Nearly every Saturday, I play at Chocolate Springs Cafe in Lenox, MA. On the beautiful, state-of-the-art Yamaha digital grand piano, amidst people whose enjoyment is buoyed by the world-class, hand-made chocolates, I perform my favorite pieces, from the sacred to the secular, from Gregorian chant to the Dave Matthews Band, with lots in between! Last week, I recorded this version of the Shaker hymn, "Simple Gifts." Every weekend I'm there, I'll endeavor to create at least one new piano video to post on my blog, Facebook and Twitter. I look forward to sharing the music with you!
Showing posts with label piano performance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label piano performance. Show all posts
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
"The Light of Beauty Exists Inside Every Human Being!"
A Music Workshop at Integral New York, November 2009
Over the past twenty-eight years, I have taught piano to hundreds of students. And yet, what probably comes to mind when you think of “piano lessons,” has little to do with what happens for people when they sit with me at the keyboard.
Imagine yourself discovering that you can create music of disarming beauty—even if you have little or no musical background. Imagine finding a confidence through music that defies any preconceptions you may have about yourself or life. Imagine watching another individual transform before your eyes as original piano music emerges spontaneously from her fingertips. Imagine experiencing reality in a new way as a result of music, where limitation and fear are replaced by positivity and Love.
In my workshops—which consist of solo piano performances, improvised duets with members of the audience, meditation, lecture, dialogue, and videos of great musicians—participants experience all of the above and more.
I am simply transmitting to others what music means to me. From the time I was quite young, improvising endlessly on the blues, or learning by ear my favorite James Taylor chord progression, or playing the most sublime Mozart composition, gave me solace amidst tumultuous circumstances. I was blessed that my family had a beautiful Steinway grand—the same instrument on which I now teach my students. Without fail, each time I would sit at the piano, music magically transmuted the effect of whatever was occurring around me. It made me whole.
In November, I conducted an interactive workshop in New York City sponsored by the Integral New York/Ken Wilber Meet-up Group. This particular event was created in collaboration with music educator, Lesley Stoller, who does groundbreaking work at the Queens Children’s Psychiatric Hospital. During the course of the evening, two participants, Susan Babcock and Jackie Sabin, improvised in duet with me. Although Susan had extensive formal training on piano and harpsichord, she believed herself incapable of improvising her own music. Jackie’s musical background was limited, consisting of trumpet studies in middle school. Despite their trepidation, both took the risk and sat down with me at the keyboard. As you’ll see in this video, the experience awakened each woman to her inherent musical ability!
Indeed, my workshops are intended to effect deep and lasting transformation. Susan later wrote to me, “The most amazing thing happened last night. I practiced some of my classical piano pieces for over three hours and at the end, I decided to go for it. Improvise. Jessica, it was no more ‘accomplished’ than what I did with you in the workshop. But, like that session, it set my heart free. I didn't do it ‘well.’ I did it. Your workshop has burst a dam that’s been constricting me in my musical and personal expression for my whole life, ever since I learned how to be self-conscious. It’s like you’re saying to all the dark cynics in the world, 'Look at this!! The light of beauty exists inside every single human being!!'”
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
“A creativity I thought belonged only to talented artists”
Barbara Larisch of Integral New York
describes her experience improvising at the piano
Improvising with people of all ages and backgrounds is one of the most exciting dimensions of my work. When someone first sits with me at the piano, I begin by playing an evenly rhythmic, harmonically pleasing accompaniment in the bass (on the white notes, key of C). At a certain point, I ask the individual to improvise a melody in the treble (also on the white notes). Inevitably, he or she begins to explore, to venture out, experiment and expand, inspired by the sounds emerging from their own fingers and mine.
Barbara Larisch, who helped promote my recent events for the Integral New York/Ken Wilber Meet-up Group, took the leap and improvised with me during my first iNYC event in June, 2009. Her thoughtful reflections beautifully articulate the experience many have:
“When I was invited to play an improvised duet, I was at first very reluctant. I never thought of myself as musically inclined and I felt self-conscious about my lack of ability. But when I sat down at the keyboard and tentatively placed my fingers on the keys, as Jessica suggested, I felt my awareness of the room slowly slipping away.
