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You're listening to the piano part, where we talk to the brightest minds in the industry
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about how they're bringing the piano into the 21st century.
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Last time we spoke to Frederick Chu about his experiences as a young pianist, collaborations
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with other artists, and what it's like to be a cultural ambassador.
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Check out our podcast channel if you missed it.
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And now, the conclusion.
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So Frederick, you have so many things that you're offering, you know, just to visit
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your website.
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We were like so blown away.
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We didn't know where to start.
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All the events that you're creating, it's more like almost like a play or show, you
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know, where you have one event and you can just use that to go to travel to different
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places, it seems like.
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Each has a different theme.
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So can you just a little bit tell us about that?
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Maybe it seems like you have several different events that you created, the Evolution of
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Piano, Monument to Beethoven, Carnival of Animals, and then the classical Smackdown.
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Yeah, I mean, you all can empathize or you've experienced this.
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I mean, we put so much work into putting a program together.
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And very often it's a one time opportunity to play that program and we work so hard.
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And I really feel like the more a program can have its own message, then the more it
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deserves to be played as a package.
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And so I've always crafted my programs with that in mind, that there's some reason to
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put these pieces together in this order.
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And there's some storyline that can unfold from that, that can engage people.
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Like I have my Monument to Beethoven.
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We talk about the actual monument to Beethoven and Bonn and the fundraising that went into
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that in the early 1800s and how all these composers just kind of dropped the ball.
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Nobody gave money and nobody did very much to raise money.
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And Liszt came in and said, hey, this is not acceptable.
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And I'm just going to give the equivalent of I think it was like $100,000 or whatever.
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Let's get this done.
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And I have a great sculptor in mind and let's just do it.
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Mr. Schumann contributed the fantasy to the effort and said, I will donate, I forget how
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many scores, the sales of those first 100 scores, let's say, will go towards the monument
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fund.
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And then when he saw that it wasn't going well, I think he just kind of said, well,
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oh, did I promise that?
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Oh, I forgot.
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And then he turned it into a love story for Clara.
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So he used what he had, which is great.
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And there's no criticizing Schumann's fantasy.
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But that was inspired by the Beethoven monument effort.
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And then Liszt, of course, transcribed all of Beethoven's symphonies.
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That in and of itself is a monument.
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I put one of the symphonies with the Schumann fantasy and you have these two monumental
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pieces that are so different from each other.
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And yet they are tied together by this external event.
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And I think that story really says something to a listener who may love one or both works
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and who may love that in general.
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But then, hey, these are real people and they did things and the music was a result of that
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and the music was impetus for those kinds of things.
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I do another series of programs I call Classical Smackdown, which is inspired by The Voice
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and America's Got Talent, where people basically vote for their favorite.
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And I love this series.
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I have three programs in it now.
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And I'm presenting the program online in a few months.
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So people who are interested can go to Frederick Chu.com and sign up and they'll get notification
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of that.
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Basically two composers and I play pieces that I've chosen that really show the contrast
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or the similarity between them and put them out there in different rounds for people to
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listen, basically to taste and say, I like this taste better.
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I like this taste better and to vote and then to see how their vote compares with others,
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other votes and then to discuss, to debate, to fight with each other about why did you
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vote for that?
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I love playing those programs in person, in concert, because at the end of the program,
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the lights go on and usually half the people are already out of their seats and trying
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to get out of the parking lot.
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At a Classical Smackdown concert, they turn on the lights and everybody's in their seat
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and they're talking with their neighbors and they're like, hey, I don't know, I don't know.
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And old people are talking to young people and people who don't know each other are talking
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and everybody's discussing and debating and there's a huge ruckus.
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I just love that afterlife of the concert.
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That's how it should be, I feel.
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Very audience engaging.
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If there's something that can make the audience engage and somehow feel like they're relevant,
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then that makes classical music relevant.
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That makes this great music relevant today.
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But that just shows who you are.
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You're trying to integrate music into our lives.
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With these kinds of events, it's more meaningful and the music becomes part of life and that's
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just very innovative and amazing.
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So then I'm thinking you're coming from a very traditional path, as you said, until
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you hit the twenties and things happened in France and so forth.
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But in my impression is that you have this kind of, I don't want to say rebel, but being
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original, it was within you.
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But where does this really come from?
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Where does this drive and force come from?
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I'm just curious.
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That's a very interesting question.
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I think there were some random things that happened like this residency that offered
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its the opportunity offered itself when I finished school to stay in Paris for a year.
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And who wouldn't do that?
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And I think that going through those seven months without a bathroom and a kitchen and
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a piano, that was certainly not planned.
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That was not part of the grand scheme of things and yet it was one of the key elements for
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my whole personal development and therefore my career development.
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And I would say along the way there were of course things that I regret.
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I regret having gone to school and not having this idea that, oh, here are my colleagues.
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I need to develop relationships with them because this is our support network.
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As we get older and become professionals, we draw on this group of people and their
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ideas and their connections and their energy.
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I didn't know that as a pianist, very isolated.
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So I think that's something that definitely I regret and has pushed my career in certain
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directions.
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But I don't know, just the different approach to things really I think kicked off when I've
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discovered myself in the 20s.
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And I think that when one discovers oneself, interesting things start to happen.
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And I think especially these days with all of the technology and all the incredibly fast
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changes that are happening, the more you can reveal yourself to yourself and take advantage
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of all the tools there, it's going to be incredibly rich and diverse and unique, all these career
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paths.
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I just read something that I'm doing some work with my wife on education and the statistic
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is that a child entering school age years now, this year, is going to graduate and work
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in a job, 65% will be working in jobs that don't even exist today.
