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Everybody deserves good teaching, whether it's a beginner or extremely advanced.
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It's not like I teach the talent so much.
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I teach the person and the talent together.
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I always say the person is just as important as the talent.
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I'll teach anybody who wants to work hard as a mission.
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And a person needs to realize that failures can be very helpful unless you quit.
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You have to put yourself up and keep going and you'll be successful.
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Discouragement is always followed by some kind of encouragement.
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The most important thing is to have a good attitude and positive attitude to help students
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not be so self-critical.
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You want to be better, right?
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That's why we practice every day.
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And it can be stressful.
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Maybe we will have competitions coming up or any reasons, right?
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Because interlocking is just like conservatory.
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But with Kunrad, we're always, yes, of course, we work hard, but he wanted to make sure that
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we have a balance.
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Our studio class, he wanted to make sure that we are all not too stressed.
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And it's all about the balance.
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Hello piano enthusiasts.
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Welcome to the PianoPod with me, Yuki Misong.
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They were diving deeper into the second installment of this season's ninth episode with extraordinary
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artist and educator, Dr. Michael Kunrad, who served as a distinguished faculty member
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at the renowned Interlochen Arts Academy for 46 years.
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In case you missed our captivating part one conversation, exploring his teaching methods
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and philosophy, don't worry.
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You can catch up on all the excitement on your favorite podcast platform right now.
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A warm welcome to all our new listeners.
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This podcast is your all access pass to the captivating world of piano.
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In each episode of the PianoPod, I interview a guest speaker who has been breaking exciting
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new ground in the industry.
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Please rate the show and review it on your favorite podcasting platform because every
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rating review will help people find my show.
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And as for our faithful listeners, I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude for your
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loyal listenership.
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Since 2020, we've been exploring how to make classical music resonate in fresh ways with
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today's audience.
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To keep bringing you these episodes, my show relies on your support.
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Every contribution aids in covering essential podcast expenses.
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So click the PayPal link in the show notes or visit the pianopod.com to donate.
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I'll personally mail you the PianoPod's logo sticker as a token of gratitude.
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So my friends, here is part two of the PianoPod's season four, episode nine, featuring Dr. Michael
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Coonrod.
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Please enjoy the show.
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What's great about being a teacher is I'm a teacher too.
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And I learned from my students quite a bit.
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I think it's a reciprocal relationship that I love about with my profession.
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So any lessons you learn from students?
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Yes.
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Oh, yes.
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Yeah.
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I learned a lot from students.
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I learned to listen to what they're saying.
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I mean, if something's bothered them in life or they can't do something, they worked hard,
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they can't do it.
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I listened to them.
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Now, if they didn't do something because they didn't practice, well, they're out the door.
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I don't like that at all.
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They really try hard, but they didn't make so much progress.
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Discuss what it is.
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And so they have to tell me these things.
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Let's see.
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It's important to be available between lessons.
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I mean, if you're having less than two hours away, you can't expect to have the teacher
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be with you all the time.
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But here or in the neighborhood, you can get involved with the students' lives.
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I have a colleague who goes to somebody's tennis match whenever possible.
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I try to do that for my grandson.
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There are other interests.
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If people have balance in their life, they're not just playing the piano constantly, and
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that's all they're doing.
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I mean, it takes a lot of time and effort to do that.
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But if you just do that, you're a little bit one-sided.
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I'm grateful for my University of Montana training at an undergrad school because I
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studied liberal arts, French literature, English literature, British writers, art history,
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anything that had to do with creativity.
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It helped my music.
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So it's important to not be so self-centered or just focus on total piano, although they
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have to be taught that you have to practice a lot more than you really are.
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If you practice more than six hours, you're likely going to hurt yourself or else you'll
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get brain fog.
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That's tough.
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And it's different for different people.
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Some students with small hands can strain more easily, so you don't want them to practice
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too many hours or in the wrong way.
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The teacher really needs to supervise how they're practicing.
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Sometimes I will watch somebody practice to see what they're doing.
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Other times I'll have students watch me practice to see what I do because practicing means
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something different in the learning process.
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You always say, well, don't just run through something.
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But at the end, you can run through things three times in a row.
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That's very helpful.
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I learned that from Conrad Wolff, my dear teacher from Peabody.
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He wrote the book on Archer's novels teaching and taught me great things.
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And he said, one of the best things is just go through a piece three times in a row, like
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seeing a movie three times.
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You know what's coming up.
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But at the beginning, you'll break things apart in Schmerg method.
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One little thing I learned from the student is stretching my fingers.
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I'm going to show this to you.
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It looks like a contortion.
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I do it every day and I get my students to do it every day.
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It's to stretch the webbing between the fingers.
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So B. Can you see that?
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D and a perfect fifth with two and three.
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The elbows to go out and go down and then slowly twist it.
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So it's the opposite.
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The elbows in the fifth fingers down and the thumb down.
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You just go back and forth.
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Kind of like I don't know if people know what silly putty is.
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You know, if you stretch it slowly, it moves.
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If you start fast, it snaps.
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You don't want to snap.
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And then you do it with.
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Well, I can't do it here because I don't have the fourth finger.
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The left hand's three, four back and forth.
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So be mindful of the elbow way out and then in and in and four or five.
