Part 1 of Season 4 Episode 2: A Team of A Seat at the Piano--Promoting Inclusion in Piano Repertoire
September 19, 2023 • 38 mins
Part 1 of The Piano Pod Season 4 Season 2: A Team of A Seat at the PianoI had a wonderful conversation with Season 4 Ep. 2 with the brilliant minds behind "A Seat at the Piano" (ASAP) - Annie Jeng, Brendan Jacklin, Evan Hines, and Susan Yang. Founded during 2020's social and racial reckonings, these passionate, classically-trained pianists amplify underrepresented voices and advocate for inclusive musical programming.🎹 Episode Highlights:
- ASAP's mission
- How they support fellow classical pianists & educators
- A grand tour of the ASAP website
- ASAP's industry impact
- Engaging modern audiences with classical music
- The role of classical music today
🎹Spotlight on A Seat at the Piano: ASAP’s mission is to promote and advocate for the inclusion, study, and performance of a more equitably representative body of piano works. By creating a resource for musicians, pedagogues, and curious music appreciators, ASAP aims to broaden their knowledge of composers and their works.
🌐Learn more about ASAP, please visit https://www.aseatatthepiano.com/
🎹Spotlight on team members of A Seat at the Piano:
- Annie Jeng (Founder/Executive Director)
- Brendan Jacklin (Co-founder/Director of Operations)
- Evan Hines (Co-founder/Coordinator of Database Operations)
- Susan Yang (Co-founder/Director of Special Projects and Community Engagement)
🎹 About The Piano Pod🎙 Greetings, piano lovers! I'm Yukimi Song, your host from NYC. Every fortnight, join me as I delve deep into the world of PIANO with groundbreakers from the classical music industry. Our mission? To provide a platform for classical musicians and educators to reflect and discuss how to keep our industry robust and relevant in this rapidly changing world and move it forward in the post-pandemic era.
- ❤️❤️ Show your love and support for TPP: Donate HERE❤️❤️
- 🎬Credits: Yukimi Song (Executive Producer/Writer & A/V Editor)
- 🌐Official Site: https://thepianopod.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back to another episode of the PianoPod. I am your host, Yukimi Song. So today, I invited a
(00:06):
team from a non-profit organization called A Seat at the Piano. They are Annie Zhang,
Brendan Jacqueline, Evan Hines, and Susan Yang. ASAP, short for Seat at the Piano, was founded in
the summer of 2020 in the midst of social and racial reckoning around the world. ASAP is run by
(00:28):
these dedicated, classically trained pianists with varying backgrounds and experiences who strive
to raise the voices of those who are less heard and to inspire more thoughtful, inclusive programming
within the performing and pedagogical spheres. Let me quickly highlight each guest by citing their
bio. Let's start with Annie Zhang. She is the founder of ASAP, a renowned pianist and educator.
(00:56):
Annie has performed globally from the Kennedy Center to festivals in Italy and Spain.
Passionate about contemporary music? She has researched its pedagogical capabilities,
even creating a resource introducing unconventional techniques. With a DMA from the University of
Michigan, she is now an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
(01:20):
Then, Brendan Jacqueline. He is the co-founder of ASAP, Canadian American pianist. Brendan Jacqueline,
based in Nashville, is a fervent advocate for contemporary music, premiering over 50 works
and championing interdisciplinary performances. Assault after speaker, he has graced stages
from MTA to NCKP conferences. As assistant professor at Piano at Fisk University, he brings
(01:47):
a rich educational background with a DMA from the University of Cincinnati and mentorship from
renowned musicians. Then, let's move on to Evan Hines, also the co-founder of ASAP, pianist and
educator. Evan, an Oberlin and University of Michigan alumnus, has flourished as a pianist
and collaborator. He's been part of the Ann Arbor-based trio Continuum, toured Mexico and
(02:13):
performed at Kent Blossom Festival alongside renowned artists like Joella Jones. Having served at
Oberlin in various roles, he is now pursuing a DMA at the University of Texas at Austin.
Then finally, Susan Yang. She is also the co-founder of ASAP. She is a distinguished performer
(02:34):
and pedagogue. Managed by the National Federation of Music Clubs, she has won numerous awards and
recently performed with orchestras like the Nashville Symphony. Her debut album, Doorways,
have remembered music, showcases her talent. A passionate educator, she is presented at various
conferences and champions community outreach. Currently, she is a piano faculty member at
(03:00):
Vanderbilt Blair School of Music with degrees from top institutions and mentorship from
renowned pianists. Dear TPP fans and listeners, I can't wait to interview these brilliant pianists
and educators and learn what a seat at the piano is all about. Stay with me till the end as our
(03:20):
conversation will lead to more reflective discussion on how we as trained classical musicians
should keep classical music alive and thriving in our fast-paced world and more. Here we go,
dear friends. Please enjoy the show. You are listening to the piano pod where we talk to the
(03:43):
brightest minds in the industry about how they are bringing the piano into the 21st century.
Welcome Annie, Brendan, Evan, and Susan to the piano pod. This is my first time ever interviewing
more than two guests in an episode, so I'm super excited and a little nervous. Just kidding. So
(04:04):
this is going to be fun. I got an email from one of you guys back in April or May of this year that
you have been following the piano pods Instagram and listening to the episode, which I am really,
really grateful for. And then I get to know your organization then. And since then, I have been
checking out the extensive database of unknown composers and compositions, many of which I have
(04:30):
yet to learn and discover. So later, I will let you guys introduce yourselves to our audience. But
for now, let's start with this. What is a seat at the piano? Is it an organization program,
database, and who is this for? So a seat at the piano is essentially a platform to raise the voices
(04:51):
of a lot of composers who have been less heard or historically excluded or underrepresented.
