:52,880 Nice specific. How do you like your coffee in the morning? I don't drink coffee. Really? 1499 01:59:53,440 --> 01:59:59,360 I drink green tea from Japan. Oh, which which kind which green tea specifically do you know? 1500 01:59:59,840 --> 02:00:06,000 Tamari okucha. Tamari okucha. Okay. Now, are you a cat person or dog person? Dog. 1501 02:00:06,000 --> 02:00:16,240 Sunrise or sunset? Sunset. Summer or winter? Summer. What skill have you always wanted to learn, 1502 02:00:16,240 --> 02:00:24,880 but haven't had a chance to? Skydiving. What is your word or words to live by? 1503 02:00:24,880 --> 02:00:34,320 Hmm. Be real. What is the most important quality you look for in other people? Decency. Name three 1504 02:00:34,320 --> 02:00:44,720 people who inspire you living or dead? My teacher and Shine. Wow, they're just so many people. 1505 02:00:44,720 --> 02:00:54,400 Wow. Oh my goodness. Larry Smith, who's a dear friend of mine. He's no longer here. And Ruth 1506 02:00:54,400 --> 02:01:01,760 Jeskiewicz. Name one piece in your current playlist. Oh gosh, what if I said I didn't have one? 1507 02:01:02,800 --> 02:01:12,640 Oh, that's okay. I don't have a playlist. But do you have like a list of people who inspire you 1508 02:01:12,640 --> 02:01:16,800 to listen to your playlist? But do you have like any piece that you're listening right now? Like a? 1509 02:01:18,320 --> 02:01:24,320 No, because I'm always curious if I can find live performances of people. I'm much more interested 1510 02:01:24,320 --> 02:01:30,560 in that. There are songs that I hear. I was where was I the other day shopping someplace and this 1511 02:01:30,560 --> 02:01:38,320 piece from probably the 80s came on and I was in public, not even aware who was watching what I was 1512 02:01:38,320 --> 02:01:45,040 doing and I was in my own little world with some pop. It was it was I laughed. I had to laugh when 1513 02:01:45,040 --> 02:01:51,520 I left. I thought you really you've lost it now. Well, pop music from 80s is they're the best. 1514 02:01:51,520 --> 02:01:58,480 It's actually the best. Late 70s, 79 and on. Look out. Now filling the blank. Music is blank. 1515 02:01:58,480 --> 02:02:10,000 The best. Wonderful. Wow. So this wraps up this episode of the Piano Pull. Thank you, Mark, 1516 02:02:10,000 --> 02:02:16,480 for joining us today and sharing your story, beautiful stories and insights and expertise. 1517 02:02:16,480 --> 02:02:22,800 Once again, to our wonderful audience, you can learn more about Mr. Mark Markham and his amazing 1518 02:02:22,800 --> 02:02:28,240 work through his website at Mark Markham Pianist dot com. And thank you to our faithful fans and 1519 02:02:28,240 --> 02:02:33,360 listeners for tuning in today. If you enjoyed today's episode, please rate, review it on your 1520 02:02:33,360 --> 02:02:40,320 GoToPodcast platform and give us a thumbs up button. If you are watching this episode on YouTube, 1521 02:02:40,320 --> 02:02:46,960 follow the Piano Pull on social media to get the latest piano news via social Facebook, Instagram, 1522 02:02:46,960 --> 02:02:53,200 TikTok and LinkedIn. I will see you for the next episode of the Piano Pull. Once again, thank you, Mark. 1523 02:02:53,200 --> 02:03:21,200 Thank you. Bye, everyone.