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I mean, if a small hand can't do it, go to a perfect fit for the perfect fourth.
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Thank you.
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All these practical tips to philosophical topics in terms of teaching.
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So now let's switch gears and chat about your life as a pianist and recording artist.
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I mean.
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First of all, how did you discover the love for music?
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As you grew up in the musical home, what was the turning point for a young Michael
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Coonrub to start developing a passion for becoming a pianist?
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That's really an interesting subject because I like many things. I was never adamant about
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playing sports in groups. I like individual sports like tennis and swimming, skiing,
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but we're talking about age five and six. I remember my parents said,
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if you're not going to practice, we're not going to give you lessons. Oh, no, I want to play piano.
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So my teacher arranged the theme from Zorro. That's a show that I liked as a kid. I still remember it.
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I liked it because you could do this at the end.
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That inspired me to practice a little bit more. I mean, I liked nature. I was in Arizona. I was in
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the frog and toad stage. Although in Arizona, it was in the snake and lizard stage and scorpion
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stage. I liked critters. I liked hiking out in the woods. I always liked that. Back down in Montana,
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up here where there's a lot of pine trees, I just dearly loved being out there and lying in the
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grass or the pine needles. It's one of my favorite smells is pine needles warmed by the sun and hearing
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the trees, the wind blowing the leaves and the trees. It sounds a little bit like the whoosh of a
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pedal when you lift it. So I had cap guns when I was a kid, but I've never wanted to be a hunter.
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Just got my cap guns as a kid. As I said before, it's interesting how the early teenage years,
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all of a sudden the fire in the belly starts. For me, I guess I was 10 years old and I loved the
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Rachmaninoff C sharp minor prelude. Everybody knows that of course.
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But my teacher said it's too hard. And so I took that as a challenge. And so I went and learned it
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and memorized it and played it for the class in school. And so I think that's a lesson for us all
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to realize if kids have a passion to learn something, we need to listen to that. If it's
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something that's way beyond them, I think it's wise to say, well, just put that on the piano
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and we can do that someday. But here's two pieces that are very much like that. For example,
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instead of doing Rachmaninoff, you could do Kabalewski and try to meet them halfway.
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Don't be discouraging. Don't be negative. Always be kind of positive. But that piece was,
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I was able to do it. And then another experience I remember was being with my grandparents in
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Missouri. And I went to the small town store and I found this copy of Rachmaninoff second concerto,
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which everybody loves. And I was just fascinated with it. And I started practicing that
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and incessantly. And then by the time I was a sophomore in high school, I was able to play it
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with my high school orchestra. So that created, that was it. Then I started practicing a lot.
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The senior year in high school, I got up at five in the morning and practiced two hours before
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breakfast. And I go to high school and then I go to the university afterwards and practice
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two, three hours, then come home, do homework. I wanted to do it. I wanted to do it good right away.
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And my mother would say, you know, you just can't do it overnight. I said, yeah, I want,
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it's time to waste him. I'm interested to see how that passion is developed in others. And I usually
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ask them, it's a pinpoint milestones in my life. Yeah. But everybody has that sort of, you know,
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moment where, oh, you realize, oh, I better practice more because I like it and I love it.
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You know, I love the way it makes me feel afterwards. Yes. But also students will say,
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oh, I practiced for three weeks. I don't feel like I got better at all. And we have to counsel them.
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We don't see gradual progress. We see all of a sudden they're there. And then all of a sudden
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we're there. You don't notice it gradually. But also if you have different goals, yearly goals,
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monthly goals, weekly goals, daily goals, to say, I'm going to spend 15 minutes on this passage of
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our measures, then you get better. And you don't get better by just running through things. You
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have to address the issue and you have to just say, well, what technique is this that we use?
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Is it rotation? Is it arm? Is it wrist? Hmm. Yeah. Okay. So where were we? No, it's great. But now
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who was your mentor? We are so very lucky if we have at least one person who believed in us. And
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for me, it was Lushen Hutt, a Dutch pianist who was 10 years old when the Germans invaded Rotterdam.
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And he has really vivid memories of that. I think in his later life he was a hoarder.
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He saw a kerosene lamp that he liked in a garage sale. He'd buy seven of them.
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I mean, it had to do with him growing up and he didn't have food. He didn't have wood for fires.
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Can you imagine growing up during that Holocaust? It was terrible. But he would tell me,
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if you can make a few special moments, then you're successful. And so he said,
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I'm capable of doing that. So that just stimulates me to believe in what I'm doing.
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And the other person was Conrad Wolff. I spoke about him earlier, a biographer of Archer Schnabel.
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I learned some great things. Like the line is the most important. You got to keep a line going
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because the sound decays with every note. You have to make sure you keep on going. And there's a way
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of doing that that sometimes makes it just as linear as a violin, a string instrument.
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But I was playing Schubert B-flat Sonata for the Liszt Society and he was there. And he had to catch
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a bus train. He had a commitment. So he was there for the first movement. And he wrote me a little
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note, which I still have. And it says, I'm furious I have to leave, but I want you to know you're
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doing everything right. So that made me really love Schubert's music.
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Which you have the entire CD dedicated to Schubert.
