The typical piano recital goes something like this: assigned standard works by teachers, students dutifully perform some bite-sized Bach, a morsel of Mozart, a sampling of Schumann, maybe a token 20th century work created a century or more before they were born. Parents proudly applaud. Then the students go home and listen to the music they really like, the music of their time, until itโs time to practice Ye Olde Masters again. After a few years, many student recitalists find other outlets for their musical interests.
What if it didnโt have to be that way? What if students could play music from their own time and place? And instead of merely โrecitingโ standard rep that’s been played zillions of times by as many students โ what if they could also engage creatively with the music theyโre playing?
THE ART OF LEARNING: An Occasional Series
That was the vision Cascadia Composers founder David Bernstein suggested to Portland Piano International founder Harold Gray in 2009. Before moving to Oregon, Bernstein had been involved in a program in Cleveland, where he was a music professor, that connected area composers to piano students. A concert of music by Northwest composers, performed by Portland-area piano students, would make a splendid addition to a summer festival almost entirely dominated by music from centuries ago and oceans away, Gray and Bernstein thought.
This Saturday afternoon, July 11, Cascadia presents its 10th annual In Good Handsย recital, featuring student performers from both the Portland and Eugene metro areas will play new music written by eleven Cascadia Composers members. Anyone interested in the future of Oregon music can tune in via Zoom or at the archived video on the Cascadia website. Itโs a milestone for a program that not only provides unique educational benefits for its student participants, but also bolsters contemporary Oregon classical musicโs future.
Matching Music to Students
Many if not most classic European composers (Ravel, Prokofiev, Schumann, Bartok etc.) enjoyed, and/or paid the bills by teaching and writing music for students. Many Cascadia Composers are piano teachers too, including Dan Brugh, the 2009 Oregon Music Teachers Association Composer of the Year, whom Bernstein and Gray tapped to lead what Gray dubbed In Good Hands. Brugh quickly realized that managing a score call and recital program, and coordinating among Cascadia, OMTA, and PPI, demanded hyper organized help.
He found it in Cascadia president Jan Mittelstaedt, and the two have traded off the lead role and shared most of the managerial duties ever since. Other members of the organization have helped out in different ways, from getting programs printed to obtaining the roses that participating composers charmingly present to the students who play their pieces at the recital โ a symbolic passing on of the legacy of keeping Oregon music flowering through succeeding generations.
Cascadia supplies a database of compositions suitable for student performers at various skill levels, supplied by member composers in response to an annual call for scores. OMTA publicizes the program to its member teachers, and those interested peruse the available scores (including recordings and program notes) for those they think suitable to their studentsโ interests and educational needs. Once a student and teacher agree on a piece, they get to meet with the composer to discuss its background, technical issues, adjustments if necessary, and so on.
The pieces are as varied in style as the composers and students, with some students occasionally even embracing works written in the 20th century 12-tone modernist style. But in general, composers look to grab students with โcatchy, rhythmic pieces that engage them initially and not too difficult technically or notationally,โ says Eugene composer Paul Safar, who has several students participating in this yearโs program.
Another longtime participant, Portlandโs Dianne Davies, recalled a meeting at which participating teacher โIrene Huang said students like โmelody, melody, melody.’ If it doesnโt have a melody, kids donโt want to play it. They also like consistent and driving rhythm. It has to have one of those two, and itโs best if it has both.โ
Veteran teachers like Davies and Mittelstaedt tailor pieces to studentsโ interests and educational needs. โWhen I compose for students, I think about what they do well,โ Mittelstaedt explains, โfor example, if they like fast pieces, if they can do a five finger pattern fast, if they can move around the keyboard. Itโs a different kind of composing when youโre writing for students.โ
Going Virtual
The recitals initially took place at the World Forestry Center during PPIโs annual summer festival. They differ from standard recitals because theyโd involve a dozen on more students from various teachers instead of just one. Moreover, the programs consisted entirely of contemporary music rather than pedagogical classics, with a much greater variety of styles, ranging from neo-romantic to jazzy and many others.
But after three years, Gray retired, putting IGH on hold, its future in doubt. After skipping a year, Brugh determined that In Good Hands must survive, solely as a Cascadia Composers initiative. Since then, Mittelstaedt says, the series has occasionally looked beyond the usual single-pianist format to include Tomas Svobodaโs Canon for Unlimited Voices featuring 14 (!) pianists, another Svoboda composition for organ, works for toy pianos (courtesy of Cascadiaโs Jennifer Wright), solo flute, voice, and even combos (flute, violin and piano, flute and cello). The annual recitals moved from Portland State Universityโs Lincoln Hall to The Old Church Concert Hall to Portland Piano Company and for the last two summers, back to PSU.
Until this year, that is. With the pandemic scuttling so many performances, In Good Hands faced its toughest challenge since separating from PPI: how to continue performances when crowds of the size that thronged previous concerts werenโt permitted?
Once again, Dan Brugh said, โI will not let it die. Itโs too important for young people and the composers. I will do anything I have to to make sure it continues. It could have ended [in 2014 after PPI pulled out]. It could have ended this year. I said, ‘we can do video.’โ
So, like many others in this plagued spring and summer, In Good Hands is going online. Students will record their own performances and Cascadia will stream it live and then archive the video. And with physical distance no longer posing a barrier, this yearโs virtual performance will also be the first time students from Eugene will be participating.
โWith this pandemic [response], weโre teaching students how to embrace technology and videos,โ Brugh says. โItโs important that students realize that they should have a YouTube station. Itโs pushing us all into this new level of artistry. I hope we continue this live streaming even if we come back to live performances, maybe some combo of pre-recorded performances and some live, with students doing their own recordings.โ
Expanding Horizons
Teaching students about video making and streaming will be only the latest aspect of In Good Handsโs contribution to Oregon musical education. Compared to performing classics of past centuries, playing new music โopens up their ears to new sounds, new techniques, new things to learn,โ says Safar. โEvery composerโs got a different voice. Itโs so important not be boxed into any particular genre, especially antiquated ones. When I was younger, [playing new music] helped me not be afraid of it, to take it on its own terms. Learning new music canโt help but expand them musically, whether they end up becoming professional musicians or not.โ
Not only does participating in IGH keep students practicing music over the summer when many stop taking regular lessons, the program also provides a unique motivation for study that standard recitals canโt. Portland teacher Irene Huang, who has 13 students participating this year, normally plays through the classics when introducing them to her students and helps them understand various ways theyโve been interpreted. But Huang, whose own musical education was dominated standard classical repertoire, she canโt do that with new, unfamiliar music.
โI hand the music to the students and tell them, โThis is fresh out of the oven. Iโm not playing it for you because Iโve never played it. Youโll be in charge โ take it home bring it back to me and let me know what have you learned,โโ Huang explains. “So they get to be the teacher. Itโs more a motivation to them to be in charge instead of โthis is what my teacher assigned me and I need to follow what she said.โ And when I tell them โyouโll be premiering this piece, and itโs never been played before in public and youโll be the first one โ that sends them to the moon!โ
Because of that sense of ownership, Huang says, performing in In Good Hands especially encourages reticent performers. โMost of my students are Asian,โ she laughs, โand some can be shy and timid, so sometimes itโs hard to get them up there to perform. Through In Good Hands, many of my students become not as passive. Theyโre very happy and excited to show everyone what theyโve learned.โ
Finding Their Voices
Students’ personal stake in the music also comes from their personal connection to the composers. Working with composers on their interpretations gives students an opportunity to divine what the composers intended in a way thatโs impossible to do with long-dead composers. โIf composer and students are working together and the composer explains their motivation and inspiration in writing the piece, or gives suggestions on how want it played, it helps them a lot,โ Mittelstaedt says. For example, one of this yearโs performers, a student of Safarโs, is playing her โDusk,โ and she was explaining how she imagined the different sections sounded. โThis area is like velvet,โ she told him. โImagine youโre touching velvet โ thatโs how youโd play it.โ
In a piece called โChildhood Memories,โ a student didnโt understand why the middle section was dark and spooky. โItโs about the things youโre afraid of, like the monster in the closet,โ composer Dianne Davies told her. One piece of hers played by one of Huangโs students is based on a story about a jaguar chasing its prey, and Davies allows students to inform their performances of the ending based on whether they think the jaguar caught its victim or not.
โIโm honored to be part of In the Good Hands concert,โ wrote Huangโs 11-year-old student Thalia Wong. โWhen I play piano, I try to imagine what the composers try to express in their music. This time, I get to personally connect with the composers! I love that they can give me feedback for my performance. This helps me to understand the music more, and makes it more special. Itโs also exciting to be the first to perform this brand new piece of music.โ
Davies, Brugh and Safar also acknowledge how educational it can be for students to bring their own interpretations to a work, even if different from their own original intentions. โIt was really touching to hear a student play a piece of mine called โLonesome Waltz,โ Davies recalls. โShe didnโt play it exactly how I envisioned it, but it was incredible to hear someone play a piece Iโd written with such deep emotional attachment that she made something Iโd brought into existence mean something to her, too.โ
Brugh had a similar experience, when a teacher suggested a student play his piece without using the pedal that adds reverberation. Brugh heard it and said โbathe it in pedal! But the teacher said โI told her not to do that!โ Thatโs the beauty of In Good Hands. The teacher, composer and student come together and they learn from each other.โ
Ultimately, itโs up to the student to decide how to interpret the music, as long they keep the spirit of the music, Brugh says. โTo learn the expression of a new piece, to make it their own benefits the students musically. Youโre not just learning it by rote, but you really learn about yourself and what music means to you. Youโre teaching a student to find their own voice.โ
This year, some composers are even able to give students rehearsal feedback because the students can send them videos of their practices. One student this year even said participating in the process has made him more interested in doing his own composition. โI recently learned the piece entitled โSnowboundโ by Jan Mittelstaedt for part of my syllabus Level 6 exam,โ wrote student Tyler Raven. “I enjoyed learning and performing it. It was awesome to then be able to meet Jan. I was able to play the piece for her and we talked about what the piece was about, what inspired her to write it, and discussed different parts of it. This program was a great way for me to learn about a composer and has inspired me to continue to write my own music.โ
Enriching Oregon Music
Composers benefit too. โAs a composer you realize the value of writing a piece thatโs not hard,โ Brugh explains. โWe all write these extraordinarily complex pieces with big concepts but this year I wrote a piece called โMartian Camperโ and itโs fun and itโs still music. You donโt always have to reinvent the world. In simplifying, sometimes you get closer to your inner voice.โ
Davies has gained valuable perspective from IGH. โItโs made me more aware of different subject matters to write about,” she says. “My first pieces were about me โ my childhood memories. The other pieces have been about topics that students would be interested in,โ like disappearing wildlife threatened by humansโ encroachment on their habitats. โIโm finishing my second set of Rainforest Animals,โ inspired by endangered species like jaguar, Toucan Macaw, three toed sloth, golden poison dart frog. “Kids care more than adults โ theyโre worried about their world. So in thinking about what students want to play, my perspective has changed. Itโs expanded beyond myself.โ
Even teachers benefit from IGH. โSeeing my students wanting to learn something new out of their teacherโs comfort zone helps me get out of my comfort zone to play more contemporary music,โ Huang says. โMy tastes and appreciation of contemporary music has changed through these years. Iโm starting to enjoy Oregon music more. The different rhythmic and tone colors have been getting into my ear and head more. I feel like Iโm getting a little bit younger through exposure to new music.โ
As IGH teachers, students, and audience members gain exposure to contemporary Oregon music, they, in turn, provide the next generations of Oregon music performers and listeners. โThe hope is that it will carry overโ beyond the recital performance,โ Mittelstaedt says. โWeโre also training future listeners. The more experiences with Oregon music they have like this, the more theyโll understand it.โ
Safar, whoโs had music played in almost every IGH recital, has seen the legacy growing as In Good Hands begins its second decade of seeding Oregon music. โEarly on, one student played a piece of mine,” he recalls. “His hands were so little he couldnโt even reach the octaves. Maybe four or five years later, he played a piano duet of mine with another student โ and he was all grown up, no longer a 10 year old, still playing my music.โ
***
You can Zoom into this yearโs virtual In Good Hands performance at 3 pm Saturday, July 11. After the event, see videos of the performances at Cascadia Composers website. Teachers, parents, and students interested in the program should contact Jan Mittelstaedt at janrmitt@gmail.com.
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One response to “Passing the Torch”
Thanx, Brett, for a wonderful article about an absolutely fabulous project that is happily ongoing . . .