"At first, all of my attention was focused on the mechanics of playing and I tried hard to integrate my rudimentary notes with the beautiful sounds that were arising from Jessica’s playing. It was a very cognitive and kinesthetic experience, very much like learning how to balance on a two-wheeled bicycle for the first time. Jessica’s presence was always with me, though. Her fingers were dancing across the keyboard and I discovered that the more I let go of my fears, the more playful our music became. Her voice was there in the background, coaxing me to let myself relax into the experience. My whole body started to release its tension and I realized that I was enjoying the dance that was unfolding. Each moment thereafter became an opportunity to be playful and creative and I found myself taking more and more risk.
“Then the quality of my listening began to change. I found myself responding musically to the notes that she was playing. We were having a conversation without words. But I knew that a language was being spoken because I became aware of shifts in mood, as the notes grew stronger and more playful, and then little by little, slower and softer. I became aware that I was co-creating these beautiful sounds with Jessica and I sometimes felt like we took turns playing the lead, like two dancers do, wordlessly and without any communication. The joy I discovered in expressing myself musically awakened a creativity in me that I thought belonged only to talented artists. But now I see that the impulse to create lies deep inside each one of us.”
This video from my Integral New York workshop, June 2009, shows Barbara improvising for the first time:
describes her experience improvising at the piano
Improvising with people of all ages and backgrounds is one of the most exciting dimensions of my work. When someone first sits with me at the piano, I begin by playing an evenly rhythmic, harmonically pleasing accompaniment in the bass (on the white notes, key of C). At a certain point, I ask the individual to improvise a melody in the treble (also on the white notes). Inevitably, he or she begins to explore, to venture out, experiment and expand, inspired by the sounds emerging from their own fingers and mine. Barbara Larisch, who helped promote my recent events for the Integral New York/Ken Wilber Meet-up Group, took the leap and improvised with me during my first iNYC event in June, 2009. Her thoughtful reflections beautifully articulate the experience many have:
“When I was invited to play an improvised duet, I was at first very reluctant. I never thought of myself as musically inclined and I felt self-conscious about my lack of ability. But when I sat down at the keyboard and tentatively placed my fingers on the keys, as Jessica suggested, I felt my awareness of the room slowly slipping away.
"At first, all of my attention was focused on the mechanics of playing and I tried hard to integrate my rudimentary notes with the beautiful sounds that were arising from Jessica’s playing. It was a very cognitive and kinesthetic experience, very much like learning how to balance on a two-wheeled bicycle for the first time. Jessica’s presence was always with me, though. Her fingers were dancing across the keyboard and I discovered that the more I let go of my fears, the more playful our music became. Her voice was there in the background, coaxing me to let myself relax into the experience. My whole body started to release its tension and I realized that I was enjoying the dance that was unfolding. Each moment thereafter became an opportunity to be playful and creative and I found myself taking more and more risk.
“Then the quality of my listening began to change. I found myself responding musically to the notes that she was playing. We were having a conversation without words. But I knew that a language was being spoken because I became aware of shifts in mood, as the notes grew stronger and more playful, and then little by little, slower and softer. I became aware that I was co-creating these beautiful sounds with Jessica and I sometimes felt like we took turns playing the lead, like two dancers do, wordlessly and without any communication. The joy I discovered in expressing myself musically awakened a creativity in me that I thought belonged only to talented artists. But now I see that the impulse to create lies deep inside each one of us.”
This video from my Integral New York workshop, June 2009, shows Barbara improvising for the first time:
Saturday, July 4, 2009
The Riverbrook Piano Improv-a-thon
There are marathons and bike-a-thons and walk-a-thons, but on Sunday, June 22, Riverbrook Residence in Stockbridge, MA hosted what may have been the world’s first Piano Improv-a-thon! 
Riverbrook, the oldest facility for women with developmental disabilities in New England, is where I teach music. In collaboration with Riverbrook director Joan Burkhard and the many wonderful people on the staff, this event helped fulfill my aspiration to show that, no matter who we are, beauty is inherent to us all by virtue of being human. 
Over the course of the afternoon, people of all ages, backgrounds and levels of musical experience—including many of the Riverbrook women—improvised with me on the beautiful Samick grand piano that graces the Riverbrook living room. The Piano Improv-a-thon was a fundraiser for the Riverbrook music program, which is giving women with developmental disabilities a powerful and transformative means of self-expression. We raised almost $4500—far more than anticipated.
The Improv-a-thon performers collected pledges for their participation from family, friends, and colleagues. (For example, many of my husband’s fellow teachers at Taconic High School supported his participation in the event.) Contributions also came from dozens of individuals and businesses throughout the Berkshires, the Hilltown area and beyond. The Red Lion Inn, The Taggart House, Bardwell, Bowlby and Karam Insurance, Consolati Insurance, Boston Seafoods, Zabian’s Jewelers, Guido's Marketplace, and Once-Upon-a-Table restaurant, were among the many who donated.