And so it is a database. It is a resource. It's a blog. It's kind of a lot of different things
that we've combined into one kind of a one stop shop for a lot of pianists, teachers, students to
(05:11):
go to if they're seeking different kinds of repertoire, they're outside of the normal kind
of canon. So that's kind of it in a gist. I'm sure we're going to talk a lot more about it and how
it all started as well. What is the mission of a seat at the table? May I call the organization ASAP,
which is a really cool four letters? I actually love that you slipped a little bit right there,
(05:33):
because you said a seat at the table. Actually, that's that's partially why we called our organization
a seat at the table. A seat at the piano. And maybe Susan, if you want to maybe talk about our name,
because you were the genius or part of the genius behind coming up with the name of a seat at the
piano. It's been a long time, but I just remember we were all brainstorming, just like dumping
(05:58):
names that we could think of into a document. I remember some of it was like, a seat at the bench,
a seat at the piano. What were the other ones or something like database for promoting piano
inclusion? And we wanted something that was, you know, this is serious stuff, but we also want to
make it fun and engaging. And when speaking of, you know, having more, more voices, more conversations
(06:21):
at the table, which is a more common kind of phrase that we use of a seat at the table. And we think
about a bench, a bench, which is so limited sometimes in front of a piano. But if we have more,
what if we had a longer bench, you know, that could fit a lot more of these voices and a lot
more of these identities and personalities. Yeah. And I noticed, actually, I think Brenda and I did
(06:42):
at the same time, we were just going over the names and we were trying to come up with a more
fun name instead of just calling this a database or a website or something. So, and then we were
like, Oh, a seat at the piano, a previous to ASAP. And people should be doing this kind of work
ASAP. So that was like a kind of fun coincidence. So then we, we settled on the name right away,
(07:04):
because that just seemed to be, yeah, the most appropriate out of all the ones that we came
up with. Yeah. And it's really catchy, right? And then, sorry, I was saying the wrong name, but
a seat at the piano, right? Yeah, you're actually not the first one. Yeah, we've, I've had a lot of,
I've heard a lot of people say, I see that the table on accident. Yeah. Yeah. But I really like
(07:28):
the background of where the actual name came from. And I like the shorter version ASAP, which is
really catchy. So what is the mission of ASAP? The mission of ASAP is to promote and include
the music of the popes that hasn't necessarily been in the forefront, you know, and I was actually
(07:49):
thinking earlier today that there are so many of these pieces from the big names that we know,
Beethoven, Mozart, whatever. And what something that has been really exciting about the work that
we've done is that you are starting to see sort of some very specific pieces become a part of the
canon nowadays. And I started to think, oh my God, like, of course, they're playing this piece again,
(08:11):
but also you have to remember that one is better than none. The whole point is that like, yeah,
this, like we might be seeing the same pieces over and over again. However, it's already hundreds and
hundreds of years too late. So like, even if there's one more, I know that the work that we're doing
is working and very important. And yeah, so basically, we're trying to catch up with the
(08:34):
inclusion of works of piano music from composers from historically excluded groups.
Why did you want to start this organization? And was there anything obviously missing, right? It
was like the composers, unknown composers, unknown compositions, which amazing works of unknown composers
(08:58):
which were missing from our program, from our even teaching repertoire and so forth. But was there
anything else that was missing that you motivated to start this program, this organization?
During the summer of 2020, which was obviously during the pandemic, and we're all in isolation a lot
(09:18):
of time to reflect, of course, our whole nation was dealing with solitude and also racial reckoning,
social reckoning, a lot of the disparities that are within our society. And I think there was a
big call to action. It's unfortunate that the circumstances had to create this call to action,
but that there is this urgency that we had to do something. And so whether or not that was going
(09:41):
out into the streets and protesting and saying your voice or, you know, showing the ways that
you're supporting other communities and other different ways, I feel like as musicians, even
within our silo, within our bubble and our sphere, we can still do a lot of influence. And so this
started actually just, you know, in my bed, on my laptop, just kind of doing my own personal research
(10:03):
when I was doing myself reflection and like kind of mad at myself that I could only maybe name,
like, off of the five fingers of my hands, the number of composers that I'd played that were
not by standard typical white male Western European composers. So I started just kind of coming up
with a list. And this was really just kind of for me to kind of think about, okay, when I am
(10:28):
assigning repertoire, maybe in the fall semester, like maybe I'll pull from this list. And what was
kind of fun about this project is that it's very easy to kind of go into this like spiral and this
like black hole of a lot of like amazing pieces that you just never heard of. And so I just started
cataloging it, putting it in this Google spreadsheet, and including things like, you know, obviously the
(10:51):
composer, the names of the pieces, the duration, difficulty in leveling as much as I could, a
recording, a score, shared it on social media, because that's that was the main form of communicating
with a lot of folks within that time of the pandemic. And there, I just kind of put it out there as a
feeler of like, okay, what do people think about this? I'm working on this thing. What do you all
(11:13):
think? And it seems like a lot of people were actually in need of it. We have a lot of great
resources as it is already Institute for Composer Diversity, but that tended to geared more towards
like larger orchestral band works. We have Casio, which is a vocal database, music for black
composers, which is specifically black composers. And we really wanted to be a little bit more broad
(11:35):
with the scope of the diversity in terms of composers that we were reflecting. Funny enough,
Susan and Brendan, who I know very, very well from going to grad school with, and Evan as well,
actually. But Susan and Brendan came to visit me during the pandemic very safely. And I told them
that this was like a thing that I was working on and what better than to ask your friends for help.
(11:59):
And so, you know, I realized very quickly, this is not something I could do on my own that I wanted
to even do on my own. That's where it all started. And this all started remotely. You know, I saw
that there was this need within the piano community. People were asking on forums like, where can I find
pieces by Latin composers, black composers, first nation composers. And there wasn't really a
(12:23):
resource for it. And so now, given that we really wanted to see this change and a lasting change,
a sustainable change, we were able to say, well, you don't have an excuse anymore. You know, like,
here's everything. And we just keep on expanding that. So wonderful. Beautiful. I want you guys to
introduce yourselves for our audience one by one. Let's start with Annie. You're the founder, right?
(12:48):
So my name is Annie. And I am the founder. And I'm also the executive director of our board.
Right. And you're joining from where? Oh, I'm joining from Greensboro, North Carolina.
Hi, my name is Susan Yang. And I'm joining from Nashville, Tennessee. I'm a co-founder of
(13:09):
a Seedah the Piano. And I think my new title is director of special projects and community
engagement. Hi, I'm Brendan. I'm also coming to you from Nashville. I'm also one of the co-founders.
And I'm director of operations, which is a lot of the tech stuff. And I'm Evan Hines. I am coming
(13:30):
to you from Austin, Texas. And I'm, I guess, a co-founder as well and coordinator of database
operations. What made you guys decide to do it together? What was the inspiration? So Brendan,
I come at it from a pretty different background than a lot of people. I grew up in Canada. And so
there was an organization, the Royal Concerts for Right Music that I grew up playing those syllabus
(13:53):
from. And they actually have always included a lot of composers, usually Canadian composers. And
Canada is a pretty new place. So we've always had female composers and people of color and
everything in that syllabus. And then both my parents are musicians. So I was actually working
with composers when I was a kid, including my high school teacher, Sarah Kineskini. And so
(14:13):
I actually didn't realize till I moved to the U.S. that that gap was there. And so for me, part of
wanting to do a seat at the piano was to sort of give people the experiences that I was lucky enough
to have that I never really realized how different it was because I was playing composers since I
(14:34):
was, you know, probably six years old that we find in our database, which is different. And then I
also do a lot of contemporary music. And so it's just a big draw for me on a personal level. So
I just love finding all the cool new stuff that's out there. Just every time I find a new composer,
I just sort of dive into their music a little bit when I'm working on the website. And so that's,
(14:55):
you know, also just fun for me.