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Two CDs in that, 150 minutes. It's just that that music fits my personality. Beethoven's great.
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Beethoven often is very, very aggressive. I mean Schubert's dramatic is also, but in a more elegant
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style, elegant way, except maybe the wander fantasy as well, Beethoven-esque. But in the rest of my
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life, I would like to spend time with Schubert's music. And my dear colleague, we both love the
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music of Schubert. And she asked to help her know how to play the fantasy in F minor. And I wanted
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to do the bronze piano quintet for two pianos. And so we did both those together.
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I want to know a little bit more about your musical career. Any memorable performances
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that you experienced that you can share with us today?
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Well, in 1994, I was granted a sabbatical leave. And so I was asked to play a concert at the Chopin
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Academy Music in Poland, and also in Poznan, another town. And so I played George Crumb's Christmas
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Suite, George Walker's first piano sonata, really important works of the 20th century in America.
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And so that's what they wanted. And Poland is really interested in 20th century, 21st century
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music now, a leader. And so they want to know what American 20th century music was all about.
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So I went there and I played, I gave a masterclass, I showed them how the Christmas Suite was
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conceived, and I played it for them. That was really a wonderful experience for me. Also, I
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played Chopin's third scherzo for one of the Polish teachers who's a renowned Chopin expert.
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Remember, the main thing she said was Chopin wanted his music in time, play it in time.
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And that resonated with me because I don't really care for self-indulgent music. It's not elegant,
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it just draws attention to, oh, I'm so musical. But you can create the respect for one's playing
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by promoting the composer and not going overboard. That's what I like about Schubert. It can be just
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so gorgeous, but if you stray from the tempo, too much rubato, too much retard, it seems to lack
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the elegance. So I learned that from her. That was one experience. The other two influences were
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memorable experiences were playing these concertos. One was the Kenji Bunch concerto for the left
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hand alone that I commissioned. And I was so very lucky that when I lost my finger, colleagues,
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friends, family collected $30,000 for me to commission music for the left hand alone. And so
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I played Kenji's music before I saw him in Maple Mound. He was the guest composer.
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He was the guest composer. And I had played his music. And there's a lot of jazzy rhythms,
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not jazz like in Gershwin or Duke Ellington. It's just syncopated and really attractive to
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general audiences as well as my colleagues. When I selected Kenji to be the composer,
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my colleague said, oh, I was hoping you'd choose him. So I premiered that with our
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semi-professional orchestra in town of Traverse City, the Traverse Symphony Orchestra.
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And I played an encore of the Danny Boy for my left hand. So it was very touching to see
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that I had made lemonade out of the lemons. It's amazing that you are continuing to perform
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despite of, you know, life's curve balls. But yeah, it's great. The third thing was playing
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the Chaconne in D minor by Bach, but for the left hand alone, my Brahms. And the ironic thing was,
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I learned that three months before I lost my finger because I loved it. But like three weeks
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after the amputation, I was teaching at the Amalfi Coast Music Festival in Maieri, Italy.
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And I played that, you know, with a bandaged right hand. And I also, in subsequent years,
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in subsequent years, I did the Kenji Bunch concerto with the second pianist.
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Those were memorable experiences for me. Now that you mentioned about your finger,
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you know, so let's talk about your finger injury first, before we are getting into your recording,
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you know, CD albums that I have here with me today. But I know you mentioned that it happened
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about eight years ago, 2015. 2015, I was 65 years old. And it was a Memorial Day. Well,
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Memorial Day weekend. Yeah, so very memorable to me. You're taking your students somewhere,
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right? It was before graduation. And I wanted to have one last get together. So we had dinner and
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then they wanted me to take them to Interlochen's property, which butts up to our fence. And so we
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have 12 acres. So I hiked over there and I jumped over the fence. And I don't know how it happened,
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but I was wearing a padded glove. But I had my father's big ring on that finger. And so when I
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jumped over the fence to try to find a way for them to get through the fence, they got hung up
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and the other side was 10 inches lower. I didn't realize that. And so I'm here to tell you that
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shock happens instantly. Not shock like putting your finger in a light socket. It's just you
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completely lose strength. You can't believe it. Didn't believe very much, but I was holding it up
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like that when I was holding. And so they got found a hole in the fence and they pulled me
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through it. We went to the house, which is only a football field away. My wife drove me to the
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hospital and they called an orthopedic surgeon and people were saying, oh, we can fix this. It'll
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be okay. It'll be okay. But it's pretty mangled. And he said, you know, if you cut it off, we can
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suture it on again. But when you mangle all those nerves, there's only about 10% chance you'll be
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able to have the finger. He said, because you have insurance and you're a pianist, we're going to try
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everything. So in the middle of a rainstorm, thunderstorm, they flew a jet helicopter up from
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Ann Arbor University Hospital to pick me up. And they had to take me in a gurney to try to find the
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helicopter. And we went all the way down there and my wife didn't go because she needed the car. So
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she went home and then drove the next day. And so they got me there. So within four hours of the
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injury, five hours of the injury, they did a three hour surgery. It's supposed to have been some kind
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of innovative Chinese experimental surgery. And then they put my hand in a plastic billowy hot
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plastic thing with a hair blower going through it to try to get the blood flowing. They even
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put leeches on the end of my fourth finger to see if, you know, they still use leeches.
