The Beach Cities/Palos Verdes Assessment Center for the Carnegie Hall Royal Conservatory Achievement program conducted Spring theory assessments on May 12, 2012 at the beautiful Palos Verdes Golf Club.  Best of luck to all examinees!

PIANISM by Aiko Onishi, CreateSpace, 2009, 134 pp.

Distinguished pianist and pedagogue Aiko Onishi sums up her wide-ranging knowledge about the piano and music-making in Piansim.
What other source describes the different physical gestures required to produce so many different kinds of sound? not just singing tones, but [...]]]>

PIANISM by Aiko Onishi, CreateSpace, 2009, 134 pp.

Distinguished pianist and pedagogue Aiko Onishi sums up her wide-ranging knowledge about the piano and music-making in Piansim.
What other source describes the different physical gestures required to produce so many different kinds of sound? not just singing tones, but also, for example, harmonious tones, colorless tones, rich chordal tones, and bell-like tones.

With imaginative metaphors and similes, Ms. Onishi suggests how to analyze a score for expressive musical communication. She supplies us with practical suggestions for learning repertoire, memorizing, and preparing for performance. Just her observations about pedaling make this book indispensable.

In my view, Aiko Onishis Pianism is a landmark in the literature about playing the piano. It is an invaluable resource for teachers and for students from the earliest years of study on through the artist level.
Nelita True Professor and Chair, Piano Faculty Eastman School of Music

Aiko Onishi has concertized and given lectures in over 60 cities in the United States, and has played in all the major cities in Japan. She was a professor for six years at the Toho School of Music in Japan and for twenty-one years at San Jose State University in California. As a teacher, Miss Onishi has produced many outstanding students, some of whom have won top prizes at international competitionsincluding Leeds, Busoni, Casadesus, Kapell, Chopin, Munich, University of Maryland, and the Washington International Competition. Aiko Onishi was born in Tokyo, Japan. She started learning the piano from her mother, Teiko, an accomplished pianist and a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music. She later studied with Mr. Motonari Iguchi and Miss Aiko Iguchi, his sister. Upon winning a Japan National Competition, she was invited to study at the Eastman School of Music with Madame Cecile Genhart, who gave her a real foundation as a pianist. After earning the B.M. with Distinction, Performers Certificate, and Artists diploma, she continued to study with Frank Mannheimer; with whom she coached on and off for the next sixteen years. During the winter of 1964-5, she had the great privilege of studying with Dame Myra Hess in London.

/patrick

Revealing, candid thoughts about themselves, their careers, music they play, life of a concert pianist. Machs interviews will enhance the pleasure of any concertgoer. People [...]]]> by Elyse Mach (Vols. 1 2, 1980, 1988, on Dover as a single volume 1991)
Introduction by Sir Georg Solti. Over 50 black and white photos are included.

Revealing, candid thoughts about themselves, their careers, music they play, life of a concert pianist. Machs interviews will enhance the pleasure of any concertgoer. People Magazine

This book is a collection of inspiring and fascinating interviews with 25 renowned pianists: Claudio Arrau, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Alfred Brendel, John Browning, Misha Dichter, Rudolf Firkusny, Glenn Gould, Vladimir Horowitz, Byron Janis, Rosalyn Tureck, Andre Watts, Paul Badura-Skoda, Jorge Bolet, Youri Egorov, Janina Fialkowska, Leon Fleisher, Emil Gilels, Stephen Hough, Zoltan Kocsis, Garrick Ohlsson, Cecile Ousset, Murray Perahia and Ivo Pogorelich.

Elyse Mach is a pianist and Professor of Music at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. She has written nine books on piano and pianists and has been a contributing music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times.

The chapters including Alicia de Larrocha, Misha Dichter, Rudolf Firkusny and Glenn Gould are available for free in this Google Books preview:

This book at Amazon.com

/patrick

The premier was a one-off film event at the [...]]]> Being produced to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Chopins birthday, The Flying Machine takes the eternally fascinating and affecting tudes, and crafts a celebration of the role that music and dance play in our lives, especially in our first pre-teen steps into the adult world.

The premier was a one-off film event at the Royal Festival Hall in London on February 12th 13th with the sound track performed live by pianist Lang Lang.

The Flying Machine is the first 3-D film to be premiered inside a concert hall, and also the first film to combine live action and stop-motion in 3-D and not least has the first 3-D sequence in a feature where the audience is inside a painting.
It is crafted for a multi-platform world with a feature film, several independent short films, an online game, live show and CD all to be released over the course of this year.

The feature film The Flying Machine will air on Sky 3D (UK) in May 2011.

Watch sample:

Interview with producer Hugh Welchman:

Behind the scenes with Lang Lang:

/nilsjohan