Tell me a little bit, elaborate a little bit about the difference. So I know I myself from
originally from Japan and I'm Korean, but you know, I was I was brought up there. So
obviously there's a culture shock and cultural differences, especially in as an educator. And
(15:15):
even like within the United States, I used to live in Florida and then coming to New York City was a
big, you know, huge cultural shock in many ways. And not just in terms of like a culture culture
itself, but I think every neighborhood I go to has its own cultural difference, especially a place
like New York, because it's so diverse. So Brandon, what did you notice about being coming here in
(15:41):
United States as a music educator, maybe? There's just a different mindset about what the culture
is. So Canada, it's a big country, but population wise, we are very small. And so there's a lot of
things in Canada that are meant to protect and sort of promote Canadian culture. So a lot of our,
even our radio broadcasts, you have to do 50% Canadian content. So Canadian performers, Canadian
(16:07):
composers, something has to be Canadian and them. And then when you come to the United States, like,
it's just default American. And so it's a little bit of a shift in what is sort of normalized that
way. And that was a big sort of shift. And I've always made it a point to continue to play Canadian
composers and to work with Canadian composers, even since I've moved here. But I would say in terms
(16:32):
of mindset, that was sort of one of the bigger things that I've noticed. So how are you bringing
your, let's say your background into this organization? In terms of the composers on the
database, I can tell you that when we first started, I added a lot of Canadian composers. It was very
Canadian heavy for a while till we started working on adding more. And then I also have a not a great
(16:57):
tech background, but I do work with a lot of electronics and performing. And so a lot of what
I've done for the organization has to do with like building the website and learning to code a little
bit so that the search functions at least mostly and sort of attacking it from that end, which is
something that a lot of classical musicians don't necessarily have. So now Evan. Originally, it was
(17:21):
a pretty shared text or a Facebook message from Susan saying, Hey, do you want to join us? And
of course, it was also at a time where of course, we had a lot of time. So I was of course, really
enthusiastic about being a part of it. In terms of the work, I can say growing up. So my mom was a
pianist actually as well. And my dad, although he passed, he was a vocalist. So that's how they met.
(17:46):
They met. He needed a pianist. The rest is history. And so growing up, I certainly was introduced to
certain black composers through the vocal repertoire. And like anybody, you know, we come to things with
our own experiences. And however, as a pianist, growing up, I certainly found myself being
(18:10):
for those that are only listening, I'm an African American pianist. And so I found myself making it a
point to prove as a black pianist that I could play Bach, I could play the Mozart, I could play the
Chopin A2 as well as anybody else, because you don't see a lot of us in this space, you know, so
but because of that, I wasn't necessarily rejecting learning about more black composers, because it
(18:37):
was still a part of my upbringing to a certain extent. But I certainly wasn't going out of my way to
necessarily make it a part of how I programmed a part of what I was necessarily just at the forefront
of my curiosity a lot of the time. So I was really excited to put a lot of effort into just expanding
my knowledge of not only black composers, but of course, that's where it started.
(19:00):
So how about you, Susan?
When Andy first called me about this project, and I just said, sure, yeah, we have so much time,
we're in lockdown. Well, I'll help you, I'll do this. But in terms of doing this work, I actually,
unlike what you asked about Brendan about bringing his own background into this, I actually think
(19:21):
through this project, I'm finding a part of my own identity because so I'm an immigrant too, I grew up in China,
and learning to play the piano was, you know, a lot of the Asian culture, they try to westernize
things and learning to play piano was like such a classy, elegant thing, you know, and I from day one
until I graduated with my DMA, I've been playing Beethoven Sonatas, Journey A2s, you know, like what
(19:47):
Evan said. So the more I got to work with an ASAP, the more I found all these cool composers that,
you know, I almost feel like I was robbed of learning this in my primary education because
there's so much great music out there that I just didn't know about. And I'm also a first-gen college student.
(20:08):
So, and working on this project kind of made me, you know, realize this is also part of who I am,
like I need to celebrate my identity instead of always trying to hide being embarrassed about being
first-gen college student or being embarrassed about being an immigrant. So I guess working on ASAP
has been really empowering in certain ways to, you know, it really resonates with me that I do
(20:33):
acknowledge that I did have a lot of privileges growing up, but I also have, I share that marginalized
areas with these composers that we're trying to promote and advocate for. So that's where I stand
with this project. Thank you so much for sharing such a personal story. Then I'm going to go to
then when it comes to the question of what is the true meaning of inclusion, right? So I think
(20:58):
that's really the mission that you are on and by using the diverse repertoire and putting that into
database. But I think it's in the end, it's more than that. And you're just really there to help
every artist, every student to find their own pathway, right? So before continuing this fun
(21:19):
episode with the team of a seat at the piano, let's take a moment to hear from our valued sponsor,
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today. How are you accomplishing your mission? So you know you have this beautiful website,
but can you tell us a little bit in details? Maybe I'm happy to share the screen with my audience.
(22:30):
So on the front page, I try to keep it updated so that if there's new composers added to our
database or every once in a while we do a small sort of featured composer. So right now it's
Jessica Barbara Eiland-Hommer, which was actually written by one of our summer interns, Katie Larson.
And then during the year, I'll add those. We have our blog, Thoughts and Conversations,
(22:57):
which has the featured composers. I wrote a couple articles when we started adding
Piano Concerto's Start Out of Bass in the spring and sort of goes through all of that. We'll have
an upcoming series. Another one of our interns, Chan June this summer, wrote a series of articles,
(23:18):
sort of biographical composers based on composers whose Wikipedia articles are
stubs are very, very small. And so we'll have that coming up probably starting at the end of
September. And so we'll be doing that with the blog. The database is the main part of the website.
(23:38):
And so on here, we have, I don't remember, 2700, 2800 pieces right now. And we have
6,000 on our research list that we're working on adding. So it will be, we will be over 6,000.
And when you go to it, the default is just like a browse. So it's arranged, reversed
(24:01):
chronologically, and you can go through. And then you can also sort by name and year,
level, showing only living composers, showing only concerti. And then there's a search function
that you can use to search for pieces that way. You can use different identifiers, nationalities.
I will say all of the identifiers that you can search by for our database, for every living
(24:24):
composer, we do get their permission to use those identifiers. And everything is public
information. So basically, it has to be on their public bio on their own website for us to use it.
For example, I have a couple friends in the database who identify in various ways,
but not professionally. And so like, you wouldn't be able to find them that way.
(24:46):
And so it's, it's sort of done like that. And then from the database, if you click on a composer,
it takes you to a composer's page. And if you click on a composition title, it'll take you to a page
that has links to recordings, if they're publicly available, scores, if we can find it. So this
(25:08):
piece here doesn't have a recording, but it does have a score. And you can contact, in this case,
Carolyn, about purchasing the music for that. And so it's sort of set up to try and make it as,
as convenient as possible for everyone. Wow, very, very detailed. It's great that you can search by
level. You know, sometimes as a teacher, I really don't know where to start. So being able to search
(25:33):
by level is very, very helpful. I also want to talk from the provider's point of view, let's say,
I have this extensive research on certain composers, maybe composers from Asia, for example,
and that I want to contribute. Is that possible? Yeah, so we have a submit page where you can
(25:56):
basically submit whatever you found. So we do have a lot of our composers are our own research,
but we definitely have lots of people who submit composers or pieces, or even if they find a
recording for a piece that we haven't found yet, they also will sometime you can submit a recording,
and that way we can update our own database to start including more and more information.
(26:19):
Because we're well aware, like we only know what we know, and we don't even know what we don't know.
And so we're always welcoming anyone, you know, who knows pieces or composers or anything,
just to sort of contribute that way. And we have a big list of composers we're working on adding
from these sort of public submissions. You can also find more information about, we have suggestions
(26:43):
for how to program this music in like a thoughtful way. Where can I find that? So that's under a
database. Sorry, I'm forgetting how I did this, using the database.