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Really? Oh my God. But they didn't sense anything of interest. So it didn't work. So after three days,
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it was obvious that it wasn't working. So I just say, okay, take it off. So I'm really grateful
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that they took the whole thing because if it was just half, it kind of hit my way. So there's two
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things I remember instantly. Number one, I'm really grateful it didn't happen to a student.
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I mean, I've had a career of performing. I have five CDs. Well, four, one is two. And then, you
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know, I'm 65. I'm 73 now. I've had a good life, but to have it happen as a teenager would be
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horrible. And the second thing I was grateful for is happened with the weakest finger. If I would
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ever strain my hand, it was always the fourth finger because the fourth doesn't lift very far.
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My colleague says, you know, you sound better now. I don't know if I can believe him, but
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I do know that when I was a kid, I was really adamant about substituting.
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You know, substituting every finger to make it legato. I avoided the bites against it. So finally,
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I realized it's more constricting than just playing the tone. So a good tone can be produced by your
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finger or a pencil. I don't have a pencil, but it's a matter of...
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I mean, you can... In other words, it's not so good to...
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Unless you're an organist, you have to do that. But...
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So there's two with octaves. It's hard to play 5-4 with octaves. I play 5-3.
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But if you play 5-5, it works. So I do a lot of 5-5 for octaves and having strokes to make...
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You know, like a marimba, you play with a certain pressure, it comes out a nice tone.
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That's how I adapted.
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You mentioned about shock. I can't imagine the shock, right? But then tell us about the
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process of recovery, because that's another phase after you've really seen the shock,
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you sense the shock. Now, next phase would be physical and emotional recovery process.
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And how did you maintain, even through then, how did you maintain your passion for music
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and stay motivated?
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Well, I was really lucky that I played the Chaconne of D minor in my Aurelion Festival
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back in the day going, and it was successful. And they liked it. And one Italian man, he came up
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and he kissed my hand and they're very, very emotional over there. And so I got a lot of
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feedback that way. I also realized that my colleagues were building this incredible fund
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for a left-hand concerto. I mean, these things that happened wouldn't have happened otherwise.
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So I can't say I'm grateful to lose a finger, but it turned out okay. And I subsequently
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found out I can play with both hands. Like on the dedication recording, that with nine fingers.
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And there's three left-hand pieces on it, the Chaconne, the Scriabin left-hand eight,
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and my Danny boy. But everything like the symphonic eight, the Schumann,
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I have to confess that I can't play first inversion chords that well. For example,
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in A major, the first inversion C sharp, E, A, but you know, you don't want to do one, two,
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three, five, good stretches the hand. It's, it's, it's a strain. I can do that if it's really slow,
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but ordinarily I just leave it out because that's the note you voice out anyway,
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instead of playing. Cause you got a lot of tonic notes anyway.
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So I can play many things, but I can't play Chopin etudes or list pieces, which is okay.
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I've done enough of that in my life. I want to focus on the composers that I just mentioned,
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Bach, Schumann, Brahms. They tend to be cordial. Rachmaninoff might be difficult because there's
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a lot of fast scales in Rachmaninoff. But I think that's the thing. I think that's the thing.
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So Rachmaninoff might be difficult because there's a lot of fast scales in Rachmaninoff. And,
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you know, just interested in playing beautiful music. My colleague, Hamin Kim and I, we played
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the recital and we did overture to Candide by Bernstein arranged by my good friend, Chip Miller.
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That was really fun. I can do that. There's not too many scales.
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But then we did the Schubert fantasy in F minor that has some scales in it, but mostly chords,
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broken chords. I can do fugues. And then the really difficult part was the Brahms piano
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quintet. It used to be a quintet, string quintet. And then Clara said, let's make a two piano
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sonata of it. And then finally, he arranged it for piano quintet. That's its final form. But the
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piano sonata is definitely fine. My colleague who's a violist says, I like the two piano versions
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better. Yeah, there's some few notes. There's a lot of fast notes, but a lot of octaves and chords.
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And so that satisfies me because I have some balance in my life, in my retirement. For decades,
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I've wanted to build a diorama of my home city of Missoula, Montana, in the middle of the Rocky
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Mountains with a train running all around it. And you're building right now. That's right. So
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I spent five hours a day on that. We did that recital. We're going to be in Ducs de Moire,
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play for church, for church choir. I work with the Boy Scouts as an adult leader. That keeps me busy.
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And for anybody who's retiring, I would give advice, don't retire unless you have a project,
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something to do. You want to go back to work doing something else. But I wanted to be retired. They
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even asked me at Interlochen, could you come back and teach piano lessons for people whose major is
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something else? And I said, no, no, I really want to be retired. What advice do you have for other
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musicians facing, I wouldn't say similar, but very difficult life's setbacks right now due to
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life's unexpected curveballs? What kind of advice do you have for them? Well, I feel a little
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self-conscious for saying certain things like this is the world's worst thing, but, you know,
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I could have lost an arm or a leg or people come back from war or automobile accidents. I mean,
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compared to that, this is nothing. I can still play with both hands. But still, it was shocking.
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I would say, count your blessings. There's many really good things that have happened to me
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because of that. And I'm grateful. So many wonderful students who keep in touch.
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The collection of money for the guest artists, for Interlochen students and faculty.
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Stay positive. I mean, I'm really lucky. I have a wife of 52 years, three wonderful children,
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four grandchildren. You know, I'm really fortunate to have some good things happen to me.
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Pokey Huang. So we talked about he was the one who introduced me to you, but he was practicing
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your Danny Boy on the left hand. Yes. And then I remember seeing one video clip that he was
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practicing on Instagram or something. Anyway, can you tell us about the arrangement? So did you
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compose or arrange pieces before that, before your injury? Or is there something new? Ironically,
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ironically, about 25 years ago, when I was playing bagpipes as part of my balancing act,
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I really loved Danny Boy because it's one of the most beautiful songs ever written. And so I
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arranged it for two hands. It was for a Kayleigh, which is a Scottish party, but I lost it. And then
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all of a sudden this finger thing happened. And I thought, Oh, it's really, I bet I could do that
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for a left hand alone. And it took me a long time to figure out how I was going to do it.
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Because I wanted to have counterpoint in it as well as the melody. And then the arrangement,
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I'll send it to you if you're interested. It's not easy. You have to really work hard at voicing
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because you have to play the melody like it's a voice, but then you might have the melody.
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So I arranged that and it's been a nice encore to play. And I played it for the assembly
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at Interlochen when I was my last week there. I played it in the Malfe Coast Festival and I
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finally recorded it on the CD you have. The dedication CD, yes.
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We're going to talk about your recordings now, but where can we get these CDs?
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Everything except the dedication is on Spotify or YouTube.
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And then dedication, if they wanted this CD, should they contact you?
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Yeah, they can write to me. email.
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kuhnrodmm at interlochen.org.
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Now I will list that in the description so that my audience can reach out to you and then get the CD.
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So speaking of CDs, so I have all five of them, but actually this has two of them inside. So
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five CD albums here with me. I want to particularly know 50th anniversary favorites.
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And also we talked about dedication and also the life and the music of Albert James Fillmore.
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So let's start with 50th anniversary favorites.
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Okay, open the cover, the jacket and show us the picture of my mentor, Lucian Hutt.
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Yes, which you mentioned about him.
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I dedicated this with him in mind, a Dutch pianist who studied with Vronsky and Babin,
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the famous piano duo team. And they had studied with Artur Schnabel. So I have that connection there too.
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So now let's talk about the other album titled The Life and Music of Albert James Fillmore.
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Could you share more about Mr. Fillmore, his background and your connection with him?
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Additionally, what inspired you to undertake the production of this particular album?
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Well, he's a dear friend, about 80 years old. And he had a cottage up here at Crystal Lake,
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and he would come up to visit. And I knew him in like 1987 when he was composing these prelates
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for piano. And he wasn't trying to do unique things in contemporary vocabulary. He called it
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the Muse of Chopin. And he just loved the preludes of Chopin and decided to write them in the
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different keys. And they're short, but they're not insipid at all. They're on wonderful harmonic
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progressions. Some of them are very difficult, and some of them are good teaching pieces.
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So those are C major to A minor to D major to B minor. My adult students really love them.
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And so he had a cottage in Owasso where he was born, literally. And he also was Professor Emeritus
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at the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit. But he never drove because his father told him,
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you're accident prone, you don't drive. What a thing to put on a child. So he was always
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bumming rides. So we would take him down to Detroit. If I'm in Detroit for a conference,
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we'd come up and I'd take him to his cottage. So I would sit with him and watch him compose these
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pieces. And he was somewhat of an anglophile. He loved William Blake, his poetry, and he wrote
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songs, lovely songs. And so he passed away after living with us for a while. He was recovering from
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hip injury and he was in a nursing home with people who needed extra help. But he didn't need
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help. His mind was right there. So my wife took care of him for a half a year before he went down
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to Detroit. He developed a staph infection in his hip and they couldn't, oh, I see he broke his hip,
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but he had a staph infection. They couldn't operate until they got rid of the staph infection.
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He never did. So he passed away from that. And I wish I had made this CD before he passed away.
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But I'm contending his legacy by bringing it to teachers in Michigan. I wish I could find other
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ways of promoting it because my wife, desktop printed all the preludes and also this piece for
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organ and orchestra variations on what love is this. And so it's a beautiful CD with a biography,
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40 page biography that she wrote on his life. And she's the one to do it because she knew him
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really well. They had the preludes and the orchestra piece and biography and children's choir
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pieces and the songs by Robert de Vizzi. And it's a great anthology of music. And we did that.
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Wonderful. Yes. Yeah. There's like a really chunk of book, sort of like a booklet inside of the album
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and talks about the legacy of the composer and also some anecdotes documented with his handwritten
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letters. Sometimes you see and the photos from his childhood and the houses that he used to live in.
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Interesting. He did study with Nadia Boulanger in 1939. He was over in Paris and they had,
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because the Germans were invading France, they had to get out immediately on a ship. He was one of
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the last ships out to come over here. And she always told him, just follow your heart, compose
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00:37:56,600
what you want to compose instead of being forced into something. Wonderful man. And we miss him.