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That's exciting and that's scary.
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So it really puts perspective on something that we're doing, which is piano, which has
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been around at least 350 years, 400 years, building slowly note by note, piece by piece.
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It really does put into perspective, if not put into question, what are we doing?
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Why are we doing this?
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Is this really a tradition that we want to preserve?
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There are things in it that are so important that all these hundreds of millions of people
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are devoting their lives to it.
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But in order for this tradition to survive, we have to evolve, keep evolving, keep discovering
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the possibility.
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And that's exactly what you're doing and which is very inspiring.
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But this is something that we really are interested as a team of the piano part.
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And you're really a great example of that.
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So yeah, really true.
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So speaking of, so you have so many things to offer to the next generations to come.
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And you started teaching in higher educational institution as a full-time faculty member,
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Carnegie Mellon University and the Hart School.
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So we want to know.
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Yeah, that started a year ago.
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Oh, wow.
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How's it going?
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It's been very interesting.
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My whole life I've taught, but not in an academic setting.
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Mostly I've organized my DPS workshops and taken some private students here and there,
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but for very specific periods of time and for very specific projects.
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And I was excited about the idea of doing academic teaching and having kind of a longer
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picture and a longer trajectory for my teaching and for students' experience.
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And I was so excited that Carnegie Mellon offered me this position.
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And that's a school that one of our kids went to and graduated from.
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So we knew the school already.
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And my wife and I were like, if they don't accept him, then we're going to enroll in
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the school.
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And unfortunately, he graduated with high distinction and has a great career ahead of
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him because of that.
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And then to now be on the faculty is so exciting.
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Wow.
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And there's so much potential.
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And at the Hart School, which is a great school with a long tradition and great reputation,
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I'm a senior artist teacher there and having a great time with a very diverse student makeup.
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And all of this in pandemic conditions.
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I think it was a very strange coincidence that my academic career has started with the
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pandemic and remote teaching.
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In some ways, it's made it extremely easy because all of a sudden I wasn't traveling
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anymore at all.
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And I could say to my students, okay, these are my teaching days.
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Here are my teaching hours.
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And we're just going to meet every week at the same day, same time.
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That's something that I couldn't do in normal circumstances.
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And the fact that I can teach a student in Pittsburgh and then the next hour teach a
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student in Hartford, the next hour teach a student in China with a 12-hour time zone
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difference and then do a coaching in California and just be here and to be able to string
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those things one after another is amazing.
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And so I feel like in some ways, I don't know how good I have it.
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Because I've never experienced any other way of teaching.
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And so I think for me, I love using the online tools.
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I love thinking about how to organize group activities, bringing people together from
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all of these different geographic places to work together in kind of a studio class.
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I love being able to jump around.
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I love being accessible.
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It's really so interesting that I don't have this experience, which in some ways could
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be considered baggage.
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And I'm just starting this fresh and bringing as much as I can to the thinking and to the
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tools and to whatever I can do.
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Amazing.
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I'm wonderful.
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Thank you so much.
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And I wish you the best of luck of teaching.
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It's a different setting because you have to raise these people for four, six years.
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So it's different from teaching just privately.
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Yes, absolutely.
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In some ways, I feel it's a great, this long line of influence that I can have across their
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education career.
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At the same time, it's only a few points along that line.
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And 50 minutes here, an hour there, and like, wow, really?
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Can I get anything across in that little amount of time?
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But Eric, to your point, I was going to say, you did the masterclass.
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And so I try to keep that in mind as well.
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And it's making me go back to my own lessons with my great teachers.
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And both of them, unfortunately, passed last year, coincidentally, right when I was getting
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my positions and starting this and started to have questions that I never had before,
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they're not available to ask and to learn their experience directly.
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So I'm reliving a lot of stuff, trying to remember my student life and trying to remember,
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like, wow, did my lessons with Abby Simon, were they really like just one, like three
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lessons in this week?
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And then I'd go for like a month and a half without lessons?
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Did that really happen?
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And it did, you know, because he was traveling and performing during that time.
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And I didn't find anything wrong with that.
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So it puts into, it just gives me a lot of things to think about and to see how I was
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influenced and try to try to imbue that as much as I can.
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Yeah.
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Well, I can say that speaking as a student, a son, a parent and a teacher, you know, you
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never know what's going to stick with somebody.
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You know, we give everything we can of ourselves, you know, all our best stuff.
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And sometimes it doesn't resurface for a long time.
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You know, when I went to Banff to do my long-term residencies after graduate school, and I didn't
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have a full-time teacher, I realized that was when I really started listening to my
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teachers.
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And like, all the stuff that they said to me while I was doing my master's would come
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back and I was like, oh, now I see why that's relevant.
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Right.
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And then that's when you really pay attention.
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So as teachers and also parents raising kids, it's the same thing.
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All you can do is try your best and it's ultimately it's up to the student to decide what they're
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going to take from it.
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Well, Frederick, of course, we could talk to you all day, but we don't have unlimited
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time.
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So I'm going to ask you two last related questions and then we're going to move on to our rapid
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fire round.
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So those two questions are, first of all, what's your biggest piece of advice for younger
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pianists coming up in the world today?
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And related to that, what do you see the role of concert pianists in this modern world and
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the future to come?
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A piece of advice to young students, really, at this point, it's so hard to find the time
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to do daily practicing.
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It's so difficult with all the things that are calling to us, all the things that are
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available with a click, with a tap.
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It's really a luxury to be able to focus on one activity.
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But it's an emotional struggle.
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Discipline for me is an emotional struggle.
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Delayed gratification is a very unnatural thing.
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It's a very human thing as well.
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Animals are not very good at delayed gratification.
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But we can do that and we can train ourselves to do that more and more.
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And the gratification just builds exponentially when it does happen.
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Sometimes, often, we don't want to practice.
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The pandemic going for weeks and weeks without touching the piano because I just don't find
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the motivation to go there.
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So really, we need to train ourselves to find any little scrap of motivation to practice
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because in the end, it definitely shows itself.
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So that's my advice to young pianists, please don't despair and really see this as an emotional
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discipline training.
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I love that you said that delayed gratification is one of the fundamental things that makes
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us human.
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So everybody practice the piano because it's going to make you a better human being.
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And there's a limited time to when physical practicing is going to actually make a big
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difference.
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Yeah.
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I don't know how old your average age is, but unfortunately, that age comes at 15, 16,
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17 years old.
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It's not that you can't make physical progress after that, but it's a lot harder.
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And I can say from my own experience, I've had to go back to doing technical exercises
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and technical training, practicing just to keep in shape.
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And I was fortunate that I did, in fact, I can show you one of the tools that I have.
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Oh, wonderful.
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This is cast iron piping.
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Oh my goodness.
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My teacher, when I was 10 years old, recommended, my parents went to a hardware store and got
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this.
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This is about five pounds.
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Oh my gosh.
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And these are my dad's old socks.
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My mother sewed onto these.
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There's a little bit of cotton padding.
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I can't even get my hand through it anymore.
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But 10 years old, I was a small 10 year old and I could get my hands through and I would
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wear these on my wrist and do all of my practicing scales, exercises, etudes, regular repertoire,
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an hour, two hours with these five pound weights on each arm.
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Oh my goodness.
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And a special relaxation technique that allowed that to happen longer than a minute.
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And I didn't get tendonitis and I didn't mess up my muscle system.
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In fact, it helped me build muscle.
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And I was fortunate to have done that, to have had that combination.
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And I feel like if we get that early enough, it really does stay with you.
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And so there's a time for physical practice before 18 is definitely that time.
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If you're 18 years old or under, just play the piano, just play, play, play, play, play,
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move those fingers as much as you can.
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After that, just be prepared to not play as much.
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Literally your piano playing will improve by not playing as much after 18 than before
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18.
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And then you start thinking, you start looking at yourself, you start revealing these emotional
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and mental things that you've built up from that super intense practicing.
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And then you reveal what you really have inside of you as a unique, as a unique person.
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I am definitely making this a clip and sending it to all my students under 18.
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Yes, me too.
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In terms of relevance of pianists today, I, you know, one thing that pianists do that
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almost nobody else trains themselves to do consciously is multitasking.
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The pianist at the very first lesson before we even know what the notes are named and,
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you know, what's going on.
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The teacher will say, okay, play these notes with this finger, play these notes with this
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finger.
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This is the melody.
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This is the accompaniment.
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Boom, we're multitasking.
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Yeah.
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Everybody multitask.
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But pianists multitask consciously and we train from the very beginning.
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It's ingrained in the idea of playing the piano is multitasking.
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And so we have the societal need for group activity, for collaboration.
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And this I call all for one, all of us in to do one thing.
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That's incredibly important.
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It's a very human thing, although higher animals do that, you know, hives and swarms, they
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do that.
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And we do that as humans.
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We come together.
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We kind of, we self-efface enough to be able to contribute to a greater whole.
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And piano playing is the flip side to that, which is the one for all.
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One person training themselves to be able to do more than one thing at a time, to be
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able to keep attention on the melody and on the accompaniment and possibly on a middle
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voice, to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time and even more complicated things.
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And not just for practical reasons, but for an aesthetically satisfying, emotionally
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gratifying, intense communication reason.
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There's no greater need for those kinds of skills than today.
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And this is an exercise I do.
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I think about, you know, all the jobs, all the careers that people have, all the different
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professions.
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And you really think about it like they don't need to multitask.
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Of course, if they do, they're better at their job, but their training doesn't really bring
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that out as a conscious thing.
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It doesn't bring out the physical, the mental, the emotional depth that playing the piano
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does.
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There's almost no other activity that does body, mind, heart, multitasking training than
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playing the piano.
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And I would put it out as a challenge to your listeners, like, you know, what other profession
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needs and requires the training to the depth that piano playing does in those areas, body,
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mind, heart.
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And of course, having the training in any area will make you a better whatever you are.
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But being a pianist, you just have it and then you have to reveal it.
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And I think that if people knew that, then we would make all of our school kids play
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the piano.
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Yeah, I agree.
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It's one of the most all encompassing, deep, intense trainings that one can have.
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And I really don't think there's anything quite like it.
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And it doesn't mean that you have to be a pianist after you've done that training.
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In fact, I would love to have a whole company, employees all train pianists, but not doing
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any piano.
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I think it would be a great business.
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I would love to have a government where all the appointees are pianists.
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That would be amazing.
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And certainly artists and musicians, performers who have piano training.
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Of course.
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So for me, it might be biased, but that seems to me kind of a deep, deep function of what
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piano and pianists can do.
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Yeah.
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I think more and more these days, we see increasing number of studies that show that multitasking
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is actually extremely difficult for humans to do.
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It's actually not natural.
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And so the more you train at multitasking, the more you really increase your capability
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to excel in any area.
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Piano certainly does require that more than most other things.
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Okay, so before the rapid fire, first of all, we want to make sure that we promote your
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Smackdown concert series, which you can find out more about at FrederickChu.com, correct?
