Information Regarding COVID-19 Preparation and Online Lessons at Foley Music and Arts

[Edit 5/18/2020: since the middle of March we’ve been operating as an online-only music studio. Over the summer we’ll be making the transition back to a combination of in-person and online lessons based on the requirements of local health authorities.]

This morning I sent out the following email to parents and students in our Oakville studio. For all of us in the music teaching profession, you absolutely must become familiar with best practices regarding studio hygiene and online teaching in order that we can survive and move forward as a profession.

If you have any questions regarding best practices or how to successfully make the transition to going online as a teacher, feel free to contact me.

Hello parents and students,

Thank you to everyone who has come for lessons in the last few days and complied with our new policies regarding hand washing! To confirm, here are the latest revisions of our studio policies regarding safe hygiene:

1. We now require all students and parents in our Oakville studio to wash their hands in the main floor bathroom before coming into the studio for lessons.
2. We are regularly using alcohol-based wipes on the piano keyboards in order to maintain a fully sanitary environment.
3. If you are sick, do not attend your lesson. If you’re not feeling well, you can either try an online lesson or make up the lesson later.
4. If you arrive for your lesson and are not feeling well, we may ask that you leave immediately.

For Chris Foley’s and Natasha Fransblow’s studios, if you would at any time prefer to move to online lessons for the foreseeable future, we would be glad to oblige. We are experienced in online teaching and able to use a variety of video software such as WeChat, FaceTime, Zoom, or Google Hangouts.

We understand that with the extended March break, you might be on the lookout for safe activities for your children. If that is the case, feel free to contact my teaching assistant Allison Vest. Allison on staff at Brigham Young University in Rexburg, Idaho, and is available to give extra online piano lessons in the coming weeks in order to keep your kids busy in addition to their regular lessons. Allison’s email is avtheaccompanist [at] gmail dot com.

We will be monitoring the situation daily and will update you as more information becomes available. Thank you for your patience and please stay healthy!

Regards,

Chris Foley
Foley Music and Arts

Wim Winters Plays Bach on Clavichord

Theres something about the clavichord that gives it a more informal, personal character in comparison to its more concert-oriented cousins, the piano and harpsichord. By its very nature it has an almost inaudible sound, and could never fill even a small concert hall. Because of that, repertoire played on it takes on a much more introspective character.

The indoor setting for Wim Winters’ performance is the ideal setting for playing the clavichord - on a desk, in a small room, either for personal use or with a small audience of no more than a few people. Playing the clavichord is not really even a performance in the way we know it, but a more personal experience with the music and with the instrument.

Saturday Links: New Handshakes, Evaluating Failure, and Combining Mars Imagery with Khatchaturian

As we get the weekend started, here are some interesting articles from around the web:

The End of Handshakes: Seth Godin points out that traditional handshakes reward the strong but put others at a disadvantage. I for one am down with using the Vulcan salute without irony or nerdiness.

Creating Even Passagework: Melanie Spanswick’s advice requires some keen observation, and is something that I’ll be putting to work in the studio right away.

Why Failure is a Musician’s Best Friend: Rhonda Rizzo writes about knowing our limits, living with failure, and realizing that these moments might be the ones that teach you the direction you need to go in order to discover a better path.

Achieving balance between reading and writing: Hrvoje Šimić on finding a balance between what you read, and how to put it together through writing. In an age of media over saturation, nearly all of us could afford to write more in some form or another:

Writing is a great facilitator for learning and coming up with ideas. It reveals holes in your thinking because you can't write in your own words if you don't understand the material.

Finally, watch this YouTube video of the recent 1.8 billion pixel panorama of Mars with the sound muted and the playback speed set to 0.75:

Then play the video below with the sound turned on. There is no better music for contemplating the vastness of the unknown than the Adagio from Khatchaturian’s Gayane Ballet Suite.