Okay, we have sort of our own suggestions for programming. So that way you can sort of,
(27:03):
we want to avoid tokenizing composers and we want to sort of help people present the music for
it's true worth and to sort of look at it that way. We also have links to other organizations
whose missions we also just believe in. And so if you're curious about finding other resources,
(27:25):
these are databases and composer federations or performers and other sort of things that
we have found that we are also adding to this sometimes we get suggestions for this page as
well. And that's always exciting because then we get to sort of dive into some other thoughts
and how to sort of approach this idea. Also, if we want to contribute, we can donate to your
(27:51):
organization, right? Yes. Yes. So we do accept donations. We are pretty much entirely donation
run in terms of funding for paying for the website and everything like that. You mentioned that in
that the tab thoughts and conversations, it's basically the blog page, right? So who is contributing
(28:13):
the content for the blog? We have, we're lucky enough to get summer interns from a couple
different organizations. We have one from Lawrence University and one that's sponsored by the Jack
Hank Cook Foundation. And so we've always asked our summer interns to write blogs about something
about something that interests them. It could be about their experience or however they want to
(28:35):
approach it. Annie has had students write blogs for us and we do pay students for those. So we
get to work with them and then they get to sort of explore something that's of interest or one of
their research projects that sort of aligns with our mission. And sometimes we have had people just
like solicit us and just ask us if they could write something and then we'll get in touch with them and
(28:59):
and sort of work through it that way. And so there's, it's pretty open about who is there and it's
sort of just, you know, can we work together to figure out a way that's beneficial for everyone and
offer something of value that way. What's the qualification to be listed on your database?
Like it has to be living or has to be dead or a genre, you know, even like the dealing with
(29:25):
contemporary music. Right now the classical music sometimes goes a little edgy and then
sort of having to have like a multidisciplinary compositions. And it's pretty, pretty open.
Right now it's, it is, we do try to find like published written out solo piano repertoire
and concherities, but there are pieces on there that use electronics or extended techniques. And
(29:49):
we just make them note of that in the database, like just to let people know that you do need
this extra equipment for those pieces. Yeah, it doesn't have to be everyone. I don't remember
the oldest composer in our database right now, but it's several centuries ago all the way to people
who are quite young. Like makes me feel old how young they are. And so it's pretty open as long as
(30:17):
they are, you know, sort of representative of some sort of historically underrepresented group that
way, then it's pretty open. Wonderful. Yeah, I saw that birth year was 1999. Oh my goodness.
I feel so old. Oh, I think our oldest composer, I was just looking at our database. I think it's
Elizabeth Jaquette Lecaire, who was born in 1665. Cool. Yeah. So you have really extensive
(30:44):
data there. Do you have any other way besides blogs to reach out to more classical musicians
and educators, like for example, maybe creating a playlist? Because, you know, my podcast,
actually, my podcast was born on the same, I think around the same time that your organization was
(31:05):
born. So we share the same birthday, right? So and then I actually, well, last year I got so busy,
but I was monthly creating a playlist for listeners, like, you know, to have a diverse
repertoire list in my playlist. So have you thought of any of these things or
you're maybe already creating something like that? Yeah, we're doing a little bit of that now.
(31:28):
Additionally to the blogs, we have social media as well. And so through our social media platforms
of Instagram and Facebook, we will celebrate composers birthdays and then therefore also
feature some of their works during those days in our posts. We also started creating not really
playlists, but like our favorite top 10 kind of pieces each month. And they were typically themed.
(31:52):
So like, for October of last year, I remember we did like spooky pieces that were in our
database or like wintery pieces in December holiday pieces. But I love this idea of actually
creating like an actual playlist. And maybe we'll do we'll do that and feature that as a blog. So
thanks for the idea. Yeah, we can collaborate, you know, I can feature your playlist on my yeah,
(32:16):
that would be nice. As a teacher, okay, I've been teaching for a long time. And you know,
we are so busy. So we tend to stick with the same good old pieces, you know what I mean,
like, in any level, because you get so comfortable with them and you are very familiar with them,
whether that is elementary pieces to a very advanced. So for those folks like myself,
(32:40):
what's your advice? Just to expand the horizon, because we get so caught up in our daily day
to day lives. And you know, as a teacher, you have to also do a lot of admin stuff. It's very
hard for me sometimes to get out of that my comfort zone and do a lot of research on contemporary
(33:02):
pieces. And that are, I mean, there are so many amazing contemporary pieces out there, I know,
or unknown pieces of hidden gems, right? So what's your advice? Yeah, this is actually something
that we speak to music teachers about all the time. Well, it's great that you acknowledge that
there's this gap in your teaching. And I think it's not as easy as a sound, you do have to,
(33:26):
you know, just carve out some time to do your own research. But I would say start with ASAP
resources. That's why we built our database. So one of the cool features about the search bar
and our database on the website is that I think Brendan is going to work on refining that a little
bit. But you can search by genres or, you know, different types of pieces. If you're teaching,
(33:54):
say, like a minuet, you can just type in minuet. So this kind of delves into the area of repertoire
substitution. You know, instead of teaching a Bach minuet, you can teach a minuet written by
Delaguer. So if you just type in the search bar minuet, ideally all of the pieces titled
minuet should pop up in the database. So yeah, this is something, I mean, I think we all struggle
(34:20):
with. This is like a presentation we gave two years ago, you know, like we all love what is
familiar. It's really easy to just go for the pieces that you've already played and you've
already taught so many times. But just know that there's so much more cool repertoire out there
that we're missing out on. But yeah, looking out for resources like ASAP or for other, I guess,
(34:43):
disciplines, non-canons, I guess, you know, like all the database that Annie mentioned earlier,
just keep an eye out for those. But I think to begin with, you know, if you have the desire to
look for these kind of pieces, if the desire is there, then I think you just, you kind of, you do
have to go out and look for these pieces on your own. So part of our mission is to make this widely
(35:09):
available. And this is why we're doing podcasts like this, interviews, creating that online course,
advocating on social media to just spread the word. So, Evan? Well, I was going to say,
really, it just starts with one piece, right? You know, like it can be so overwhelming. And what,
you know, it's actually nice about that is that proves that there's so much music out there.
(35:34):
There, the excuse that I don't like any of it cannot apply, right? At this point, there's,
there's bound to be something that you like enough that you're going to want to teach and learn yourself.
A very specific thing that came to mind, because there's so much out there, you know, we have like
the charity exercises, the hand and exercises. But there's also a woman French composer, A.L.A.
(35:58):
de Montreux-Roll, who has like the most extensive package of atoos exercises, like short pieces.
So like, if you want to think about a huge set of things that are geared toward a specific
sort of technique or something, I would start there, maybe. Yeah, there's plenty. You'll find something.
(36:20):
Yeah. That's a wonderful problem being a pianist and piano teacher, right? Like,
it never ends. Like, we have too many pieces. We have to live two, yeah, two, three lives to be
able to accomplish that. Well, I just wanted to add that, you know, I think one of the things that
(36:40):
teachers, experienced teachers, all teachers will do is that they go towards anthologies,
because everything is in one book. It's very easy. You flip a page, you look for another piece.