Children as young as four years old participated, as did some of the Riverbrook residents and many of my older students. As you’ll hear in the audio clips below, each improvisation was completely individual. Yet, a sweet interconnection manifested itself, arising from that deeper level where beauty is born.Riverbrook is a rare and special place for women with disabilities. It is an environment where beauty and interconnectivity can flourish among everyone who walks through its doors. As our piano improvisations released the creative impulse in each participant, an unusual alchemy of music, ease and freedom emerged that afternoon. I actually think this was a world's first!
Here is a sample of the twenty-four Riverbrook Improv-a-thon performers. Click on “audio recording” to hear their performances. More photos and audios are coming--stay tuned!
Nancy Babcock, Worthington, MANancy studied piano for a short time when she was a girl, but was told that she had "no musical talent."
Click here for audio recording
Carol Ray, Riverbrook ResidenceCarol has lived at Riverbrook for many years and is beloved by residents and staff alike. Carol expresses her exuberant relationship to life through playing music and dancing. She participated in our performance, "Flying Free: Music without Limits."
Click here for audio recording
Isabella DeFelice, Richmond, MAIsabella is four years old. Her two sisters and brother--Gabriella, Daniella and Dominic--study piano with me. Isabella is just beginning. Our occasional forays into music are entirely improvisational.
Click here for audio recording
Tracy Salvadore, Riverbrook Residence Tracy loves singing and playing the piano. Occasionally, when we're improvising something upbeat, a staff member or resident will start dancing to our music. This gives Tracy great joy and amusement!
Click here for audio recording
Frieda Pilson, Chappaqua, NY and Richmond, MAFrieda has played piano for much of her life. Classically trained, she longed to free her creative musical voice. She began studying with me a number of years ago and now improvises freely, as well as composing her own strikingly original piano pieces.
Click here for audio recording
Tom Weeks, Southfield, MATom works for the New York Life Insurance Company. He sings with the Berkshire Choral Festival and has a beautiful tenor voice. Tom began studying piano with me in 2008. His improvisations have a distinctly "vocal" quality: beautiful melodies are always emerging from him!
Click here for audio recording
Bram Fisher, Richmond, MABram and his brother, Satchel, both study piano with me and play in the school band. They clearly love music! Each boy has a distinctly individual sensibility, as expressed in their performances of jazz and blues pieces and familiar songs, improvisations, and their Garageband compositions.
Click here for audio recording
Tanny Labshere, Riverbrook ResidenceTanny and I played a semi-improvised interpretation of "We Shall Overcome" and "America the Beautiful." Two weeks prior, we had played this duet for Governor Deval Patrick.
Click here for audio recording
More photos and recordings from the Riverbrook Piano Improv-a-thon are coming soon--stay tuned!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Flying Free: Music without Limits
By Jessica Roemischer
This video is taken from a performance called, "Flying Free: Music without Limits." It features improvised and semi-improvised piano duets with the women I teach at Riverbrook Residence in Stockbridge, MA. Riverbrook is home to twenty-three women. Under the direction of Joan Burkhard, a committed staff is creating the optimum conditions for women with developmental disabilities to be supported in every dimension of life. This is the environment I entered as a piano teacher in Fall, 2007. In my work with the women, I became disarmed by the result. As you’ll see, these women confirm that beauty arises from the deepest level of being, unfettered by any limitation. They demonstrate why music is, arguably, our most powerful and universal means of human expression and is present in us all!
This video is taken from a performance called, "Flying Free: Music without Limits." It features improvised and semi-improvised piano duets with the women I teach at Riverbrook Residence in Stockbridge, MA. Riverbrook is home to twenty-three women. Under the direction of Joan Burkhard, a committed staff is creating the optimum conditions for women with developmental disabilities to be supported in every dimension of life. This is the environment I entered as a piano teacher in Fall, 2007. In my work with the women, I became disarmed by the result. As you’ll see, these women confirm that beauty arises from the deepest level of being, unfettered by any limitation. They demonstrate why music is, arguably, our most powerful and universal means of human expression and is present in us all!
