MODERN MINIMALISM
In a world—and a summer—
that’s ever spiraling faster and louder,
modern minimalist composers invite us into
a sonic sanctuary for the soul,
music created in quiet solitude (or so we imagine).
With repetition and resonance, this music doesn't
tell you what to feel or when to feel it.
It simply connects you to a place inside yourself where you can.
Whether you call it crossover-classical, ambient,
or "sad piano music"—
it's everywhere.
From concert halls to candle-lit churches
to coffee shops.
Most often now we encounter it in
pop culture and media:
🖤 A slow black-and-white Chanel or Audi commercial
🍎 That Apple ad that has you in tears in less than 90 seconds.
☕ Or just the first few notes of the Amélie soundtrack—and you are there, immersed in her color-soaked, wonder-filled Paris.
It transports instantly.
When you hear it, you think:
So simple. I could play that!
You are right—you can!
(And that's not all you can do...)
As centering and hypnotic as playing this music on piano can be,
the real magic lies in what happens when you start to venture off-script.
letting variations emerge, taking an intriguing side street instead of the well-traveled boulevard.
A little like how it feels to wander the streets of Paris in the late summer afternoons
with no destination in mind, just curiosity about what is around the next corner.
And the next. And the next.
You might end up back home. Or find a garden you never knew was just right there.
SPEAKING OF PARIS,
and the summer, and making musical magic
in the fleeting, golden hours that are left of it—
this August in the
Paris Creative Piano Café:
August 3-August 30, 2025
A Reset. A Respite. A Retreat.
(whichever applies!)
With the same invitation —
to slow down, tune in, and connect with your own creativity
through poetic simplicity on piano.
In Modern Minimalist,
each week in August, we immerse ourselves in the aural landscape of a selected and beloved minimalist piano piece, exploring and deconstructing the musical elements and limitations chosen and crafted by the composer, as composers and musical tinkerers ourselves!
These become seeds and sparks for guided improvisations and our own creative play on piano, a balance of structure and freedom.
Your fluency and fluidity at the piano expands organically,
as does your confidence to follow your ear and your curiosity,
not through rote or rigor, but through reflection—
through listening and responding to the music you are making,
as you make it.
In the present tense.
I took to my room and let small things evolve slowly.
ERIK SATIE
WHO IS THIS FOR?
IT'S FOR YOU...
if you are:
A traditionally-educated musician, as a child, or now,
or a teacher (of any instrument)
who thinks often
"I should be able to sit at the piano and just play.
Why can't I???"
•••
(Or, maybe you can,
but it seems frivolous and indulgent
in the context of the demanding technique and repertoire
you must ever work to maintain.)
A singer who wants to sing and play more fluently. This is gold for you!
A creative parent seeking to integrate daily spontaneous
music making into the culture of your home.
A composer, songwriter, producer of any genre
who feels paralyzed by the endless possibilities.
when you sit down at the piano to come up with ideas.
A beginner to piano, and you know some chords, or how to read a little,
but have no idea why certain notes go together or how to play them
without watching someone else first.
Anyone seeking more freedom, creativity, and connection
in your musical life, and in your life life
Or any combination of these!
WHAT'S INSIDE
As MODERN MINIMALIST is being offered inside of the Paris Creative Piano Café,
it will follow the same weekly "menu" the Café offers.
Here is a little tour of how things work to inspire music making daily inside
that you get full access to all of August:
ABOUT
The Paris Creative Piano Café is a vibrant, reflective online music studio
where chord fluency and understanding are developed the way we learn language:
naturally, slowly, expressively, with time to tinker, ponder, and explore freely
filling your daily life and home with artful music making joy.
By adopting the Paris café culture and the role it plays in Parisian daily life as a model and metaphor,
our mission is not just to grow and deepen your musical fluency, but even more so,
to transform your relationship to how it feels to simply be at the piano, exploring with curiosity.
C'est Magique!
Here is what you will find each week in the Café this month
to invite you and yours to your piano for creative music making daily:
LIVE PIANO LAB
M & TH
Explore, deconstruct, and create with the selected minimalist piece of the week on the piano.
Live on Zoom (or stream later).
MORNING CUP
TWTH
Guided exploration and improvisation using elements of the weekly piece to open your day, your musical imagination and your ear.
LUNCH LAMP
TWTH
Daily piano micro-pieces to learn by LISTENING. Each using a piano pattern & progression from the weekly minimalist piece. Sneakily!
L'APÉRO
TWTH
Creative music prompt post each evening
to close your day and open your night.
LE WEEK-END
Music Making Moments sparked by life in Paris in real time, for everyone in your house!
Who knows where we will go?
MUSEE • CINEMA • CABARET • OPERA • BALLET • CONCERTS • POETRY NIGHT • SALON
CAFÉ SOCIETÉ
Our Private Café Community where you will find everything as it is created each day! All questions you may have are answered here daily, and all epiphanies, however small they may seem are CELEBRATED.
Be social or solitary.
As you like.
Sneak Peek...
I'm creating the miminalist page art and design now! Stay tuned!
•••••
Meanwhile, this background image is Max Richter's studio.
In the Oxfordshire Countryside in the UK.
So sparse and spacious!
BUT WHO AM I?
Hi! I'm Hollie Thomas.
I am an award-winning composer, classical & pop pianist, and lifelong language-turned-music educator dedicated to igniting, supporting, and empowering you and yours in the cultivation of a beautiful, artful, lifelong love and exploration of harmony at the piano.
For 20 years in my Austin, Texas music studio, selected piano pieces from the "modern minimalism" genre were consistently requested, played and loved by my students of all ages, some becoming almost rites of passage while also (BTS) serving as preludes to the classical pieces they were almost ready to start playing.
And remarkably, for years to come (and even now), students would return again and again to these simpler pieces, much more often than to all the advanced repertoire they would go on to accomplish.
These pieces were the first they felt personally connected to at a heart level in their many years of piano lessons, and their first "real" pieces that we improvised with. From then on, for the students, these pieces became their go-to for instantly connecting with the piano, and themselves, when they needed to—just play,
(Is this not...the point?!)
I have found that these simple pieces unlock the creative potential in my students as they grow like nothing else, expanding their improvisational skills and confidence in their own emerging musical voices. The open space and repetitive nature is perfect for this. Genius, actually!
For the first time this August in Modern Minimalist, four pieces and composers will be explored together, each offering their own interpretation of a larger landscape, which will come into focus as we consider them in the context of each other.
Yes, a little nerding out will occur. But most of all, play.
Simply put—you will love the music you make!
HOLLIE IS THE BEST AND BRIGHTEST SOUL AND TAUGHT me
a whole new way of looking at music and BROUGHT music joy BACK TO ME.
KIRA HANGER
BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA
Hollie is an absolute genius with all ages.
She has been teaching my children to play piano and compose for 8 years.
She understands — deeply pedagogy, technique, theory, child development, art, craft, discipline and fun.
Somehow she mixes all these elements together into an experience that draws forth pure magic.
She is not just teaching them how to play the piano —
she is teaching them how to be musicians, artists, and fully-expressed humans.
CHELSEA SMOCK
AUSTIN, TEXAS
Louis would sit at the piano for several hours a day tinkering with how different notes and chords sounded.
Because of Hollie, Louis will grow up not only knowing how to play beautiful music, but what it looks like to be a creator and a lover of music for the rest of his life.
Sarah Teale, Mom of Louis
San Marcos, Texas
I met Hollie when she joined my band Future Clouds and Radar in 2006.
Straight away, she set the standard for what I wanted henceforth in collaborators.
Her knowledge of music is surpassed only by her enthusiasm for it.
I doubt I’ve met anyone in my life who loves music more--or is more the committed to sharing it.
ROBERT HARRISON
SONGWRITER | PERFORMER | PRODUCER | COTTON MATHER | FUTURE CLOUDS & RADAR
(and NOT a minimalist)
Questions?
How will my chord fluency grow?
I don't get music theory. Will this help?
How do I make my own music
Do I have to perform my music for other students?
If you have other questions or want to chat about if this might be a fit for you,
I'd love to hear from you!
I'm at: [email protected]
(& I chose this picture bc of the way all the composers at the top of this page have their hands poised by their faces. So composerly!)
And I'll leave you with this last quote!
xo, Hollie
I prefer to see music in a simple way: I need it to be happy. I just like to play with sound.
YANN TIERSEN