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Correct.
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There's a signup sheet there and then I'll be emailing.
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These are going to happen.
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There are three of them, one a month, probably March, April, May, possibly April, May, June
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dates to be determined very soon.
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And you're also launching a Patreon to go along with that.
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That's right.
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It's going to be time to open up probably March in preparation for the Smackdown series.
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Great.
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This is rather a new segment.
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It's called the PianoPod rapid fire questions.
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So I would like for you to answer each question with short answers.
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Okay.
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So are we ready?
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Yes.
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All right.
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So question number one.
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So you have really diverse background.
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You know, you lived in France and your parents are Chinese and you're born, raised in the
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United States.
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So what do you consider a comfort food for you?
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What is it?
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Dumplings.
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I held the world record for my family and dumpling eating for 40 years.
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Oh, wow.
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Oh my goodness.
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Okay.
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Great.
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So now are you a cat or dog person?
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Yes.
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Okay.
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Next question.
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What is your word to live by?
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Multitasking.
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What is the most important quality you look for in people?
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Honesty.
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Honesty.
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What is the worst quality in people you want to stay away from?
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I would say bragging.
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Great.
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All right.
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Eric, you want to go next?
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Yeah, sure.
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Can you name three people who inspire you, living or dead?
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Three people who inspire me.
403
00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:50,400
Can I do four piano related?
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Sure.
405
00:28:51,400 --> 00:28:52,400
Sure.
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00:28:52,400 --> 00:28:58,880
Richter, Horowitz, Glenn Gould, and then above that, triumvirate Alfred Courtaud.
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Oh, okay.
408
00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:02,000
Wonderful.
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00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:06,520
Okay, well, related to that, which historical figure, composer, pianist, would you want
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to take lessons from if he or she were alive?
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00:29:09,720 --> 00:29:15,440
Oh, that's a hard one between Liszt and Courtaud.
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Okay.
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I would say Liszt because that's less accessible and we actually have Courtaud teaching master
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classes recorded.
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00:29:24,640 --> 00:29:28,600
Yeah, we can only imagine how Liszt played, right?
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Yes.
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00:29:29,600 --> 00:29:34,640
Okay, and then which historical figure or composer would you want to hang out at the
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bar with?
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00:29:35,640 --> 00:29:38,640
Oh, Liszt for sure.
420
00:29:38,640 --> 00:29:41,000
Oh, okay.
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Name one piece in your current playlist.
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00:29:43,680 --> 00:29:49,840
Oh, in my current playlist?
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I would say Cars from Mars, Robert Ian.
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Good one.
425
00:29:55,200 --> 00:29:57,000
All right.
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00:29:57,000 --> 00:29:59,960
Name a book title you're currently reading.
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00:29:59,960 --> 00:30:07,720
I'm currently reading A Short Swim in a Pond by George Saunders.
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Just came out, one of my favorite writers and a friend of mine.
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You get only one song or piece to listen to for the rest of your life.
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What is it?
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Prokofiev Second Concerto.
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All right, very cool.
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Last question, last, not least, fill in the blank.
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Music is blank.
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00:30:30,040 --> 00:30:31,040
What is music?
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00:30:31,040 --> 00:30:32,040
Music is life.
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00:30:32,040 --> 00:30:33,040
Music is life.
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00:30:33,040 --> 00:30:34,040
Ding ding ding.
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00:30:34,040 --> 00:30:35,040
We heartily agree.
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Well, my friends, I'm afraid we're going to have to end here for today.
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That concludes this episode of the Piano Pod.
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00:30:47,480 --> 00:30:51,360
Thank you, Frederick Chu, for joining our show today and thank you to the audience for
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00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:52,920
tuning in as always.
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00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:58,040
We want to remind you guys that his classical Smackdown series will be available at Frederick
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00:30:58,040 --> 00:30:59,160
Chu dot com.
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00:30:59,160 --> 00:31:02,640
The link will be in the description as always.
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00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:08,040
If you enjoyed today's episode, please read and review on whatever podcasting platform
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00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:09,120
you use.
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00:31:09,120 --> 00:31:14,280
If you are watching it from YouTube, please hit the thumbs up button and be sure to subscribe
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00:31:14,280 --> 00:31:15,780
to our channel.
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00:31:15,780 --> 00:31:20,260
You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
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00:31:20,260 --> 00:31:23,040
The links are in the description below.
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00:31:23,040 --> 00:31:26,600
Alright everyone, hope to see you for the next episode of the Piano Pod.
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Bye everyone.
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00:31:27,600 --> 00:31:28,600
Thank you so much.
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Thank you so much, Frederick.
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Thank you so much.
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Bye bye.
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:11,520
You're listening to the piano part, where we talk to the brightest minds in the industry
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00:00:11,520 --> 00:00:18,500
about how they're bringing the piano into the 21st century.
3
00:00:18,500 --> 00:00:23,120
Last time we spoke to Frederick Chu about his experiences as a young pianist, collaborations
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00:00:23,120 --> 00:00:26,960
with other artists, and what it's like to be a cultural ambassador.
5
00:00:26,960 --> 00:00:29,040
Check out our podcast channel if you missed it.
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00:00:29,040 --> 00:00:34,640
And now, the conclusion.
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00:00:34,640 --> 00:00:40,960
So Frederick, you have so many things that you're offering, you know, just to visit
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your website.
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We were like so blown away.
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We didn't know where to start.
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All the events that you're creating, it's more like almost like a play or show, you
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know, where you have one event and you can just use that to go to travel to different
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places, it seems like.