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
"Flying Free: Music without Limits"
by Jessica Roemischer
Last Sunday at a small concert hall in Pittsfield, MA, I had the opportunity to stage a multi-media/musical event called “Flying Free: Music without Limits.” On a Steinway grand piano I performed improvised and semi-improvised duets with the women I teach at the Riverbrook Residence in Stockbridge. The Riverbrook women have disabilities that range from blindness to autism and Down’s syndrome. As they played, their words—in which they describe their experience of music—were projected on a screen for the audience.
Some of the women are just beginners at the piano; one woman who is blind is quite adept. Regardless of the level of experience, each woman played with disarming authenticity, creativity and naturalness. The sixty people who attended witnessed something of revelatory beauty that went far beyond my own expectations. What occurred, I believe, had the hallmarks of a new kind of art and aesthetics.
My father traveled four hours in winter weather to attend the performance. A college professor, he has taught the philosophy of education for over fifty years and is no stranger to the realm of students with learning difficulties. Nonetheless, he said, “This event completely deconstructed my notion of what it meant to be developmentally disabled. It was staggering. It proved to me that we can transcend our biology.” Another member of the audience wrote to me later that day: “We were in tears. My wife and I have gone to hear various concert artists. There was more music at your event than in the performances we have seen. You and the women from Riverbrook gave us music to move the spirit.”
A truly new expression of art and aesthetics is not a linear extension of how we currently see things. It is not a re-combination of existing themes or elements. Nor is it a “renaissance” of earlier cultural or artistic movements—as great as they may have been. It is a wholly new way of perceiving that upends our most fundamental and often unconsciously held beliefs. My father experienced that reorientation and so did I. This event was not about “handicapped” people doing something that they had learned by rote. These women were creating music of profound beauty and authenticity, by any measure. They proved that they could, indeed, transcend their biology. The implications are far-reaching.
And that’s where beauty comes in. In working with the women, I listen solely for beauty and for what is unique and natural to each of them. For as long as I can remember my mother has instilled in me that appreciation. She herself is a pianist who studied with an extraordinary teacher in NYC during the ‘40’s and ‘50’s. His name was Leopold Mittman and he was accompanist to violinists Isaac Stern and Mischa Ellman.
Just over a year ago, in a book my mother found on piano pedagogy, she read that her teacher’s teacher studied with Franz Liszt, who studied with Carl Czerny, who studied with Beethoven. This astounding discovery confirmed everything she’d been given by Mr. Mittman and had passed on to me. She taught me what makes music sing.
I’m bringing that musical sensibility to bear in an entirely new context with a new, evolutionary goal. In my work with these women, I have absolute confidence that they are capable of expressing profound beauty. Last Sunday, they proved to me and the audience in that small recital hall that it's true. Even in the realm of professional concert-making, real beauty is extraordinarily rare. The audience member who later wrote to me about his experience was right, and his unsolicited observations confirmed what I’d suspected: Beauty is not merely a function of talent, as we generally define it—it’s deeper than that. Beauty is a dimension of the human soul unfettered by any limitation. On Sunday, I saw it emerge before my eyes and witnessed the effect it had on the audience. People were so impacted. There was hardly a dry eye in the house. At that depth, beauty becomes what Steve McIntosh calls an evolutionary “attractor of perfection.” Only that kind of beauty can catalyze a new, integral art and music—-one that can have an evolutionary impact on our consciousness and culture.
In recognition of the event’s significance, “Flying Free” was jointly sponsored by the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Community Education Program, the internationally acclaimed theater company, Shakespeare and Co. and Miss Hall’s School, a private girls’ high school. It was also supported by a grant from Caroline and James Taylor, which was of special meaning for me, as James Taylor was one of my earliest musical influences. (I can remember the moment in 1971 when I first heard “Fire and Rain” playing on a small, transistor radio.)
A video of the event will be completed next week and posted on YouTube and on this blog site. It will give you an experience of what occurred. We will be disseminating the video to organizations and individuals throughout the country, including the Obama team. As solicited on his website, this is certainly an "American Story" that generates ideas and insights that can "change the future of this country."
Thirty years ago – in 1978 – the concert pianist, Vladimir Horowitz was invited by Jimmy Carter to perform at the White House. The videos of that concert are among the most sublime I have seen.
The evolution of that performance, three decades later, would make evident that everyone, including the women I work with, can express the same kind of undeniable beauty. That’s what happened on Sunday and that’s what needs to be heard at the White House and throughout culture, to inspire every man, woman and child in this country to realize that beauty is inside of them!!