(Image courtesy of Damir on Unsplash)

The Culture of Practicing in Music Schools

Finding the Perfect Practice Room is Liz Parker’s homage to the practice culture that is the daily life of a music student. For those of you who have never studied at a university-level school of music, this includes seeking out a practice room amidst the school’s facilities on a daily basis and working tirelessly on our repertoire, all the while worrying about how others will perceive you on the other side of the door. I remember this routine well:

The prep for these student recitals became more crucial as I grappled with learning to sing. It was imperative I find a room as far away from people as possible. Most practise rooms were located by everybody’s lockers where we all sat on the floor hanging out. I couldn’t do lip trills or other experimental siren noises there. As a frustrated alto trying to become a not-awful mezzo, I had to work on expanding my upper ranges, and it wasn’t pretty. I discovered practise rooms on the ground level behind the administrative offices, which lead nowhere – meaning nobody was walking up and down that small hallway. There were no lockers either, so people weren’t lingering. PERFECT! That’s where I’d make my strangled cat noises.

At Eastman, my favorite practice room block was at the basement of the Annex. It took a few minutes of walking among winding corridors and stairwells, but these secluded rooms were some of the most private for getting work done.

I think Liz might be referring to me here:

Sometimes at night, you’d see two pianists approaching the same room and they’d burst into a sprint to be the first to nab one of the rare grand pianos (like the Chickering!) available.

My recollection of the Chickering in the UBC third-floor practice rooms was a piano well past its prime but still able to help you discover sonorities. The rack was stained with coffee marks and the aging instrument smelled of cigarette smoke from the years prior to 1986 when inside smoking was banned in British Columbia. Far better was the Yamaha grand on the other side of the floor which had been rebuilt with Steinway parts. It had a large and unforgiving sound which had a strong tendency to carry through on the other side of the door. Good for running through your rep, but not for learning notes, as everyone in a 30-foot radius could hear exactly what you were playing.

The hours of practice were endless, by turns both gratifying and frustrating, and included the terror/thrill of never knowing exactly which piano you would be practicing on for that day. Pianists who practice regularly in music schools are forced to become extremely agile, as their practice routine might require playing on several dozen instruments through the course of an entire week. On the thrill of walking through a music school on any given day:

it’s a beautiful thing to walk through the hallways of a music school, hearing snippets of music emerge from various rooms. You’ll hear some students practising out of obligation, usually parts required in some ensemble piece. Others play with stars in their eyes, practising solo parts for the whole hallway to hear. It was such a shock when I once cut through a science building on campus. It was ghostly silent, and if anyone was battling neurosis, I couldn’t tell. I’m glad I got to work out my neuroses via music.

I also recall that until the early 90s, the third-floor practice rooms at UBC were covered from floor to ceiling in music-related graffiti dating back to the 1970s.

(Photo courtesy of Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash)

Maboroshi (Unknown Artist)

Today’s electronic selection is once again from the collections of Aimee Clifford - a November 2018 Chikyu-u Records track from an unknown artist. Aimee writes:

Maboroshi means dream or spectre, and is often used to describe troubling things that are hard to grasp. As for the track... deep house? It has an underlying, dark and chill vibe, but that four on the floor beat is so compelling.

90% of Everything is Crap

Part of the challenge of living is having the vision to see through things that are taken for granted but give you a false sense of reality. Below are some selections from Morgan Housel’s list of 100 Little Ideas on how to understand the world, and how I see them playing out in various ways.

Sturgeon’s Law: “90% of everything is crap.” The obvious inverse of the Pareto Principle, but hard to accept in practice.

When people tell me that contemporary music isn’t very good compared to music of the past, I give them the example of the Classical period: if this was such a high point of musical composition, why is it that the only music that we currently play from the years 1760 to 1820 is from essentially three composers: Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven? Music from that period must have been dreadful if that is the case.

