1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:09,480 Welcome to the PianoPod. 2 00:00:09,480 --> 00:00:10,480 I'm Yukimi Song. 3 00:00:10,480 --> 00:00:12,480 I'm Eric Hunter. 4 00:00:12,480 --> 00:00:14,400 And I'm Clara Zhang. 5 00:00:14,400 --> 00:00:17,180 Welcome to our introductory episode. 6 00:00:17,180 --> 00:00:23,160 And I'm the owner and director at Yukimi Song Studio, a private piano studio based in New 7 00:00:23,160 --> 00:00:24,160 York City. 8 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:30,280 We have my friend Clara Zhang, who is also a piano instructor and owner and director 9 00:00:30,280 --> 00:00:36,600 at Rational Music Studios, and Eric Hunter, who is also a piano teacher, composer, and 10 00:00:36,600 --> 00:00:39,240 owner director at Hunter Music Studio. 11 00:00:39,240 --> 00:00:42,560 And both are also based in New York City. 12 00:00:42,560 --> 00:00:45,840 Hi guys. 13 00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:52,080 So before we officially take off next week's our first guest, we wanted to just to give 14 00:00:52,080 --> 00:00:59,240 you an introductory video where we want to introduce you who we are and also why we do 15 00:00:59,240 --> 00:01:01,320 this podcasting show. 16 00:01:01,320 --> 00:01:04,240 So Clara, you want to go first? 17 00:01:04,240 --> 00:01:05,240 Sure. 18 00:01:05,240 --> 00:01:08,600 Tell us who you are and what you do. 19 00:01:08,600 --> 00:01:10,080 Okay, great. 20 00:01:10,080 --> 00:01:11,280 Thank you so much, Yukimi. 21 00:01:11,280 --> 00:01:12,440 So hello everyone. 22 00:01:12,440 --> 00:01:14,240 My name is Clara Zhang. 23 00:01:14,240 --> 00:01:20,080 I'm a classical concert pianist and as you said, owner and the founder of Rational Music 24 00:01:20,080 --> 00:01:24,040 Studios based in New York City, Upper East Side. 25 00:01:24,040 --> 00:01:31,360 We opened the studio in 2012, and we have students aged 3 to 81 and from all around 26 00:01:31,360 --> 00:01:32,360 New York. 27 00:01:32,360 --> 00:01:37,800 And since March of this year, the whole studio has transformed into an online teaching and 28 00:01:37,800 --> 00:01:39,940 it's been going great, actually. 29 00:01:39,940 --> 00:01:44,680 So I just want to tell you a little bit of myself and why I joined these two amazing 30 00:01:44,680 --> 00:01:47,640 people on this podcast journey. 31 00:01:47,640 --> 00:01:52,520 So originally, I grew up in China, mainland China, and I started training when I was three 32 00:01:52,520 --> 00:01:54,000 years old. 33 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:58,000 And my grandmother gave me a little keyboard and I just fell in love with it. 34 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:02,500 And I had this vision that one day I'm going to use music to brighten up the world. 35 00:02:02,500 --> 00:02:05,320 And that's what I have been doing. 36 00:02:05,320 --> 00:02:12,080 And throughout the years, I went to the conservatory in China for a little bit and I moved to the 37 00:02:12,080 --> 00:02:19,760 US and so the training was a little different from most pianists because I went to the university 38 00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:21,600 and learned a lot of different things. 39 00:02:21,600 --> 00:02:30,080 So I was always very interested in psychology, philosophy, and the science on top of playing 40 00:02:30,080 --> 00:02:31,080 piano. 41 00:02:31,080 --> 00:02:36,840 So when I moved to New York City and opened up my studio, I met lovely Kimi and Eric and 42 00:02:36,840 --> 00:02:43,360 we had this open forum and we talked about how we teach piano and how as piano teacher 43 00:02:43,360 --> 00:02:49,720 nerds we really want to dive deep, see how can we help our students and ourselves as 44 00:02:49,720 --> 00:02:51,220 performers. 45 00:02:51,220 --> 00:02:52,960 And so that's how we all met up. 46 00:02:52,960 --> 00:02:59,260 And then recently when we all started teaching online, Kimi had this brilliant idea and she 47 00:02:59,260 --> 00:03:03,360 invited the first guest and a psychologist. 48 00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:05,640 And I was so intrigued by that idea. 49 00:03:05,640 --> 00:03:07,760 So that's how we got started. 50 00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:14,280 And I believe, really truly believe that with all of our energy and all the expertise from 51 00:03:14,280 --> 00:03:20,520 all these upcoming guests, we're going to make this piano teaching a really fun place 52 00:03:20,520 --> 00:03:21,520 for us all. 53 00:03:21,520 --> 00:03:22,880 So thank you so much. 54 00:03:22,880 --> 00:03:23,880 Great. 55 00:03:23,880 --> 00:03:25,360 I will hand the mic to Eric. 56 00:03:25,360 --> 00:03:26,360 Yeah. 57 00:03:26,360 --> 00:03:27,360 Thank you, Clara. 58 00:03:27,360 --> 00:03:29,800 That was very, very interesting. 59 00:03:29,800 --> 00:03:34,600 And I really can't wait to start working with you very soon. 60 00:03:34,600 --> 00:03:35,600 Thank you. 61 00:03:35,600 --> 00:03:36,600 Thank you. 62 00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:41,280 So Eric, so can you introduce yourself to us? 63 00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:42,280 Definitely. 64 00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:43,280 Thank you, Kimi. 65 00:03:43,280 --> 00:03:44,280 Thank you, Clara. 66 00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:46,440 So my name is Eric Hunter. 67 00:03:46,440 --> 00:03:50,920 I am also a pianist and teacher based in New York City. 68 00:03:50,920 --> 00:03:51,920 So composer. 69 00:03:51,920 --> 00:03:55,640 You can hear some of my works at erichuntersmusic.com. 70 00:03:55,640 --> 00:04:02,680 I've been living here for about 10 years now. 71 00:04:02,680 --> 00:04:09,560 Living all ages, performing locally, and developing my composition career. 72 00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:16,240 A few years ago, I felt that I needed to get in touch with more piano teachers because 73 00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:20,800 I was working in isolation like we often tend to do. 74 00:04:20,800 --> 00:04:23,200 And I wanted to know what everybody else was up to. 75 00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:28,800 And I wanted to balance my ideas off of other piano teachers. 76 00:04:28,800 --> 00:04:34,440 I also felt like as a teacher, I needed to do that in order to continue to develop and 77 00:04:34,440 --> 00:04:35,600 grow. 78 00:04:35,600 --> 00:04:40,860 So I started a program called Open Forum, which Clara mentioned, which is very simple. 79 00:04:40,860 --> 00:04:44,120 We just meet once a month at talk shop. 80 00:04:44,120 --> 00:04:46,160 And that's where I met Kimi and Clara. 81 00:04:46,160 --> 00:04:49,000 And we developed into great friends. 82 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:51,120 And I respect their opinions very much. 83 00:04:51,120 --> 00:04:56,280 And so when Kimi came to us with this idea recently to start a podcast where we talk 84 00:04:56,280 --> 00:05:00,160 about everything related to piano, I thought it was great. 85 00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:02,800 And I wanted to come on board. 86 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:03,800 Wonderful. 