Last Sunday at a small concert hall in Pittsfield, MA, I had the opportunity to stage a multi-media/musical event called “Flying Free: Music without Limits.” On a Steinway grand piano I performed improvised and semi-improvised duets with the women I teach at the Riverbrook Residence in Stockbridge. The Riverbrook women have disabilities that range from blindness to autism and Down’s syndrome. As they played, their words—in which they describe their experience of music—were projected on a screen for the audience.
Some of the women are just beginners at the piano; one woman who is blind is quite adept. Regardless of the level of experience, each woman played with disarming authenticity, creativity and naturalness. The sixty people who attended witnessed something of revelatory beauty that went far beyond my own expectations. What occurred, I believe, had the hallmarks of a new kind of art and aesthetics. My father traveled four hours in winter weather to attend the performance. A college professor, he has taught the philosophy of education for over fifty years and is no stranger to the realm of students with learning difficulties. Nonetheless, he said, “This event completely deconstructed my notion of what it meant to be developmentally disabled. It was staggering. It proved to me that we can transcend our biology.” Another member of the audience wrote to me later that day: “We were in tears. My wife and I have gone to hear various concert artists. There was more music at your event than in the performances we have seen. You and the women from Riverbrook gave us music to move the spirit.”
A truly new expression of art and aesthetics is not a linear extension of how we currently see things. It is not a re-combination of existing themes or elements. Nor is it a “renaissance” of earlier cultural or artistic movements—as great as they may have been. It is a wholly new way of perceiving that upends our most fundamental and often unconsciously held beliefs. My father experienced that reorientation and so did I. This event was not about “handicapped” people doing something that they had learned by rote. These women were creating music of profound beauty and authenticity, by any measure. They proved that they could, indeed, transcend their biology. The implications are far-reaching. And that’s where beauty comes in. In working with the women, I listen solely for beauty and for what is unique and natural to each of them. For as long as I can remember my mother has instilled in me that appreciation. She herself is a pianist who studied with an extraordinary teacher in NYC during the ‘40’s and ‘50’s. His name was Leopold Mittman and he was accompanist to violinists Isaac Stern and Mischa Ellman.
Just over a year ago, in a book my mother found on piano pedagogy, she read that her teacher’s teacher studied with Franz Liszt, who studied with Carl Czerny, who studied with Beethoven. This astounding discovery confirmed everything she’d been given by Mr. Mittman and had passed on to me. She taught me what makes music sing. I’m bringing that musical sensibility to bear in an entirely new context with a new, evolutionary goal. In my work with these women, I have absolute confidence that they are capable of expressing profound beauty. Last Sunday, they proved to me and the audience in that small recital hall that it's true. Even in the realm of professional concert-making, real beauty is extraordinarily rare. The audience member who later wrote to me about his experience was right, and his unsolicited observations confirmed what I’d suspected: Beauty is not merely a function of talent, as we generally define it—it’s deeper than that. Beauty is a dimension of the human soul unfettered by any limitation. On Sunday, I saw it emerge before my eyes and witnessed the effect it had on the audience. People were so impacted. There was hardly a dry eye in the house. At that depth, beauty becomes what Steve McIntosh calls an evolutionary “attractor of perfection.” Only that kind of beauty can catalyze a new, integral art and music—-one that can have an evolutionary impact on our consciousness and culture.
In recognition of the event’s significance, “Flying Free” was jointly sponsored by the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Community Education Program, the internationally acclaimed theater company, Shakespeare and Co. and Miss Hall’s School, a private girls’ high school. It was also supported by a grant from Caroline and James Taylor, which was of special meaning for me, as James Taylor was one of my earliest musical influences. (I can remember the moment in 1971 when I first heard “Fire and Rain” playing on a small, transistor radio.)A video of the event will be completed next week and posted on YouTube and on this blog site. It will give you an experience of what occurred. We will be disseminating the video to organizations and individuals throughout the country, including the Obama team. As solicited on his website, this is certainly an "American Story" that generates ideas and insights that can "change the future of this country."
Thirty years ago – in 1978 – the concert pianist, Vladimir Horowitz was invited by Jimmy Carter to perform at the White House. The videos of that concert are among the most sublime I have seen.
The evolution of that performance, three decades later, would make evident that everyone, including the women I work with, can express the same kind of undeniable beauty. That’s what happened on Sunday and that’s what needs to be heard at the White House and throughout culture, to inspire every man, woman and child in this country to realize that beauty is inside of them!!
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