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00:38:06,520
I listened to the prelude. Very beautiful. In many ways, they are like many romantic literature,
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00:38:12,520
the piano literature, the feature of romantic period, but also sometimes you can hear a hint
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00:38:19,080
of impressionism as well. Yes. And Schumann, the F-sharp minor is very Schumann-esque. And the F
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00:38:28,920
major is very Gershwin-like. My favorites are the E major, the B major, C minor, B minor, A flat major.
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00:38:33,960
Yeah. I need to listen to them again, but thank you so much for sending me all these CD albums
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00:38:41,320
to me. I'm enjoying listening to them. You have such a long career as a pianist and piano teacher.
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00:38:45,160
So what's the secret to a long career in performing arts? It's not easy.
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00:38:51,240
Well, it's my life. I mean, I love my wife and my family, of course, first and foremost.
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00:38:59,880
But my reason for being is to play the piano and to share that with students and performances,
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00:39:05,240
of course. And so I've known that ever since I was, well, I guess I said I had the passion when I was
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00:39:12,120
13 or 14, but I played the piano my whole life. I think that music should be shared, not just
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00:39:18,520
playing for yourself, although it's good therapy to play these pieces for yourself. I've been
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00:39:28,280
reliving the spin of Gretchen. And I said, no, why are you doing that? I said, well, because I love
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00:39:28,280 -->
00:39:34,200
it. I don't need to perform it anywhere, but I would like to share it with people. So human
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00:39:41,400
interaction is really important to me when I give a concert, just like I tend to not like receptions
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00:39:46,120
because you can't talk to one person for any length of time. I like to one-on-one visit.
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00:39:53,560
I guess I've done it my whole life and I feel it's part of my heart. And I enjoy getting to
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00:39:58,040
know the composers and seeing what's maybe in their heart. That's why I like teaching piano
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00:40:02,520
literature because I did it from the point of view of the composer, showing the students how it was
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00:40:06,760
written, how they must have been thinking structurally and harmonically. They just don't
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00:40:15,000
wake up and do this great piece. They do rules that don't sound like rules, that sound creative.
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00:40:23,320
If you analyze things, you know what's going on. Now, this question is for you as a music educator,
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00:40:28,600
a piano teacher. So how has music education evolved throughout your teaching career and
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00:40:31,240
what are the most significant changes you've observed?
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00:40:39,720
The obvious things is the technology, the recording, and the cell phones. When I was a high school
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00:40:48,120
student, the present my parents gave me was a portable tape recorder. It was this big and it
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00:40:54,920
was reel to reel and I used it a lot. It was portable, it was heavy and awkward, but I used
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00:41:00,200
it into graduate school and it was very, very helpful. Nowadays, you put higher quality in
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00:41:06,040
your pocket, of course. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for all the change. But for students,
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00:41:12,600
well, we can say that the focus has diminished just because of the media and television.
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00:41:19,160
When I listen to movies from the 50s, there's these long swaths of speaking, but nowadays,
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00:41:24,600
these very short periods, you think they can say one sentence and then they cut and then they
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00:41:28,680
learn another sentence and that's not the rule. There are exceptions. There's some really great
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00:41:34,840
acting in the dialogue or monologues and dialogues, but generally, there's less focus.
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00:41:43,880
I mean, look at these clips between the TV shows or they're telling you all about the TV shows and
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00:41:48,840
the movies. So you see half a second, you can go to this and you go to this and it just makes me
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00:41:56,440
nervous. Just fast, fast, fast. But for students, I don't know, people are people. Maybe the styles,
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00:42:05,160
you know, the styles of clothing is so much different. I see really smart students, much
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00:42:12,120
much smarter than me. I mean, a student, a very special student, Davis, he's going to Yale now
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00:42:18,760
and he can take so many different classes and he plays piano like I want to hear piano. He
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00:42:25,080
hears the harmonies. He can play a fugue. He knows what chord structure is. He's the ideal student,
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00:42:32,040
but he's a whiz at math and he takes different courses in economics. I think, what's he going
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00:42:36,200
to do? There's so many things, paths he could follow. One thing I failed to mention before is
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00:42:41,400
that I think students need to realize that you can't just follow one path and expect to do this
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00:42:48,920
for the concert pianist. There's certain options that most of us take and most common one is
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00:42:55,960
teacher. And if you're not people oriented and you don't really care to share with people,
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00:42:55,960 -->
00:42:58,840
what are you going to do? You're not going to perform all the time. It's hard to make a lot
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00:43:04,520
of money playing. I play concerts, but I don't make money to live. I teach. So you have to really
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00:43:10,600
enjoy people to be a teacher. So I can't tell the difference, so much the difference in people,
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00:43:17,400
people are people. I mean, the language, I mean, the final language is everywhere in music and even
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00:43:22,200
even interlocking, we just try to dissuade that. I don't hear it so much, but when you're in public,
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00:43:22,200 -->
00:43:27,640
you hear these words that are offensive to me all the time. In that regard, I'm kind of old fashioned.
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00:43:28,280 -->
00:43:34,280
So how relevant is classical training in today's this very fast paced society?
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00:43:40,120
I think that it can really encourage longer attention spans and more focus and more dwelling
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00:43:45,560
on sensitivity. I mean, the ancient Greeks used to have music therapy. Some person just all they did
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00:43:53,880
was sports and triathlons and football players and coaches today are just strong. That's their
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00:43:58,760
reason for being. You need to balance that out with things that are more gracious and sensitive,
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00:44:05,080
dance, music, art. You need to have, here's that word again, balance. It's important. It's so easy
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00:44:09,720
to be just doing piano, piano, piano. That's all I'm doing in my life. My balance is getting out in
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00:44:15,960
the woods and hiking and camping and canoeing. It's mostly music, but I balance it with many other
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00:44:23,240
things too. And then the Greeks, they knew the value of therapy. That can't be one sided. I'm
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00:44:23,240 -->
00:44:30,280
hoping that that could be a model for kids these days. That's why I say balance is really important.
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00:44:30,280 -->
00:44:36,120
Balance can make, like if you go out in the woods and just lie in the grass and just relax and relax
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00:44:36,120 -->
00:44:40,760
and relax your muscles. Then when you get back to practicing, you're more relaxed and you actually
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00:44:40,760 -->
00:44:44,840
practice better. And then that place like in unlocking allows you to do that because
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00:44:51,720
surrounded by nature. That's so, so enriching as a young student, you know, to experience that while
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00:44:56,600
practicing. Then you get out in the nature and being able to. And they take walks because we
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00:45:03,000
live on 1200 acres and it's all wooded. They like to take walks, which is good. But I like to take
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00:45:09,000
students out in the canoe, turn over the canoe. That's fine. You just get up and get the water out
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00:45:09,000 -->
00:45:15,400
and you've got to immerse yourself in it or take them out into a kettle. A kettle is a depression in
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00:45:22,680
the land that we just have a glacier in it and carved it out. So there's a place that's emerald
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00:45:29,080
green water. It's beautiful, but you have to get in the mud. I like to get hot and sweaty and hiking,
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00:45:34,200
but I really like to get cleaned up even if it's a cold stream. That's the kind of nature I'm
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00:45:41,400
talking about. Wow. That's so nice. What is your thought on our duty or gift as classical musicians
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00:45:47,240
to society at large? I don't like to be one sided and say classical music is the best thing in the
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00:45:53,640
world. Like PDQ Box says, if it sounds good, it is good. People like country music. I like it. It
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00:45:59,880
reminds me of Montana, hip hop, jazz, and it's all sorts of really, really great music, good quality
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00:46:06,840
music. Oh, do you like hip hop too? Oh, sure. Oh yeah. See, if there's a Simon and Garfunkel from
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00:46:13,000
the sixties, I love that. It's still prevalent. The Beach Boys, of course, the Beatles, high quality
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00:46:19,400
music. It's not just three chords. I think classical music has three chords, but it also has
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00:46:19,400 -->
00:46:26,520
modulations and has structure to it. It can really elevate a person's mind and also hopefully
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00:46:26,520 -->
00:46:33,160
sensitivities to the sound. I mean, fugues, you know, the pendulum has swung so far. Renaissance,
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00:46:37,720
Baroque. Renaissance is kind of a classic time and you go to the Baroque and it got to be more
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00:46:43,000
romantic. And then you got these thick fugues no one could follow anymore. So went over to just
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00:46:50,280
three chords with Gallupi and Tartini and then Haydn, Mozart. And then you get to Beethoven,
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00:46:56,440
which is you can't follow the gross fugue. I think you go back to, I mean, it's just always swinging
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00:47:02,680
back and forth. There's all different kinds of classical music. But of course, PDQ Bach said
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00:47:10,520
music was always, was once new. The old music was new at one point. Who's to say what popular music
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00:47:18,200
is? Popular music was Brahms' raps, Hungarian raps, Liszt's raps, or Brahms' waltzes or Husserl's
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00:47:23,960
dances. That was a hard question to answer in grad school. What is popular music? How's it
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00:47:23,960 -->
00:47:31,000
different from classical? Well, as we associate classical composers, it can be considered archaic
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00:47:37,000
and old, 16th, 17th, 18th century. But when you perform it, it's there right then and there. It's
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00:47:43,160
not like going and seeing a museum and it's just stationary objects. It comes alive. I always say
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00:47:49,640
that we are recreative artists. We breathe life into the music. It's like taking cloning a dinosaur
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00:47:56,760
and making it live again, if that would be possible ever. So it's not creative. We like to be
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00:48:03,560
creative in the way we recreate other person's music. Now, what's the next phase and next goal
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00:48:03,560 -->
00:48:11,560
in your life? Well, I was so excited that my dear colleague, the collaborative pianist here
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00:48:17,720
of the second year, asked me to play a recital with her. We did three and that happened exactly
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00:48:17,720 -->
00:48:24,600
when I played piano for almost 55 years. To tell you the truth, I'm a little tired of memorizing.
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00:48:24,600 -->
00:48:32,200
And so I want to be more relaxed in my life and I've spent time building my HO scale model
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00:48:38,680
railway, diorama of Missoula, Montana. That's a big function, but I don't do that all the time.
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00:48:39,320 -->
00:48:44,920
But I'm not getting out of music. I want to play chamber music. And so we did this two piano
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00:48:44,920 -->
00:48:50,520
recital, a piano duet recital. We're going to do more of that. So those are two aspects in my life.