87 00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:04,800 Thank you so much. 88 00:05:04,800 --> 00:05:10,080 And thank you both of you for saying yes when I brought this idea. 89 00:05:10,080 --> 00:05:11,360 So I really appreciate it. 90 00:05:11,360 --> 00:05:16,720 I really trust your expertise and all of your past experiences. 91 00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:24,440 And also trust our friendship that we kind of grew together over the several years in 92 00:05:24,440 --> 00:05:25,440 the past. 93 00:05:25,440 --> 00:05:27,760 So I'm very getting excited. 94 00:05:27,760 --> 00:05:33,440 So speaking of that, so I really wanted to share this with you why I came up with the 95 00:05:33,440 --> 00:05:37,560 idea of podcasting. 96 00:05:37,560 --> 00:05:40,700 Let me just go back several months ago. 97 00:05:40,700 --> 00:05:46,880 I had several piano students who are kind of going through this transition from being 98 00:05:46,880 --> 00:05:51,240 elementary school students to teenagers. 99 00:05:51,240 --> 00:05:57,520 And they were kind of going through this performance anxiety because they were involved in piano 100 00:05:57,520 --> 00:06:03,080 competitions and so many other performance opportunities. 101 00:06:03,080 --> 00:06:05,400 And I really wanted to help them. 102 00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:06,400 And I did my best. 103 00:06:06,400 --> 00:06:09,920 You know, I have been teaching piano lessons for 20 years. 104 00:06:09,920 --> 00:06:13,680 And I'm myself a piano performer. 105 00:06:13,680 --> 00:06:20,080 So I kind of know how to deal with my nervousness and anxiety. 106 00:06:20,080 --> 00:06:28,360 However, just wanted to kind of Google a little bit more and then kind of get more concrete, 107 00:06:28,360 --> 00:06:36,760 more detailed kind of information and kind of wanted to talk to an expert. 108 00:06:36,760 --> 00:06:44,840 So I Googled and I came across with this article which was published three years ago on Klavier 109 00:06:44,840 --> 00:06:46,920 Companions. 110 00:06:46,920 --> 00:06:52,960 And then the article was talking about this one, three actually performance coaches. 111 00:06:52,960 --> 00:06:59,280 And one of them whose name is Dr. John Skidmore, who happens to be our first guest of this 112 00:06:59,280 --> 00:07:00,840 show. 113 00:07:00,840 --> 00:07:07,920 And I just had to Google him and then I had to kind of get in touch with him. 114 00:07:07,920 --> 00:07:12,200 And he was very graciously replied to my email. 115 00:07:12,200 --> 00:07:19,320 And then he also happened to kind of Google me and found my another podcast that I am 116 00:07:19,320 --> 00:07:22,040 actually doing for my own piano studio. 117 00:07:22,040 --> 00:07:24,200 It's called Conversation with a Piano Student. 118 00:07:24,200 --> 00:07:31,920 So in that episode, in that show, I actually invite my students to talk about their piano 119 00:07:31,920 --> 00:07:33,840 journey and everything. 120 00:07:33,840 --> 00:07:39,160 So then Dr. Skidmore wanted to be the guest of that podcast. 121 00:07:39,160 --> 00:07:46,560 However, I told him, I said, well, let's just not limit ourselves in that podcasting show. 122 00:07:46,560 --> 00:07:51,480 But let me talk to my really dearest friends, Eric and Clara, if they would be on board 123 00:07:51,480 --> 00:07:52,920 and interested. 124 00:07:52,920 --> 00:07:58,080 So that's how I actually brought the thing about podcasting. 125 00:07:58,080 --> 00:08:00,600 So yeah. 126 00:08:00,600 --> 00:08:01,600 What do you think, Eric? 127 00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:04,600 What's the, what are we doing this? 128 00:08:04,600 --> 00:08:06,600 What's the vision here? 129 00:08:06,600 --> 00:08:07,600 Yeah. 130 00:08:07,600 --> 00:08:10,320 Well, we're all very excited to be here. 131 00:08:10,320 --> 00:08:13,400 And yeah, so we talked about it some more. 132 00:08:13,400 --> 00:08:18,720 And basically, you know, a few months ago when the pandemic starting, it was a very 133 00:08:18,720 --> 00:08:24,160 scary time for all of us, for everybody in the music and entertainment industries. 