And one of our future projects that we're going to be working on is creating anthologies of the
works that are in our database. But that's not stopping you also from kind of creating your own
(37:04):
anthology. Like, I've kind of been doing that on my own of just like creating these like booklets
of pieces that I like. You know, like I have my standards of teaching certain technique,
and now I'm building up another set of list of pieces that also do the same, but just within
our database. So, you know, it's just kind of creating your own resources. And also by creating
(37:26):
it, then you have so much more ownership of it, and you feel like you really know it. So,
I think like it's just kind of piquing your curiosity. And like, if I love that Evan says,
like, just start with one thing, because usually if you start with one thing, like, you will find
other things too. That concludes the first half of this fun episode of the PianoPod with the team
(37:50):
of a seat at the piano. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review it on your favorite
podcasting platform. Don't forget to follow the PianoPod on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok,
and LinkedIn. The links are listed in the description. Tune in next Tuesday, September 26th at 8 p.m.
to hear the rest of the interview with the team of a seat at the piano.
Welcome back to another episode of the PianoPod. I am your host, Yukimi Song. So today, I invited a
(00:06):
team from a non-profit organization called A Seat at the Piano. They are Annie Zhang,
Brendan Jacqueline, Evan Hines, and Susan Yang. ASAP, short for Seat at the Piano, was founded in
the summer of 2020 in the midst of social and racial reckoning around the world. ASAP is run by
(00:28):
these dedicated, classically trained pianists with varying backgrounds and experiences who strive
to raise the voices of those who are less heard and to inspire more thoughtful, inclusive programming
within the performing and pedagogical spheres. Let me quickly highlight each guest by citing their
bio. Let's start with Annie Zhang. She is the founder of ASAP, a renowned pianist and educator.
(00:56):
Annie has performed globally from the Kennedy Center to festivals in Italy and Spain.
Passionate about contemporary music? She has researched its pedagogical capabilities,
even creating a resource introducing unconventional techniques. With a DMA from the University of
Michigan, she is now an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
(01:20):
Then, Brendan Jacqueline. He is the co-founder of ASAP, Canadian American pianist. Brendan Jacqueline,
based in Nashville, is a fervent advocate for contemporary music, premiering over 50 works
and championing interdisciplinary performances. Assault after speaker, he has graced stages
from MTA to NCKP conferences. As assistant professor at Piano at Fisk University, he brings
(01:47):
a rich educational background with a DMA from the University of Cincinnati and mentorship from
renowned musicians. Then, let's move on to Evan Hines, also the co-founder of ASAP, pianist and
educator. Evan, an Oberlin and University of Michigan alumnus, has flourished as a pianist
and collaborator. He's been part of the Ann Arbor-based trio Continuum, toured Mexico and
(02:13):
performed at Kent Blossom Festival alongside renowned artists like Joella Jones. Having served at
Oberlin in various roles, he is now pursuing a DMA at the University of Texas at Austin.
Then finally, Susan Yang. She is also the co-founder of ASAP. She is a distinguished performer
(02:34):
and pedagogue. Managed by the National Federation of Music Clubs, she has won numerous awards and
recently performed with orchestras like the Nashville Symphony. Her debut album, Doorways,
have remembered music, showcases her talent. A passionate educator, she is presented at various
conferences and champions community outreach. Currently, she is a piano faculty member at
(03:00):
Vanderbilt Blair School of Music with degrees from top institutions and mentorship from
renowned pianists. Dear TPP fans and listeners, I can't wait to interview these brilliant pianists
and educators and learn what a seat at the piano is all about. Stay with me till the end as our
(03:20):
conversation will lead to more reflective discussion on how we as trained classical musicians
should keep classical music alive and thriving in our fast-paced world and more. Here we go,
dear friends. Please enjoy the show. You are listening to the piano pod where we talk to the
(03:43):
brightest minds in the industry about how they are bringing the piano into the 21st century.
Welcome Annie, Brendan, Evan, and Susan to the piano pod. This is my first time ever interviewing
more than two guests in an episode, so I'm super excited and a little nervous. Just kidding. So
(04:04):
this is going to be fun. I got an email from one of you guys back in April or May of this year that
you have been following the piano pods Instagram and listening to the episode, which I am really,
really grateful for. And then I get to know your organization then. And since then, I have been
checking out the extensive database of unknown composers and compositions, many of which I have
(04:30):
yet to learn and discover. So later, I will let you guys introduce yourselves to our audience. But
for now, let's start with this. What is a seat at the piano? Is it an organization program,
database, and who is this for? So a seat at the piano is essentially a platform to raise the voices
(04:51):
of a lot of composers who have been less heard or historically excluded or underrepresented.
And so it is a database. It is a resource. It's a blog. It's kind of a lot of different things
that we've combined into one kind of a one stop shop for a lot of pianists, teachers, students to
(05:11):
go to if they're seeking different kinds of repertoire, they're outside of the normal kind
of canon. So that's kind of it in a gist. I'm sure we're going to talk a lot more about it and how
it all started as well. What is the mission of a seat at the table? May I call the organization ASAP,
which is a really cool four letters? I actually love that you slipped a little bit right there,
(05:33):
because you said a seat at the table. Actually, that's that's partially why we called our organization
a seat at the table. A seat at the piano. And maybe Susan, if you want to maybe talk about our name,
because you were the genius or part of the genius behind coming up with the name of a seat at the
piano. It's been a long time, but I just remember we were all brainstorming, just like dumping
(05:58):
names that we could think of into a document. I remember some of it was like, a seat at the bench,
a seat at the piano. What were the other ones or something like database for promoting piano
inclusion? And we wanted something that was, you know, this is serious stuff, but we also want to
make it fun and engaging. And when speaking of, you know, having more, more voices, more conversations
(06:21):
at the table, which is a more common kind of phrase that we use of a seat at the table. And we think
about a bench, a bench, which is so limited sometimes in front of a piano. But if we have more,
what if we had a longer bench, you know, that could fit a lot more of these voices and a lot
more of these identities and personalities. Yeah. And I noticed, actually, I think Brenda and I did
(06:42):
at the same time, we were just going over the names and we were trying to come up with a more
fun name instead of just calling this a database or a website or something. So, and then we were
like, Oh, a seat at the piano, a previous to ASAP. And people should be doing this kind of work
ASAP. So that was like a kind of fun coincidence. So then we, we settled on the name right away,
(07:04):
because that just seemed to be, yeah, the most appropriate out of all the ones that we came
up with. Yeah. And it's really catchy, right? And then, sorry, I was saying the wrong name, but
a seat at the piano, right? Yeah, you're actually not the first one. Yeah, we've, I've had a lot of,
I've heard a lot of people say, I see that the table on accident. Yeah. Yeah. But I really like
(07:28):
the background of where the actual name came from. And I like the shorter version ASAP, which is
really catchy. So what is the mission of ASAP? The mission of ASAP is to promote and include
the music of the popes that hasn't necessarily been in the forefront, you know, and I was actually
(07:49):
thinking earlier today that there are so many of these pieces from the big names that we know,
Beethoven, Mozart, whatever. And what something that has been really exciting about the work that
we've done is that you are starting to see sort of some very specific pieces become a part of the
canon nowadays. And I started to think, oh my God, like, of course, they're playing this piece again,
(08:11):
but also you have to remember that one is better than none. The whole point is that like, yeah,
this, like we might be seeing the same pieces over and over again. However, it's already hundreds and
hundreds of years too late. So like, even if there's one more, I know that the work that we're doing
is working and very important. And yeah, so basically, we're trying to catch up with the
(08:34):
inclusion of works of piano music from composers from historically excluded groups.
Why did you want to start this organization? And was there anything obviously missing, right? It
was like the composers, unknown composers, unknown compositions, which amazing works of unknown composers
(08:58):
which were missing from our program, from our even teaching repertoire and so forth. But was there
anything else that was missing that you motivated to start this program, this organization?
During the summer of 2020, which was obviously during the pandemic, and we're all in isolation a lot
(09:18):
of time to reflect, of course, our whole nation was dealing with solitude and also racial reckoning,
social reckoning, a lot of the disparities that are within our society. And I think there was a
big call to action. It's unfortunate that the circumstances had to create this call to action,
but that there is this urgency that we had to do something. And so whether or not that was going
(09:41):
out into the streets and protesting and saying your voice or, you know, showing the ways that
you're supporting other communities and other different ways, I feel like as musicians, even
within our silo, within our bubble and our sphere, we can still do a lot of influence. And so this
started actually just, you know, in my bed, on my laptop, just kind of doing my own personal research
(10:03):
when I was doing myself reflection and like kind of mad at myself that I could only maybe name,
like, off of the five fingers of my hands, the number of composers that I'd played that were
not by standard typical white male Western European composers. So I started just kind of coming up
with a list. And this was really just kind of for me to kind of think about, okay, when I am
(10:28):
assigning repertoire, maybe in the fall semester, like maybe I'll pull from this list. And what was
kind of fun about this project is that it's very easy to kind of go into this like spiral and this
like black hole of a lot of like amazing pieces that you just never heard of. And so I just started
cataloging it, putting it in this Google spreadsheet, and including things like, you know, obviously the
(10:51):
composer, the names of the pieces, the duration, difficulty in leveling as much as I could, a
recording, a score, shared it on social media, because that's that was the main form of communicating
with a lot of folks within that time of the pandemic. And there, I just kind of put it out there as a
feeler of like, okay, what do people think about this? I'm working on this thing. What do you all
(11:13):
think? And it seems like a lot of people were actually in need of it. We have a lot of great
resources as it is already Institute for Composer Diversity, but that tended to geared more towards
like larger orchestral band works. We have Casio, which is a vocal database, music for black
composers, which is specifically black composers. And we really wanted to be a little bit more broad
(11:35):
with the scope of the diversity in terms of composers that we were reflecting. Funny enough,
Susan and Brendan, who I know very, very well from going to grad school with, and Evan as well,
actually. But Susan and Brendan came to visit me during the pandemic very safely. And I told them
that this was like a thing that I was working on and what better than to ask your friends for help.
(11:59):
And so, you know, I realized very quickly, this is not something I could do on my own that I wanted
to even do on my own. That's where it all started. And this all started remotely. You know, I saw
that there was this need within the piano community. People were asking on forums like, where can I find
pieces by Latin composers, black composers, first nation composers. And there wasn't really a
(12:23):
resource for it. And so now, given that we really wanted to see this change and a lasting change,
a sustainable change, we were able to say, well, you don't have an excuse anymore. You know, like,
here's everything. And we just keep on expanding that. So wonderful. Beautiful. I want you guys to
introduce yourselves for our audience one by one. Let's start with Annie. You're the founder, right?
(12:48):
So my name is Annie. And I am the founder. And I'm also the executive director of our board.
Right. And you're joining from where? Oh, I'm joining from Greensboro, North Carolina.
Hi, my name is Susan Yang. And I'm joining from Nashville, Tennessee. I'm a co-founder of
(13:09):
a Seedah the Piano. And I think my new title is director of special projects and community
engagement. Hi, I'm Brendan. I'm also coming to you from Nashville. I'm also one of the co-founders.
And I'm director of operations, which is a lot of the tech stuff. And I'm Evan Hines. I am coming
(13:30):
to you from Austin, Texas. And I'm, I guess, a co-founder as well and coordinator of database
operations. What made you guys decide to do it together? What was the inspiration? So Brendan,
I come at it from a pretty different background than a lot of people. I grew up in Canada. And so
there was an organization, the Royal Concerts for Right Music that I grew up playing those syllabus
(13:53):
from. And they actually have always included a lot of composers, usually Canadian composers. And
Canada is a pretty new place. So we've always had female composers and people of color and
everything in that syllabus. And then both my parents are musicians. So I was actually working
with composers when I was a kid, including my high school teacher, Sarah Kineskini. And so
(14:13):
I actually didn't realize till I moved to the U.S. that that gap was there. And so for me, part of
wanting to do a seat at the piano was to sort of give people the experiences that I was lucky enough
to have that I never really realized how different it was because I was playing composers since I
(14:34):
was, you know, probably six years old that we find in our database, which is different. And then I
also do a lot of contemporary music. And so it's just a big draw for me on a personal level. So
I just love finding all the cool new stuff that's out there. Just every time I find a new composer,
I just sort of dive into their music a little bit when I'm working on the website. And so that's,
(14:55):
you know, also just fun for me.
Tell me a little bit, elaborate a little bit about the difference. So I know I myself from
originally from Japan and I'm Korean, but you know, I was I was brought up there. So
obviously there's a culture shock and cultural differences, especially in as an educator. And
(15:15):
even like within the United States, I used to live in Florida and then coming to New York City was a
big, you know, huge cultural shock in many ways. And not just in terms of like a culture culture
itself, but I think every neighborhood I go to has its own cultural difference, especially a place
like New York, because it's so diverse. So Brandon, what did you notice about being coming here in
(15:41):
United States as a music educator, maybe? There's just a different mindset about what the culture
is. So Canada, it's a big country, but population wise, we are very small. And so there's a lot of
things in Canada that are meant to protect and sort of promote Canadian culture. So a lot of our,
even our radio broadcasts, you have to do 50% Canadian content. So Canadian performers, Canadian
(16:07):
composers, something has to be Canadian and them. And then when you come to the United States, like,
it's just default American. And so it's a little bit of a shift in what is sort of normalized that
way. And that was a big sort of shift. And I've always made it a point to continue to play Canadian
composers and to work with Canadian composers, even since I've moved here. But I would say in terms
(16:32):
of mindset, that was sort of one of the bigger things that I've noticed. So how are you bringing
your, let's say your background into this organization? In terms of the composers on the
database, I can tell you that when we first started, I added a lot of Canadian composers. It was very
Canadian heavy for a while till we started working on adding more. And then I also have a not a great
(16:57):
tech background, but I do work with a lot of electronics and performing. And so a lot of what
I've done for the organization has to do with like building the website and learning to code a little
bit so that the search functions at least mostly and sort of attacking it from that end, which is
something that a lot of classical musicians don't necessarily have. So now Evan. Originally, it was
(17:21):
a pretty shared text or a Facebook message from Susan saying, Hey, do you want to join us? And
of course, it was also at a time where of course, we had a lot of time. So I was of course, really
enthusiastic about being a part of it. In terms of the work, I can say growing up. So my mom was a
pianist actually as well. And my dad, although he passed, he was a vocalist. So that's how they met.
