I was surprised when I mentioned James Rosenquist to a composer, a bright, musically informed musician. "Who's that?" the composer said. I'm skeptical of artists who don't know about their field. But what about other fields? Do musicians need to know about painting? Or dance? Or writing? Politics? Physics? A prospective doctoral student at Juilliard told the interviewing committee his favorite symphony by Beethoven was the Ninth. "Is … [Read more...]
Matter of opinion
After several master classes at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris, given by several of us pianists, a student asked me: "Isn't it all just a matter of opinion?" And after so many diverging ideas and approaches, strongly expressed, who could blame anyone for asking that question? With so many differences, perhaps opinions just seem like ... random thoughts? I told him what I believe. "In music -- or politics, or anything -- the 'best' … [Read more...]