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Each has a different theme.
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So can you just a little bit tell us about that?
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Maybe it seems like you have several different events that you created, the Evolution of
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Piano, Monument to Beethoven, Carnival of Animals, and then the classical Smackdown.
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Yeah, I mean, you all can empathize or you've experienced this.
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I mean, we put so much work into putting a program together.
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And very often it's a one time opportunity to play that program and we work so hard.
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And I really feel like the more a program can have its own message, then the more it
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deserves to be played as a package.
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And so I've always crafted my programs with that in mind, that there's some reason to
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put these pieces together in this order.
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And there's some storyline that can unfold from that, that can engage people.
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Like I have my Monument to Beethoven.
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We talk about the actual monument to Beethoven and Bonn and the fundraising that went into
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that in the early 1800s and how all these composers just kind of dropped the ball.
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Nobody gave money and nobody did very much to raise money.
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And Liszt came in and said, hey, this is not acceptable.
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And I'm just going to give the equivalent of I think it was like $100,000 or whatever.
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Let's get this done.
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And I have a great sculptor in mind and let's just do it.
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Mr. Schumann contributed the fantasy to the effort and said, I will donate, I forget how
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many scores, the sales of those first 100 scores, let's say, will go towards the monument
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fund.
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And then when he saw that it wasn't going well, I think he just kind of said, well,
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oh, did I promise that?
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Oh, I forgot.
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And then he turned it into a love story for Clara.
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So he used what he had, which is great.
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And there's no criticizing Schumann's fantasy.
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But that was inspired by the Beethoven monument effort.
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And then Liszt, of course, transcribed all of Beethoven's symphonies.
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That in and of itself is a monument.
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I put one of the symphonies with the Schumann fantasy and you have these two monumental
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pieces that are so different from each other.
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And yet they are tied together by this external event.
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And I think that story really says something to a listener who may love one or both works
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and who may love that in general.
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But then, hey, these are real people and they did things and the music was a result of that
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and the music was impetus for those kinds of things.
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I do another series of programs I call Classical Smackdown, which is inspired by The Voice
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and America's Got Talent, where people basically vote for their favorite.
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And I love this series.
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I have three programs in it now.
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And I'm presenting the program online in a few months.
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So people who are interested can go to Frederick Chu.com and sign up and they'll get notification
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of that.
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Basically two composers and I play pieces that I've chosen that really show the contrast
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or the similarity between them and put them out there in different rounds for people to
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listen, basically to taste and say, I like this taste better.
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I like this taste better and to vote and then to see how their vote compares with others,
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other votes and then to discuss, to debate, to fight with each other about why did you
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vote for that?
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I love playing those programs in person, in concert, because at the end of the program,
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the lights go on and usually half the people are already out of their seats and trying
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to get out of the parking lot.
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At a Classical Smackdown concert, they turn on the lights and everybody's in their seat
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and they're talking with their neighbors and they're like, hey, I don't know, I don't know.
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And old people are talking to young people and people who don't know each other are talking
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and everybody's discussing and debating and there's a huge ruckus.
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I just love that afterlife of the concert.
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That's how it should be, I feel.
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Very audience engaging.
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If there's something that can make the audience engage and somehow feel like they're relevant,
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then that makes classical music relevant.
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That makes this great music relevant today.
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But that just shows who you are.
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You're trying to integrate music into our lives.
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With these kinds of events, it's more meaningful and the music becomes part of life and that's
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just very innovative and amazing.
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So then I'm thinking you're coming from a very traditional path, as you said, until
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you hit the twenties and things happened in France and so forth.
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But in my impression is that you have this kind of, I don't want to say rebel, but being
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original, it was within you.
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But where does this really come from?
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Where does this drive and force come from?
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I'm just curious.
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That's a very interesting question.
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I think there were some random things that happened like this residency that offered
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its the opportunity offered itself when I finished school to stay in Paris for a year.
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And who wouldn't do that?
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And I think that going through those seven months without a bathroom and a kitchen and
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a piano, that was certainly not planned.
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That was not part of the grand scheme of things and yet it was one of the key elements for
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my whole personal development and therefore my career development.
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And I would say along the way there were of course things that I regret.
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I regret having gone to school and not having this idea that, oh, here are my colleagues.
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I need to develop relationships with them because this is our support network.
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As we get older and become professionals, we draw on this group of people and their
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ideas and their connections and their energy.
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I didn't know that as a pianist, very isolated.
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So I think that's something that definitely I regret and has pushed my career in certain
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directions.
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But I don't know, just the different approach to things really I think kicked off when I've
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discovered myself in the 20s.
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And I think that when one discovers oneself, interesting things start to happen.
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And I think especially these days with all of the technology and all the incredibly fast
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changes that are happening, the more you can reveal yourself to yourself and take advantage
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of all the tools there, it's going to be incredibly rich and diverse and unique, all these career
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paths.
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I just read something that I'm doing some work with my wife on education and the statistic
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is that a child entering school age years now, this year, is going to graduate and work
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in a job, 65% will be working in jobs that don't even exist today.
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That's exciting and that's scary.
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So it really puts perspective on something that we're doing, which is piano, which has
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been around at least 350 years, 400 years, building slowly note by note, piece by piece.
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It really does put into perspective, if not put into question, what are we doing?
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Why are we doing this?
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Is this really a tradition that we want to preserve?
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There are things in it that are so important that all these hundreds of millions of people
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are devoting their lives to it.
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But in order for this tradition to survive, we have to evolve, keep evolving, keep discovering
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the possibility.