(17:46):
They met. He needed a pianist. The rest is history. And so growing up, I certainly was introduced to
certain black composers through the vocal repertoire. And like anybody, you know, we come to things with
our own experiences. And however, as a pianist, growing up, I certainly found myself being
(18:10):
for those that are only listening, I'm an African American pianist. And so I found myself making it a
point to prove as a black pianist that I could play Bach, I could play the Mozart, I could play the
Chopin A2 as well as anybody else, because you don't see a lot of us in this space, you know, so
but because of that, I wasn't necessarily rejecting learning about more black composers, because it
(18:37):
was still a part of my upbringing to a certain extent. But I certainly wasn't going out of my way to
necessarily make it a part of how I programmed a part of what I was necessarily just at the forefront
of my curiosity a lot of the time. So I was really excited to put a lot of effort into just expanding
my knowledge of not only black composers, but of course, that's where it started.
(19:00):
So how about you, Susan?
When Andy first called me about this project, and I just said, sure, yeah, we have so much time,
we're in lockdown. Well, I'll help you, I'll do this. But in terms of doing this work, I actually,
unlike what you asked about Brendan about bringing his own background into this, I actually think
(19:21):
through this project, I'm finding a part of my own identity because so I'm an immigrant too, I grew up in China,
and learning to play the piano was, you know, a lot of the Asian culture, they try to westernize
things and learning to play piano was like such a classy, elegant thing, you know, and I from day one
until I graduated with my DMA, I've been playing Beethoven Sonatas, Journey A2s, you know, like what
(19:47):
Evan said. So the more I got to work with an ASAP, the more I found all these cool composers that,
you know, I almost feel like I was robbed of learning this in my primary education because
there's so much great music out there that I just didn't know about. And I'm also a first-gen college student.
(20:08):
So, and working on this project kind of made me, you know, realize this is also part of who I am,
like I need to celebrate my identity instead of always trying to hide being embarrassed about being
first-gen college student or being embarrassed about being an immigrant. So I guess working on ASAP
has been really empowering in certain ways to, you know, it really resonates with me that I do
(20:33):
acknowledge that I did have a lot of privileges growing up, but I also have, I share that marginalized
areas with these composers that we're trying to promote and advocate for. So that's where I stand
with this project. Thank you so much for sharing such a personal story. Then I'm going to go to
then when it comes to the question of what is the true meaning of inclusion, right? So I think
(20:58):
that's really the mission that you are on and by using the diverse repertoire and putting that into
database. But I think it's in the end, it's more than that. And you're just really there to help
every artist, every student to find their own pathway, right? So before continuing this fun
(21:19):
episode with the team of a seat at the piano, let's take a moment to hear from our valued sponsor,
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today. How are you accomplishing your mission? So you know you have this beautiful website,
but can you tell us a little bit in details? Maybe I'm happy to share the screen with my audience.
(22:30):
So on the front page, I try to keep it updated so that if there's new composers added to our
database or every once in a while we do a small sort of featured composer. So right now it's
Jessica Barbara Eiland-Hommer, which was actually written by one of our summer interns, Katie Larson.
And then during the year, I'll add those. We have our blog, Thoughts and Conversations,
(22:57):
which has the featured composers. I wrote a couple articles when we started adding
Piano Concerto's Start Out of Bass in the spring and sort of goes through all of that. We'll have
an upcoming series. Another one of our interns, Chan June this summer, wrote a series of articles,
(23:18):
sort of biographical composers based on composers whose Wikipedia articles are
stubs are very, very small. And so we'll have that coming up probably starting at the end of
September. And so we'll be doing that with the blog. The database is the main part of the website.
(23:38):
And so on here, we have, I don't remember, 2700, 2800 pieces right now. And we have
6,000 on our research list that we're working on adding. So it will be, we will be over 6,000.
And when you go to it, the default is just like a browse. So it's arranged, reversed
(24:01):
chronologically, and you can go through. And then you can also sort by name and year,
level, showing only living composers, showing only concerti. And then there's a search function
that you can use to search for pieces that way. You can use different identifiers, nationalities.
I will say all of the identifiers that you can search by for our database, for every living
(24:24):
composer, we do get their permission to use those identifiers. And everything is public
information. So basically, it has to be on their public bio on their own website for us to use it.
For example, I have a couple friends in the database who identify in various ways,
but not professionally. And so like, you wouldn't be able to find them that way.
(24:46):
And so it's, it's sort of done like that. And then from the database, if you click on a composer,
it takes you to a composer's page. And if you click on a composition title, it'll take you to a page
that has links to recordings, if they're publicly available, scores, if we can find it. So this
(25:08):
piece here doesn't have a recording, but it does have a score. And you can contact, in this case,
Carolyn, about purchasing the music for that. And so it's sort of set up to try and make it as,
as convenient as possible for everyone. Wow, very, very detailed. It's great that you can search by
level. You know, sometimes as a teacher, I really don't know where to start. So being able to search
(25:33):
by level is very, very helpful. I also want to talk from the provider's point of view, let's say,
I have this extensive research on certain composers, maybe composers from Asia, for example,
and that I want to contribute. Is that possible? Yeah, so we have a submit page where you can
(25:56):
basically submit whatever you found. So we do have a lot of our composers are our own research,
but we definitely have lots of people who submit composers or pieces, or even if they find a
recording for a piece that we haven't found yet, they also will sometime you can submit a recording,
and that way we can update our own database to start including more and more information.
(26:19):
Because we're well aware, like we only know what we know, and we don't even know what we don't know.
And so we're always welcoming anyone, you know, who knows pieces or composers or anything,
just to sort of contribute that way. And we have a big list of composers we're working on adding
from these sort of public submissions. You can also find more information about, we have suggestions
(26:43):
for how to program this music in like a thoughtful way. Where can I find that? So that's under a
database. Sorry, I'm forgetting how I did this, using the database.
Okay, we have sort of our own suggestions for programming. So that way you can sort of,
(27:03):
we want to avoid tokenizing composers and we want to sort of help people present the music for
it's true worth and to sort of look at it that way. We also have links to other organizations
whose missions we also just believe in. And so if you're curious about finding other resources,
(27:25):
these are databases and composer federations or performers and other sort of things that
we have found that we are also adding to this sometimes we get suggestions for this page as
well. And that's always exciting because then we get to sort of dive into some other thoughts
and how to sort of approach this idea. Also, if we want to contribute, we can donate to your
(27:51):
organization, right? Yes. Yes. So we do accept donations. We are pretty much entirely donation
run in terms of funding for paying for the website and everything like that. You mentioned that in
that the tab thoughts and conversations, it's basically the blog page, right? So who is contributing
(28:13):
the content for the blog? We have, we're lucky enough to get summer interns from a couple
different organizations. We have one from Lawrence University and one that's sponsored by the Jack
Hank Cook Foundation. And so we've always asked our summer interns to write blogs about something
about something that interests them. It could be about their experience or however they want to
(28:35):
approach it. Annie has had students write blogs for us and we do pay students for those. So we
get to work with them and then they get to sort of explore something that's of interest or one of
their research projects that sort of aligns with our mission. And sometimes we have had people just
like solicit us and just ask us if they could write something and then we'll get in touch with them and
(28:59):
and sort of work through it that way. And so there's, it's pretty open about who is there and it's
sort of just, you know, can we work together to figure out a way that's beneficial for everyone and
offer something of value that way. What's the qualification to be listed on your database?
Like it has to be living or has to be dead or a genre, you know, even like the dealing with
(29:25):
contemporary music. Right now the classical music sometimes goes a little edgy and then
sort of having to have like a multidisciplinary compositions. And it's pretty, pretty open.
Right now it's, it is, we do try to find like published written out solo piano repertoire
and concherities, but there are pieces on there that use electronics or extended techniques. And
(29:49):
we just make them note of that in the database, like just to let people know that you do need
this extra equipment for those pieces. Yeah, it doesn't have to be everyone. I don't remember
the oldest composer in our database right now, but it's several centuries ago all the way to people
who are quite young. Like makes me feel old how young they are. And so it's pretty open as long as
(30:17):
they are, you know, sort of representative of some sort of historically underrepresented group that
way, then it's pretty open. Wonderful. Yeah, I saw that birth year was 1999. Oh my goodness.
I feel so old. Oh, I think our oldest composer, I was just looking at our database. I think it's
Elizabeth Jaquette Lecaire, who was born in 1665. Cool. Yeah. So you have really extensive
(30:44):
data there. Do you have any other way besides blogs to reach out to more classical musicians
and educators, like for example, maybe creating a playlist? Because, you know, my podcast,
actually, my podcast was born on the same, I think around the same time that your organization was
(31:05):
born. So we share the same birthday, right? So and then I actually, well, last year I got so busy,
but I was monthly creating a playlist for listeners, like, you know, to have a diverse
repertoire list in my playlist. So have you thought of any of these things or
you're maybe already creating something like that? Yeah, we're doing a little bit of that now.
(31:28):
Additionally to the blogs, we have social media as well. And so through our social media platforms
of Instagram and Facebook, we will celebrate composers birthdays and then therefore also
feature some of their works during those days in our posts. We also started creating not really
playlists, but like our favorite top 10 kind of pieces each month. And they were typically themed.
(31:52):
So like, for October of last year, I remember we did like spooky pieces that were in our
database or like wintery pieces in December holiday pieces. But I love this idea of actually
creating like an actual playlist. And maybe we'll do we'll do that and feature that as a blog. So
thanks for the idea. Yeah, we can collaborate, you know, I can feature your playlist on my yeah,
(32:16):
that would be nice. As a teacher, okay, I've been teaching for a long time. And you know,
we are so busy. So we tend to stick with the same good old pieces, you know what I mean,
like, in any level, because you get so comfortable with them and you are very familiar with them,
whether that is elementary pieces to a very advanced. So for those folks like myself,
(32:40):
what's your advice? Just to expand the horizon, because we get so caught up in our daily day
to day lives. And you know, as a teacher, you have to also do a lot of admin stuff. It's very
hard for me sometimes to get out of that my comfort zone and do a lot of research on contemporary
(33:02):
pieces. And that are, I mean, there are so many amazing contemporary pieces out there, I know,
or unknown pieces of hidden gems, right? So what's your advice? Yeah, this is actually something
that we speak to music teachers about all the time. Well, it's great that you acknowledge that
there's this gap in your teaching. And I think it's not as easy as a sound, you do have to,
(33:26):
you know, just carve out some time to do your own research. But I would say start with ASAP
resources. That's why we built our database. So one of the cool features about the search bar
and our database on the website is that I think Brendan is going to work on refining that a little
bit. But you can search by genres or, you know, different types of pieces. If you're teaching,
(33:54):
say, like a minuet, you can just type in minuet. So this kind of delves into the area of repertoire
substitution. You know, instead of teaching a Bach minuet, you can teach a minuet written by
Delaguer. So if you just type in the search bar minuet, ideally all of the pieces titled
minuet should pop up in the database. So yeah, this is something, I mean, I think we all struggle
(34:20):
with. This is like a presentation we gave two years ago, you know, like we all love what is
familiar. It's really easy to just go for the pieces that you've already played and you've
already taught so many times. But just know that there's so much more cool repertoire out there
that we're missing out on. But yeah, looking out for resources like ASAP or for other, I guess,
(34:43):
disciplines, non-canons, I guess, you know, like all the database that Annie mentioned earlier,
just keep an eye out for those. But I think to begin with, you know, if you have the desire to
look for these kind of pieces, if the desire is there, then I think you just, you kind of, you do
have to go out and look for these pieces on your own. So part of our mission is to make this widely
(35:09):
available. And this is why we're doing podcasts like this, interviews, creating that online course,
advocating on social media to just spread the word. So, Evan? Well, I was going to say,
really, it just starts with one piece, right? You know, like it can be so overwhelming. And what,
you know, it's actually nice about that is that proves that there's so much music out there.
(35:34):
There, the excuse that I don't like any of it cannot apply, right? At this point, there's,
there's bound to be something that you like enough that you're going to want to teach and learn yourself.
A very specific thing that came to mind, because there's so much out there, you know, we have like
the charity exercises, the hand and exercises. But there's also a woman French composer, A.L.A.
(35:58):
de Montreux-Roll, who has like the most extensive package of atoos exercises, like short pieces.
So like, if you want to think about a huge set of things that are geared toward a specific
sort of technique or something, I would start there, maybe. Yeah, there's plenty. You'll find something.
(36:20):
Yeah. That's a wonderful problem being a pianist and piano teacher, right? Like,
it never ends. Like, we have too many pieces. We have to live two, yeah, two, three lives to be
able to accomplish that. Well, I just wanted to add that, you know, I think one of the things that
(36:40):
teachers, experienced teachers, all teachers will do is that they go towards anthologies,
because everything is in one book. It's very easy. You flip a page, you look for another piece.
And one of our future projects that we're going to be working on is creating anthologies of the
works that are in our database. But that's not stopping you also from kind of creating your own
(37:04):
anthology. Like, I've kind of been doing that on my own of just like creating these like booklets
of pieces that I like. You know, like I have my standards of teaching certain technique,
and now I'm building up another set of list of pieces that also do the same, but just within
our database. So, you know, it's just kind of creating your own resources. And also by creating
(37:26):
it, then you have so much more ownership of it, and you feel like you really know it. So,
I think like it's just kind of piquing your curiosity. And like, if I love that Evan says,
like, just start with one thing, because usually if you start with one thing, like, you will find
other things too. That concludes the first half of this fun episode of the PianoPod with the team
(37:50):
of a seat at the piano. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review it on your favorite
podcasting platform. Don't forget to follow the PianoPod on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok,
and LinkedIn. The links are listed in the description. Tune in next Tuesday, September 26th at 8 p.m.
to hear the rest of the interview with the team of a seat at the piano.
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