Ludic Fallacy: Falsely associated simulations with real life. Nassim Taleb: “Organized competitive fighting trains the athlete to focus on the game and, in order not to dissipate his concentration, to ignore the possibility of what is not specifically allowed by the rules, such as kicks to the groin, a surprise knife, et cetera. So those who win the gold medal might be precisely those who will be most vulnerable in real life.”

In music schools, those who are the most lauded and win the big competitions often don’t have viable careers. The ones who do are frequently the overlooked students who work harder than everyone else and have the street-sense to succeed in the field, often in unexpected ways.

Pollyanna Principle: It’s easier to remember happy memories than bad ones.

Hence the belief held by many that the classical music scene of yesteryear was better than that of the present. I’ve often written about how great it was to freelance in Vancouver in the 90s with the abundance of new music and radio engagements. However, the truth is that it was a hard life financially, and I could barely eke out a living.

On a much more serious note, the god-worship of musicians such as James Levine, Charles Dutoit and Placido Domingo created a willing blindness to the abuses that they perpetuated (and got away with, for a time) in the workplace.

Woozle Effect: “A reliable way to make people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition, because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth.” - Daniel Kahneman.

Although frequently used by political leaders to hammer home an untruth through repetition, we often forget that this effect is used in other ways. With the constant mantra of excellence and accomplishment in music education, we often forget to impart to young musicians the the deep spiritual capability of music to communicate and inspire people through darkest times. This inner power of music as a path through trauma is what guided the creation of many of the greatest works in the repertoire.

Buridan’s Ass: A thirsty donkey is placed exactly midway between two pails of water. It dies because it can’t make a rational decision about which one to choose. A form of decision paralysis.

This happens to me in fountain pen stores.

I also like the Fact-Check Scarcity Principle. Read Morgan’s entire article and you’ll see that he cleverly lays out some false information to demonstrate this principle.

(Image courtesy of John Towner on Unsplash)

Pink Dawn

Pink Dawn, acrylic on canvas, 48” by 36” by Wendy Hatala Foley.

Foley Music and Arts is 1 Year Old

Canadian Museum of Human Rights, Winnipeg

One year ago, I took advantage of a rather large snowstorm that caused all my lessons and musical activities to be cancelled for the day. After writing the Collaborative Piano Blog since 2005, my interest in blogging had gone through fits and starts for a while, and although I had a strong desire to keep writing, I wanted to branch out into a wider area of inquiry.

The space of a few hours was enough to start a new project, learn the Squarespace platform, and start putting together the nuts and bolts of an entirely new venture. The first year was not without its scheduling challenges, and I stopped publishing altogether for several months through much of the year. But my resolve returned, and the completion of a few long-term projects opened up some time in my schedule for a more regular return to writing. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Here are some of the highlights from the first year of Foley Music and Arts:

Five Deep Breaths and a Pencil Behind the Ear: This is my second free ebook about practicing, with crowd-sourced advice (and things to avoid) from students in my studio. Here’s how I did it.

How I Use The Archive and My Music Staff to Create Engaging Lesson Notes: A rundown of how I use The Archive as third-party software to create lesson notes that I send with My Music Staff. A huge thanks goes out to both My Music Staff and the Zettelkasten community for their continued interest in the process I outlined in the article.

The Quick Start Guide to Starting Projects in the Performing Arts: One segment of the arts community where there is always room for growth is with startup projects. Here’s how you can get one started and move fast to get it up and running.

19 Blogs I Follow in 2019: I’ve long been a proponent of the open web, and this list encapsulated the blogs that I find the most meaningful. Yes, I’ll have a 2020 version. Yes, there will be 20 blogs this time around.

Classical Music Blogs are Surprisingly Robust in 2019: It’s no secret that social media has decimated the once-thriving classical music blog scene. However, many of the blogs of 10-15 years ago are still around, and you can find a list of those still publishing on the link.

From Brainstorm to Project in One Evening: I move fast on projects. Here’s how to do it.

I Have an Idea: Anyone putting forward a new idea puts themselves at risk. Let’s work on putting forward more of these ourselves and supporting those who do as well.

