Early Piano Career
I began playing piano around 2005. I quickly began lessons because of my desire to improve my playing and to gain traction in music. I continued studying piano playing in this fashion for a few years in addition to starting the trumpet in 5th grade. I continued playing both throughout high school, first with piano in the jazz band and trumpet in the wind ensemble, and later playing mostly first chair trumpet in both. I continued studying piano and partook in various opportunities with it, including finishing among the top 4 in the Littleton Symphony Orchestra Piano Concerto Competition (Performing Beethoven’s ‘Emporer’ Concerto) and beginning teaching piano to various students.
Piano Academy and Master Class Experience
During the summer before college I attended the Lamont School of Music Academy for piano performance and studied with teachers throughout the country in piano technique, performance and repertoire. Among the teachers with whom I studied were Mary Beth Shaffer and Beth Grace, and the repertoire I studied included Chopin’s Revolutionary etude, Liszt’s Transcendental Etude No. 11 (“Harmonies du Soir”) and Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet in a dedicated chamber group. At this time I was introduced to the Taubman technique for piano performance which stresses an advanced, technique-based approach to playing piano masterfully, musically and effortlessly. Having been encountering various ceilings and discomforts in my more advanced pieces, I decided to look into the successes that this approach had to offer and eventually chose to take a year of retraining to really refine my approach to playing.
Recent Technique and Successes
I spent that next year retraining with Taubman-certified instructor Brenna Berman, who has worked with Robert Durso and Edna Golandsky in the approach, to revamp my technique from square one and applying what I had already learned about piano playing under a refined and safe framework. The technique emphasizes healthy, coordinated and unified motions as the basis of a technique that helps with both musical and technical challenges. There is a huge allotment of tools that are utilized in very non-arbitrary ways to accommodate the hands and produce a refined, effortless and coordinated technique. After this period, I’ve continued working on music with various technical challenges being overcome regularly and things only getting more refined! I will be continuing with recordings to showcase how-tos and performances, and other material. I teach piano for intermediate to advanced students.