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And that's exactly what you're doing and which is very inspiring.
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But this is something that we really are interested as a team of the piano part.
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And you're really a great example of that.
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So yeah, really true.
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So speaking of, so you have so many things to offer to the next generations to come.
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And you started teaching in higher educational institution as a full-time faculty member,
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Carnegie Mellon University and the Hart School.
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So we want to know.
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Yeah, that started a year ago.
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Oh, wow.
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How's it going?
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It's been very interesting.
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My whole life I've taught, but not in an academic setting.
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Mostly I've organized my DPS workshops and taken some private students here and there,
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but for very specific periods of time and for very specific projects.
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And I was excited about the idea of doing academic teaching and having kind of a longer
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picture and a longer trajectory for my teaching and for students' experience.
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And I was so excited that Carnegie Mellon offered me this position.
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And that's a school that one of our kids went to and graduated from.
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So we knew the school already.
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And my wife and I were like, if they don't accept him, then we're going to enroll in
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the school.
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And unfortunately, he graduated with high distinction and has a great career ahead of
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him because of that.
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And then to now be on the faculty is so exciting.
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Wow.
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And there's so much potential.
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And at the Hart School, which is a great school with a long tradition and great reputation,
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I'm a senior artist teacher there and having a great time with a very diverse student makeup.
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And all of this in pandemic conditions.
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I think it was a very strange coincidence that my academic career has started with the
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pandemic and remote teaching.
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In some ways, it's made it extremely easy because all of a sudden I wasn't traveling
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anymore at all.
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And I could say to my students, okay, these are my teaching days.
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Here are my teaching hours.
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And we're just going to meet every week at the same day, same time.
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That's something that I couldn't do in normal circumstances.
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And the fact that I can teach a student in Pittsburgh and then the next hour teach a
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student in Hartford, the next hour teach a student in China with a 12-hour time zone
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difference and then do a coaching in California and just be here and to be able to string
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those things one after another is amazing.
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And so I feel like in some ways, I don't know how good I have it.
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Because I've never experienced any other way of teaching.
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And so I think for me, I love using the online tools.
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I love thinking about how to organize group activities, bringing people together from
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all of these different geographic places to work together in kind of a studio class.
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I love being able to jump around.
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I love being accessible.
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It's really so interesting that I don't have this experience, which in some ways could
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be considered baggage.
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And I'm just starting this fresh and bringing as much as I can to the thinking and to the
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tools and to whatever I can do.
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Amazing.
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I'm wonderful.
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Thank you so much.
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And I wish you the best of luck of teaching.
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It's a different setting because you have to raise these people for four, six years.
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So it's different from teaching just privately.
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Yes, absolutely.
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In some ways, I feel it's a great, this long line of influence that I can have across their
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education career.
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At the same time, it's only a few points along that line.
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And 50 minutes here, an hour there, and like, wow, really?
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Can I get anything across in that little amount of time?
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But Eric, to your point, I was going to say, you did the masterclass.
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And so I try to keep that in mind as well.
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And it's making me go back to my own lessons with my great teachers.
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And both of them, unfortunately, passed last year, coincidentally, right when I was getting
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my positions and starting this and started to have questions that I never had before,
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they're not available to ask and to learn their experience directly.
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So I'm reliving a lot of stuff, trying to remember my student life and trying to remember,
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like, wow, did my lessons with Abby Simon, were they really like just one, like three
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lessons in this week?
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And then I'd go for like a month and a half without lessons?
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Did that really happen?
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And it did, you know, because he was traveling and performing during that time.
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And I didn't find anything wrong with that.
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So it puts into, it just gives me a lot of things to think about and to see how I was
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influenced and try to try to imbue that as much as I can.
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Yeah.
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Well, I can say that speaking as a student, a son, a parent and a teacher, you know, you
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never know what's going to stick with somebody.
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You know, we give everything we can of ourselves, you know, all our best stuff.
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And sometimes it doesn't resurface for a long time.
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You know, when I went to Banff to do my long-term residencies after graduate school, and I didn't
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have a full-time teacher, I realized that was when I really started listening to my
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teachers.
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And like, all the stuff that they said to me while I was doing my master's would come
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back and I was like, oh, now I see why that's relevant.
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Right.
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And then that's when you really pay attention.
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So as teachers and also parents raising kids, it's the same thing.
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All you can do is try your best and it's ultimately it's up to the student to decide what they're
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going to take from it.
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Well, Frederick, of course, we could talk to you all day, but we don't have unlimited
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time.
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So I'm going to ask you two last related questions and then we're going to move on to our rapid
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fire round.
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So those two questions are, first of all, what's your biggest piece of advice for younger
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pianists coming up in the world today?
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And related to that, what do you see the role of concert pianists in this modern world and
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the future to come?
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A piece of advice to young students, really, at this point, it's so hard to find the time
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to do daily practicing.
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It's so difficult with all the things that are calling to us, all the things that are
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available with a click, with a tap.
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It's really a luxury to be able to focus on one activity.
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But it's an emotional struggle.
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Discipline for me is an emotional struggle.
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Delayed gratification is a very unnatural thing.
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It's a very human thing as well.
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Animals are not very good at delayed gratification.
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But we can do that and we can train ourselves to do that more and more.
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And the gratification just builds exponentially when it does happen.
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Sometimes, often, we don't want to practice.
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The pandemic going for weeks and weeks without touching the piano because I just don't find
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the motivation to go there.
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So really, we need to train ourselves to find any little scrap of motivation to practice
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because in the end, it definitely shows itself.