What I Learned Over the Last Two Weeks: A quick look at my incredible experience in Carbonear, Newfoundland in April and what it taught me.

Wendy Hatala Foley’s Painted Musical Instruments: My wife is an artist, and part of her output is giving life to musical instruments which are no longer playable. Her work gives them new colour, purpose, and delight.

How Wendy and I Designed our Company Logo: A story about how strong foundations can be built with a little legwork and minimal cost.

The Omega Steak & Seafood House’s Caesar Salad Recipe: A legendary recipe from a once-famous but now-forgotten restaurant, lovingly reverse engineered by our former neighbour.

Thank you for supporting Foley Music and Arts in its first year on the web, and stay tuned for much more in the coming months!

The 2020 Collaborative Piano Institute at LSU

Today’s post is from Ana Maria Otamendi, Assistant Professor of Collaborative Piano at Louisiana State University. As Artistic Director of the Collaborative Piano Institute, Ana Maria is coordinating a sizeable lineup for this year’s institute that features many of the top pianists in the field.

It is my pleasure to invite your students to apply to the fourth edition of the Collaborative Piano Institute and the Vocal and Instrumental Academy, which will take place between May 31st and June 20th, 2020 at our new location - Louisiana State University. After a successful fundraising campaign, this year we have even more merit-based scholarships available, and the deadline to apply is March 15th 2020. 

This year we are elated to welcome to the Institute Jonathan Feldman (the Juilliard School, Music Academy of the West, NEC) and Colette Valentine  (University of Texas at Austin), and to observe them teach alongside our marvelous returning faculty: Martin Katz (Chair of Collaborative Piano Program, University of Michigan), Rita Sloan (Aspen Music Festival and University of Maryland), Kathleen Kelly, (Cincinnati College Conservatory, former Director of Musical Studies at the Vienna Staatsoper, and former Head of Music/Music Director at Houston Grand Opera), Matthew Brower (Washington State University), Christopher Turbessi (Rice University), Elena Abend (University of Wisconsin), among others. For more information please see the attachment or visit our website and our Facebook page and also check out the Testimonials of our alumni. 

The Vocal Academy welcomes graduate student singers, advanced undergraduate students, as well as singers who are getting ready for the audition circuit. The singers will have the opportunity to coach with renowned artists in individual sessions, masterclasses, and group classes, as well to perform in numerous opportunities with the pianists of the Institute. There will also get private lessons with voice professors from renowned universities, as well as lectures specific to their areas of study. For more information please visit our website.

And here are the details again: CPI will take place between May 31st and June 20th, 2020 at LSU, and is open to all pianists who are interested in the collaborative arts, from undergraduate students to professionals. We offer an intensive learning experience tailored to the individual needs of every pianist, through individual lessons, collaboration with seasoned professionals in recitals and masterclasses, and numerous group classes, lectures, and performance opportunities. We have several merit-based scholarships available! The deadline to apply is March 15th 2020.  

I hope that you would consider sharing this email with interested students. I would be happy to answer any questions and to discuss what makes our program such an exciting offering to any young and mature pianists.

Thank you so much for your attention, and I look forward to hearing from you!

All the best,

Ana Maria Otamendi

Quote of the Day

You don’t put yourself online only because you have something to say—you can put yourself online to find something to say. The Internet can be more than just a resting place to publish your finished ideas—it can also be an incubator for ideas that aren’t fully formed, a birthing center for developing work that you haven’t started yet.

A lot of artists worry that being online will cause them to make less work, but I’ve found that having a presence online is a kick in the pants. Most websites and blogs are set up to show posts in reverse-chronological order—the latest post is the first post that visitors see, so you’re only as good as your last post. This keeps you on your toes, keeps you thinking about what you can post next. Having a container can inspire us to fill it. Whenever I’ve become lost over the years, I just look at my website and ask myself, “What can I fill this with?”

From Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon