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 Here are some of my piano recordings from my YouTube channel.





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Beginning Beethoven

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The first page of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 1, from my beat-up Schenker edition   For a long time, I have aspired to learn and eventually perform all of Ludwig van Beethoven's piano sonatas. I grew up hearing them and they have remained, after the keyboard works of Bach, probably the most influential works in my musical development. I think now is the time to start working on this massive undertaking in earnest. In this post, I will explain how I plan to approach this project. Background I worked on Beethoven's first sonata (Op. 2, No. 1) with my teacher David Zapka six or seven years ago, but I never manage to master its difficulties, owing partly to a lack of dedication and poor practice habits. A couple years later, I worked with him on the second sonata (Op. 2, No. 2), with essentially the same result - I got it "sort of" in my fingers, but never mastered it.      I also worked with him on No. 20 in G Major, the easiest sonata. The story of how that came ab...
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2022-2023: Two Years of Music in Review

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Last year, I didn't get around to writing a post like this, so now I will be reviewing the past two years of my musical endeavors - discussing what I learned, enriching experiences I had, and what I look forward to improving upon in 2024. It was my desire to improve as a musician that led to me starting this blog, so I thought it fitting to reflect on these things. New Discoveries The past two years of have been the most musically involved for me, from discovering new composers to improving my piano technique, and giving a variety of performances. First, the composers. I present them in roughly chronological order rather than the order I discovered or "rediscovered" them. Domenico Scarlatti Scarlatti's keyboard sonatas are not new to me - I grew up hearing them (primarily on classical guitar), and they have always been a source of musical inspiration and joy. However, until the past year or so, I had only tinkered with them on the piano. In years of piano lessons, Sca...
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Song of the Week: "Dawn," Op. 24, No. 7 (Medtner)

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Song of the Week Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951) Dawn | Opus 24, no. 7 The Music One of Medtner's sunniest songs, "Dawn" is an all-around joy to listen to. The eight songs of Opus 24 are, in general, some of Medtner's most melodically appealing and Romantic songs. The Performance The Text Poem by Afanasy Fet (1820-1892) Russian Шёпот, робкое дыханье. Трели соловья, Серебро и колыханье, Сонного ручья, Свет ночной, ночные тени, Тени без конца, Ряд волшебных изменений Милого лица, В дымных тучках пурпур розы, Отблеск янтаря, И лобзания, и слёзы, И заря, заря!... English (translation  ©  Henry Drinker) Whisp'ring, timid, softly breathing, trills the nightingale. Silver brooklet, lazy weaving, ripples thru the vale; flick'ring visions, gleams of beauty, fantasies of grace; magic changes, gone, returning, in a loving face ; purple shadows, smoothly stealing, creep across the lawn, tears and laughter, sighs and kisses, and the dawn, the dawn!  
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