It was 20 years ago today
Or thereabouts, when, late at night after a rehearsal, my friend David Garza stood up and proclaimed --
You are doing this!
-- and he and I pushed my Yamaha U1 Piano all the way down the hallway* and across the back room of my house to the far corner by all the windows... of what was afterwards known as my piano room.
What his proclamation was referring to was my decision to open my music studio and leave my very fine job teaching
International students in the Intensive English Program at the University of Texas.
Bewildering as this decision may have seemed to some (like my boss, and my dad)...
and even though my own mind was overcome with questions:
Who will my students be?
How will I find them?
How will they find me?
Still--I had to do it.
I was anguishing--wanting with all my heart to only only only be
working in, thinking about, and obsessing over--only music.
What followed was
Twenty Magical Years of Music Making (and coffee)
in my happy piano room on Joe Sayers Avenue in Austin, Texas
So much love, discovery, musical accomplishment and wall paint color changes occurred in this room. I have had the privilege of working with more than 300+ young pianists and composers over the past 20 years, as well as hosting countless band practices, Erik Satie birthday parties, and many house concerts and classes. For my own musical journey and exploration, this room has been the center of my life, as every creator needs indeed a room of her own!
As many of you know, big changes are afoot, and I am no longer at the house on Joe Sayers. As my son and I have set our sails for other shores (French ones, to be specific), my studio has become a virtual one, opening up to the larger world, through which I have already met so many beautiful creative musicians that I can't imagine not ever not knowing them.
Yet there will never be another experience like that I had on Joe Sayers. Just entirely lovely!
And so, I'm creating this page as an archive of my Austin Studio, and I will drop things in here as I run across them. Below you will find all the Piano Arthouse Videos my students made during the Pandemic and all the recitals that had posters (there were many more that did not!).
I am in contact with most of you, my amazing students from over the past 20 years, but if we are not in touch, I want to be! Please contact me and say hi--I'd love to hear what you are playing, listening to, over the moon about.
Thank you for being a part of my life and my growth as a teacher, a musician, and a human. How brilliant, inspiring and unforgettable you all are!
*Pushing a piano ANYWHERE is ill-advised. This action is guaranteed to leave a very noticeable and permanent groove in the floor. As I found out.
A LITTLE GALLERY OF PIANO ROOM ON JOE SAYERS
NEWS/UPCOMING EVENTS:
If...
you have any performances of any kind coming up, let me know and I will post it here.
MUSIC DANCE THEATER ART or any other kind at all. Please send me a note about it!
STUDIO COMPILATION VIDEOS
PIANO ARTHOUSE COMPLETE COLLECTION 2020-2022
TWENTY TWENTY
TWENTY TWENTY-ONE
MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU
ALL JOHN WILLIAMS COLLECTION 2016-2022
RECITAL POSTER ARCHIVE
2005-2022
Somewhat Comprehensive. A Few Escaped.
All art is original or used by permission of artist at time of poster creation.
Except for Disney. They insist upon insisting I cease and desist.
No thanks!