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So that's my advice to young pianists, please don't despair and really see this as an emotional
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discipline training.
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I love that you said that delayed gratification is one of the fundamental things that makes
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us human.
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So everybody practice the piano because it's going to make you a better human being.
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And there's a limited time to when physical practicing is going to actually make a big
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difference.
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Yeah.
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I don't know how old your average age is, but unfortunately, that age comes at 15, 16,
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17 years old.
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It's not that you can't make physical progress after that, but it's a lot harder.
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And I can say from my own experience, I've had to go back to doing technical exercises
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and technical training, practicing just to keep in shape.
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And I was fortunate that I did, in fact, I can show you one of the tools that I have.
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Oh, wonderful.
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This is cast iron piping.
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Oh my goodness.
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My teacher, when I was 10 years old, recommended, my parents went to a hardware store and got
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this.
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This is about five pounds.
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Oh my gosh.
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And these are my dad's old socks.
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My mother sewed onto these.
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There's a little bit of cotton padding.
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I can't even get my hand through it anymore.
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But 10 years old, I was a small 10 year old and I could get my hands through and I would
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wear these on my wrist and do all of my practicing scales, exercises, etudes, regular repertoire,
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an hour, two hours with these five pound weights on each arm.
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Oh my goodness.
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And a special relaxation technique that allowed that to happen longer than a minute.
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And I didn't get tendonitis and I didn't mess up my muscle system.
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In fact, it helped me build muscle.
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And I was fortunate to have done that, to have had that combination.
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And I feel like if we get that early enough, it really does stay with you.
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And so there's a time for physical practice before 18 is definitely that time.
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If you're 18 years old or under, just play the piano, just play, play, play, play, play,
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move those fingers as much as you can.
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After that, just be prepared to not play as much.
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Literally your piano playing will improve by not playing as much after 18 than before
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18.
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And then you start thinking, you start looking at yourself, you start revealing these emotional
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and mental things that you've built up from that super intense practicing.
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And then you reveal what you really have inside of you as a unique, as a unique person.
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I am definitely making this a clip and sending it to all my students under 18.
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Yes, me too.
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In terms of relevance of pianists today, I, you know, one thing that pianists do that
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almost nobody else trains themselves to do consciously is multitasking.
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The pianist at the very first lesson before we even know what the notes are named and,
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you know, what's going on.
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The teacher will say, okay, play these notes with this finger, play these notes with this
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finger.
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This is the melody.
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This is the accompaniment.
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Boom, we're multitasking.
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Yeah.
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Everybody multitask.
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But pianists multitask consciously and we train from the very beginning.
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It's ingrained in the idea of playing the piano is multitasking.
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And so we have the societal need for group activity, for collaboration.
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And this I call all for one, all of us in to do one thing.
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That's incredibly important.
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It's a very human thing, although higher animals do that, you know, hives and swarms, they
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do that.
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And we do that as humans.
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We come together.
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We kind of, we self-efface enough to be able to contribute to a greater whole.
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And piano playing is the flip side to that, which is the one for all.
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One person training themselves to be able to do more than one thing at a time, to be
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able to keep attention on the melody and on the accompaniment and possibly on a middle
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voice, to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time and even more complicated things.
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And not just for practical reasons, but for an aesthetically satisfying, emotionally
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gratifying, intense communication reason.
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There's no greater need for those kinds of skills than today.
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And this is an exercise I do.
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I think about, you know, all the jobs, all the careers that people have, all the different
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professions.
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And you really think about it like they don't need to multitask.
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Of course, if they do, they're better at their job, but their training doesn't really bring
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that out as a conscious thing.
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It doesn't bring out the physical, the mental, the emotional depth that playing the piano
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does.
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There's almost no other activity that does body, mind, heart, multitasking training than
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playing the piano.
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And I would put it out as a challenge to your listeners, like, you know, what other profession
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needs and requires the training to the depth that piano playing does in those areas, body,
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mind, heart.
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And of course, having the training in any area will make you a better whatever you are.
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But being a pianist, you just have it and then you have to reveal it.
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And I think that if people knew that, then we would make all of our school kids play
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the piano.
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Yeah, I agree.
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It's one of the most all encompassing, deep, intense trainings that one can have.
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And I really don't think there's anything quite like it.
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And it doesn't mean that you have to be a pianist after you've done that training.
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In fact, I would love to have a whole company, employees all train pianists, but not doing
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any piano.
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I think it would be a great business.
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I would love to have a government where all the appointees are pianists.
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That would be amazing.
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And certainly artists and musicians, performers who have piano training.
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Of course.
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So for me, it might be biased, but that seems to me kind of a deep, deep function of what
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piano and pianists can do.
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Yeah.
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I think more and more these days, we see increasing number of studies that show that multitasking
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is actually extremely difficult for humans to do.
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It's actually not natural.
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And so the more you train at multitasking, the more you really increase your capability
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to excel in any area.
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Piano certainly does require that more than most other things.
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Okay, so before the rapid fire, first of all, we want to make sure that we promote your
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Smackdown concert series, which you can find out more about at FrederickChu.com, correct?
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Correct.
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There's a signup sheet there and then I'll be emailing.
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These are going to happen.
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There are three of them, one a month, probably March, April, May, possibly April, May, June
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dates to be determined very soon.
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And you're also launching a Patreon to go along with that.
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That's right.
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It's going to be time to open up probably March in preparation for the Smackdown series.
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Great.
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This is rather a new segment.
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It's called the PianoPod rapid fire questions.
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So I would like for you to answer each question with short answers.
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Okay.
