`Playing piano need not be a lonely experience'
SELINE AUGUSTINE
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Nadia Lasserson, piano expert, gave a lecture-demonstration at Max Mueller Bhavan recently.
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Photo: R. Shivaji Rao.
INSPIRING: Nadia Lasserson.
Playing piano can be fun and enjoyable. This is what Nadia Lasserson who teaches at both Trinity College of Music and the Royal School of Music, London, set out to prove during her lecture-demonstration at Max Mueller Bhavan recently, under the auspices of the EPTA (European Piano Teachers' Association) India Associates. She has produced a CD, which includes all new works composed especially for `Piano 40' (an ensemble for eight hands for two pianos) of which Lasserson is the founder. Her publication, `Piano Needn't be Lonely,' a guide to over 400 piece of Chamber music and Multipiano Repertoire, is now in its second edition.
The Palm Sunday session with the English piano teacher was time well spent for the piano teachers and eager young students of Chennai who attended it. Learning to play an instrument is not exactly an enthralling experience for either the student or the listener. When Mrs. Themina Charles, a senior piano teacher, referred to instances where parents do not care one way or the other about how well their child plays the piano. Hence Nadia suggested: "We need to teach not only the students but also educate the parents".
Ensemble playing
The Trinity teacher is fondly referred to as the `Lonely Piano Lady'. Piano students end up spending lonely hours on the piano practising through the year except when they meet the teacher for a lesson and the examiner at the end of the term. She affirms that playing the piano need not be a lonely experience. Ensemble playing is the answer to this. The advantages of ensemble playing are — it helps develop a good sense of rhythm, it teaches them what is Chamber music, their listening skills are honed, for at times the student will have to play melody and then move on to play accompaniment. Sight-reading is helped by the joint venture. The benefits are many. When three beginners are exposed to an ensemble playing (six hands) every child gets to play a different role like melody, chordal accompaniment and bass. The final outcome is a complete ensemble sound which a single child cannot produce on his own. When advanced level students play together, the music produced can be awesome as the entire range of the piano is put into use. As she puts it, "children have to make music a social part of their lives". According to Nadia, organising secretary of the European Piano Teachers' Association, the idea is to make piano playing enjoyable and not a dreadful prospect with the sole aim of clearing the exam or playing at a concert. The two examining boards from U.K. offer piano duet as a subject, which is not very popular in our city, where over 600 students take the piano solo exam up to Grade VIII level.
Later in the evening, the participants were treated to a solo piano recital by Julian Clef of Thiruvananthanpuram.
The lecture-demonstration and concert were organised by Prabhudhas Ivanson, founder-director of EPTA India Associates.
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