134 00:08:24,160 --> 00:08:32,360 You know, everything just got turned upside down and job security is a big question now. 135 00:08:32,360 --> 00:08:37,320 And we realized basically, in order to survive, we're going to have to adapt and continue 136 00:08:37,320 --> 00:08:39,960 to evolve. 137 00:08:39,960 --> 00:08:47,040 And so I felt that it was really important to have a community in order to be able to 138 00:08:47,040 --> 00:08:51,200 support each other, which we already have through open forum a little bit. 139 00:08:51,200 --> 00:08:58,520 And we see this as a way to reach out to many different pianists of all ages, students, 140 00:08:58,520 --> 00:09:03,760 teachers, and even parents of students, potentially across the world. 141 00:09:03,760 --> 00:09:05,320 So that's really what we're trying to do. 142 00:09:05,320 --> 00:09:10,320 We're trying to bring community and like you mentioned at one point, we want to be a kind 143 00:09:10,320 --> 00:09:17,520 of pub or coffee shop where people can discuss all different ideas related to playing and 144 00:09:17,520 --> 00:09:18,520 teaching. 145 00:09:18,520 --> 00:09:20,520 Yeah, that's right. 146 00:09:20,520 --> 00:09:28,760 Yeah, we bring guests to kind of shake up the world, you know, like new ideas. 147 00:09:28,760 --> 00:09:33,120 But basically, obviously, we are teaching something traditional. 148 00:09:33,120 --> 00:09:41,600 We're not trying to break that or we're not trying to be disrespectful of that. 149 00:09:41,600 --> 00:09:49,760 But we can also have this more modern and contemporary approach to something old and 150 00:09:49,760 --> 00:09:56,000 something that we can kind of relate to because we're not from 300 years ago, obviously. 151 00:09:56,000 --> 00:09:57,800 This is the year 2020. 152 00:09:57,800 --> 00:10:03,840 And obviously, this, especially this year changed the way we communicate to each other. 153 00:10:03,840 --> 00:10:05,960 Everything has really changed. 154 00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:14,480 So I think this platform gives us kind of things to kind of discuss without judgment 155 00:10:14,480 --> 00:10:18,360 and bring topics that are really shocking to us. 156 00:10:18,360 --> 00:10:19,360 Exactly. 157 00:10:19,360 --> 00:10:20,360 Absolutely. 158 00:10:20,360 --> 00:10:26,440 There's also just a lot of new opportunities available now because of the nature of everything 159 00:10:26,440 --> 00:10:27,840 being online. 160 00:10:27,840 --> 00:10:33,040 For example, the three of us are all based in New York and Dr. Skidmore is based mainly 161 00:10:33,040 --> 00:10:34,040 in Utah. 162 00:10:34,040 --> 00:10:35,040 That's true. 163 00:10:35,040 --> 00:10:39,400 So we might not have had any contact with him naturally before this. 164 00:10:39,400 --> 00:10:43,840 But because everything is online now, it's the most natural thing just to reach out, 165 00:10:43,840 --> 00:10:49,280 send an email, bring them in on Zoom, and then we can offer this content to you, our 166 00:10:49,280 --> 00:10:50,280 viewers. 167 00:10:50,280 --> 00:10:51,280 And his content is really incredible. 168 00:10:51,280 --> 00:10:54,280 We're all super excited for this first episode. 169 00:10:54,280 --> 00:10:55,280 Yeah, absolutely. 170 00:10:55,280 --> 00:10:56,280 And I'm so excited for it. 171 00:10:56,280 --> 00:10:57,280 Clara, anything? 