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So are we ready?
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Yes.
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All right.
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So question number one.
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So you have really diverse background.
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You know, you lived in France and your parents are Chinese and you're born, raised in the
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United States.
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So what do you consider a comfort food for you?
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What is it?
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Dumplings.
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I held the world record for my family and dumpling eating for 40 years.
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Oh, wow.
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Oh my goodness.
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Okay.
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00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:02,320
Great.
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00:28:02,320 --> 00:28:07,160
So now are you a cat or dog person?
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00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:08,160
Yes.
388
00:28:08,160 --> 00:28:09,160
Okay.
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00:28:09,160 --> 00:28:10,540
Next question.
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00:28:10,540 --> 00:28:13,960
What is your word to live by?
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00:28:13,960 --> 00:28:14,960
Multitasking.
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What is the most important quality you look for in people?
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00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:23,720
Honesty.
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Honesty.
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What is the worst quality in people you want to stay away from?
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I would say bragging.
397
00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:37,400
Great.
398
00:28:37,400 --> 00:28:38,400
All right.
399
00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:40,400
Eric, you want to go next?
400
00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:41,600
Yeah, sure.
401
00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:46,120
Can you name three people who inspire you, living or dead?
402
00:28:46,120 --> 00:28:47,800
Three people who inspire me.
403
00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:50,400
Can I do four piano related?
404
00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:51,400
Sure.
405
00:28:51,400 --> 00:28:52,400
Sure.
406
00:28:52,400 --> 00:28:58,880
Richter, Horowitz, Glenn Gould, and then above that, triumvirate Alfred Courtaud.
407
00:28:58,880 --> 00:29:01,000
Oh, okay.
408
00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:02,000
Wonderful.
409
00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:06,520
Okay, well, related to that, which historical figure, composer, pianist, would you want
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00:29:06,520 --> 00:29:09,720
to take lessons from if he or she were alive?
411
00:29:09,720 --> 00:29:15,440
Oh, that's a hard one between Liszt and Courtaud.
412
00:29:15,440 --> 00:29:16,440
Okay.
413
00:29:16,440 --> 00:29:23,160
I would say Liszt because that's less accessible and we actually have Courtaud teaching master
414
00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:24,640
classes recorded.
415
00:29:24,640 --> 00:29:28,600
Yeah, we can only imagine how Liszt played, right?
416
00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:29,600
Yes.
417
00:29:29,600 --> 00:29:34,640
Okay, and then which historical figure or composer would you want to hang out at the
418
00:29:34,640 --> 00:29:35,640
bar with?
419
00:29:35,640 --> 00:29:38,640
Oh, Liszt for sure.
420
00:29:38,640 --> 00:29:41,000
Oh, okay.
421
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:43,680
Name one piece in your current playlist.
422
00:29:43,680 --> 00:29:49,840
Oh, in my current playlist?
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00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:53,600
I would say Cars from Mars, Robert Ian.
424
00:29:53,600 --> 00:29:55,200
Good one.
425
00:29:55,200 --> 00:29:57,000
All right.
426
00:29:57,000 --> 00:29:59,960
Name a book title you're currently reading.
427
00:29:59,960 --> 00:30:07,720
I'm currently reading A Short Swim in a Pond by George Saunders.
428
00:30:07,720 --> 00:30:12,120
Just came out, one of my favorite writers and a friend of mine.
429
00:30:12,120 --> 00:30:16,840
You get only one song or piece to listen to for the rest of your life.
430
00:30:16,840 --> 00:30:20,040
What is it?
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00:30:20,040 --> 00:30:21,600
Prokofiev Second Concerto.
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00:30:21,600 --> 00:30:23,960
All right, very cool.
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00:30:23,960 --> 00:30:27,800
Last question, last, not least, fill in the blank.
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00:30:27,800 --> 00:30:30,040
Music is blank.
435
00:30:30,040 --> 00:30:31,040
What is music?
436
00:30:31,040 --> 00:30:32,040
Music is life.
437
00:30:32,040 --> 00:30:33,040
Music is life.
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00:30:33,040 --> 00:30:34,040
Ding ding ding.
439
00:30:34,040 --> 00:30:35,040
We heartily agree.
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00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:43,520
Well, my friends, I'm afraid we're going to have to end here for today.
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00:30:43,520 --> 00:30:47,480
That concludes this episode of the Piano Pod.
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00:30:47,480 --> 00:30:51,360
Thank you, Frederick Chu, for joining our show today and thank you to the audience for
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00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:52,920
tuning in as always.
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00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:58,040
We want to remind you guys that his classical Smackdown series will be available at Frederick
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00:30:58,040 --> 00:30:59,160
Chu dot com.
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00:30:59,160 --> 00:31:02,640
The link will be in the description as always.
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00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:08,040
If you enjoyed today's episode, please read and review on whatever podcasting platform
448
00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:09,120
you use.
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00:31:09,120 --> 00:31:14,280
If you are watching it from YouTube, please hit the thumbs up button and be sure to subscribe
450
00:31:14,280 --> 00:31:15,780
to our channel.
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00:31:15,780 --> 00:31:20,260
You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
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00:31:20,260 --> 00:31:23,040
The links are in the description below.
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00:31:23,040 --> 00:31:26,600
Alright everyone, hope to see you for the next episode of the Piano Pod.
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00:31:26,600 --> 00:31:27,600
Bye everyone.
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00:31:27,600 --> 00:31:28,600
Thank you so much.
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00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:29,600
Thank you so much, Frederick.
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00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:30,600
Thank you so much.
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Bye bye.