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00:48:56,760
Travel. I want to travel with my wife. We took our granddaughter and her friend, age 19,
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00:49:05,160
to Portugal and Spain, Barcelona. Wonderful. So lastly, any message, advice for young musicians
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00:49:11,480
and piano students? Try not to be so concerned with yourself, what you're going to do, because
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00:49:11,480 -->
00:49:16,280
along the way you're missing out with meeting friends and having a balance in your life and
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00:49:16,280 -->
00:49:21,960
going skiing and doing other things that are more social. I see some students who
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00:49:21,960 -->
00:49:26,840
are phenomenally talented, but they don't know how to relate to other people. And I think,
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00:49:31,240
what kind of life are they going to have? They have to learn that it's not just all about me,
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00:49:37,560
me, me, me. So be careful with that. Have a positive attitude. Count the blessings you have,
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00:49:42,680
the good things in life. There will always be trouble things and you have to downplay that.
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00:49:42,680 -->
00:49:48,600
My colleague, who's no longer living, said, accept the negative, dwell on the positive.
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00:49:55,880
Absolutely. Wow. Thank you so much for this fun, inspiring, what a rich conversation we had,
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00:49:55,880 -->
00:50:00,920
Dr. Conrad. You're such a wonderful, wonderful host. It was just really a pleasure getting to
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00:50:00,920 -->
00:50:07,080
know you and answering your questions. Oh, same here. But before I let you go,
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00:50:07,080 -->
00:50:11,800
we have one more thing to do. It's called the piano pause rapid fire question. So this is the
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00:50:11,800 -->
00:50:16,920
part of the show where I get to ask fun questions to each guest. Now here's a little twist. As silly
505
00:50:16,920 -->
00:50:24,200
as these questions may sound, your answers may reveal who you truly are. So ready or not,
506
00:50:24,200 -->
00:50:30,120
please answer them with the shortest responses as possible. No explanation is necessary.
507
00:50:30,120 -->
00:50:37,320
Wish me luck. Okay. Yes. So let's start with easy ones. Level one. What is your comfort food?
508
00:50:37,960 -->
00:50:47,960
Italian lasagna. How do you like your coffee? I'm allergic to it. Oh, to coffee? Caffeine.
509
00:50:47,960 -->
00:50:56,040
Really? Oh, wow. Okay. Okay. So what do you drink in the morning? Water. Water? Sounds good.
510
00:50:56,040 -->
00:51:07,480
Cats or dogs? Dogs. Sunrise or sunset? Oh, sunset, particularly dusk. Oh, beautiful. Summer or winter?
511
00:51:09,480 -->
00:51:21,560
Spring. No, no. Okay. Summer. Paper book or ebook? Paper. Level two. What skill have you learned
512
00:51:21,560 -->
00:51:27,080
but haven't had the chance to? Build a model railway. Okay. What you're doing right now.
513
00:51:27,080 -->
00:51:35,080
Yes. What is your word or words to live by? Balance in your life. What is the most important
514
00:51:35,080 -->
00:51:43,640
quality you look for in other people? Genuineness. Sincerity. Name three people who inspire you,
515
00:51:43,640 -->
00:51:52,520
living or dead. Lushan Hut, David Holland, Conrad Wolff. Name one piece in your current playlist.
516
00:51:53,960 -->
00:52:01,320
Schubert B-flat Sonata. Level three. What do you believe in the key to a fulfilling life?
517
00:52:01,960 -->
00:52:07,080
Listen to my wife. Good answer.
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00:52:07,080 -->
00:52:13,080
The last question. Please fill in the blank. Music is blank. Human interaction.
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00:52:14,760 -->
00:52:21,720
Beautiful. Thank you. So that concludes this episode of the piano part. Thank you, Dr. Conrad.
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00:52:21,720 -->
00:52:28,360
What fun it was. Oh, for joining my show today and sharing your stories, insights, and expertise.
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00:52:28,360 -->
00:52:35,240
So for listeners, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask them in the comments.
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00:52:35,240 -->
00:52:42,760
So for listeners, if you want to find out more about Dr. Conrad and his incredible work and legacy,
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00:52:43,560 -->
00:52:55,640
please reach out to him via email at conradmm at interlocking.org. Right? Yes. Okay. And I will list
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00:52:55,640 -->
00:53:01,240
that information in the description. You can listen to his recordings on all major music streaming
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00:53:01,240 -->
00:53:07,080
services, Spotify and YouTube and so forth. And thank you to my wonderful audiences and fans for
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00:53:07,080 -->
00:53:12,120
tuning in today. If you enjoyed today's episode, please rate and review it on whatever podcasting
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00:53:12,120 -->
00:53:16,680
platform you use. Remember to hit the thumbs up button and subscribe to my YouTube channel
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00:53:17,480 -->
00:53:22,520
and follow the piano pod on social media to get the latest piano news via Facebook, Twitter,
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00:53:22,520 -->
00:53:27,080
Instagram, and LinkedIn. I will see you for the next episode of the piano pod. Bye everyone.
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00:53:27,080 -->
00:53:31,880
Bye Dr. Conrad. Thank you so much.