172 00:10:57,280 --> 00:10:58,280 Yeah. 173 00:10:58,280 --> 00:11:03,560 I just want to say, you know, it's something I couldn't even imagine when I was younger. 174 00:11:03,560 --> 00:11:05,520 I was always sort of like a book nerd. 175 00:11:05,520 --> 00:11:10,480 And when I was in the conservatory the first year, 11, 12 years old, living in a dorm with 176 00:11:10,480 --> 00:11:14,400 all these pianos, I was really just into psychology. 177 00:11:14,400 --> 00:11:20,200 And I remember climbing up the stairs of this library to find this one book and then has 178 00:11:20,200 --> 00:11:22,120 to have translated and all that. 179 00:11:22,120 --> 00:11:27,000 And now, you know, Dr. Skimmer was so amazing and he met us. 180 00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:31,920 And just imagine how many other more experts that, you know, we have all these hosts lined 181 00:11:31,920 --> 00:11:34,000 up and everybody's so interested. 182 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:38,400 And the students too, a lot of the students, 35 years old, you know, I had them start using 183 00:11:38,400 --> 00:11:39,400 iPad. 184 00:11:39,400 --> 00:11:41,280 Now they're all experts with Zoom lessons. 185 00:11:41,280 --> 00:11:47,400 So I think we literally we're living in the best time of our, you know, of the year. 186 00:11:47,400 --> 00:11:50,720 So 2020 may be something to be grateful for. 187 00:11:50,720 --> 00:11:51,720 Sure. 188 00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:52,720 Definitely. 189 00:11:52,720 --> 00:11:54,480 Thank you. 190 00:11:54,480 --> 00:11:56,760 So that's what we are here. 191 00:11:56,760 --> 00:11:57,760 That's why we're here. 192 00:11:57,760 --> 00:12:00,600 And that's what we're trying to do. 193 00:12:00,600 --> 00:12:04,400 So I wanted to announce you. 194 00:12:04,400 --> 00:12:09,800 So our first guest, like I said, it's going to be Dr. John Skidmore. 195 00:12:09,800 --> 00:12:11,160 He's a psychologist. 196 00:12:11,160 --> 00:12:12,560 He's a performance coach. 197 00:12:12,560 --> 00:12:14,880 He himself is a musician. 198 00:12:14,880 --> 00:12:16,920 He's a singer, I think. 199 00:12:16,920 --> 00:12:20,280 And he currently lives in Utah. 200 00:12:20,280 --> 00:12:26,120 And we had this interview a couple of weeks ago and we're in the process of editing and 201 00:12:26,120 --> 00:12:35,720 about to publish on YouTube, as well as we're trying to do broadcast it on Facebook Live 202 00:12:35,720 --> 00:12:38,280 and as well as Instagram TV. 203 00:12:38,280 --> 00:12:39,720 So stay tuned. 204 00:12:39,720 --> 00:12:47,200 Then the first part of the interview will be available on September 8th, which is Tuesday, 205 00:12:47,200 --> 00:12:48,880 right after Labor Day weekend. 206 00:12:48,880 --> 00:12:51,520 So please stay tuned. 207 00:12:51,520 --> 00:12:56,080 So this is it. 208 00:12:56,080 --> 00:13:01,200 So this concludes the introduction of our podcast. 209 00:13:01,200 --> 00:13:06,800 And thank you so much, everyone, for watching or listening. 210 00:13:06,800 --> 00:13:11,320 And if you enjoyed today's episode, you can hit the thumbs up button down below and be 211 00:13:11,320 --> 00:13:13,200 sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. 212 00:13:13,200 --> 00:13:19,200 You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. 213 00:13:19,200 --> 00:13:27,520 If you have any feedback for us, you can email us at the pianopadnyc at gmail.com or you 214 00:13:27,520 --> 00:13:29,600 can leave a comment on this video. 215 00:13:29,600 --> 00:13:30,840 Thank you. 216 00:13:30,840 --> 00:13:31,840 Great. 217 00:13:31,840 --> 00:13:40,920 So please tune in on September 8th, Tuesday for our first episode of the Piano Con. 218 00:13:40,920 --> 00:13:44,560 See you then, everyone.