I know. I saw that.



I'll give you a break for a while, but just for a while. I need time to compose my questions.

Hey Joe, how did the rug under the piano work out?

How did you pick your piano?

How has the NYC music scene changed over the last 20 years?

how did you meet your wife?

how old are your children and what do they do?

When did you get interested in contemporary music and did you start off like the rest of us in classical training and how young were you when you started?
________________________________

It's all in Pique's book. (True.) Wait, I'll go look up the page number

Oh, OK. I got interested in contemporary music while an undergrad at SUNY (that's State University of NY) at Buffalo. There JUST HAPPENED to be this government-funded music program going on there in the mid-to-late 60s, wherein important composers and performers of new music (from around the country, Europe and elsewhere) were brought in on fellowships to present concerts, seminars, and just work together. (Oh, those heady days...would never happen today.) This program was called the Center for the Creative and Performing Arts, and the participants were called Creative Associates.

Anyway, as a music-crazed student, during those few hours I wasn't practicing, I'd go to the concerts. I soaked it all up like a sponge. As bizarre as the music was then, the auditorium was always packed with patrons. I figured, gee, there must be a future in this stuff and decided this was to be the consuming interest of my life. And indeed it has been.

Back then, almost no pianists were interested in contemporary music as a specialty. I thought I had it all to myself. These days, budding professionals realize there are more classical pianists than the world can absorb, and consequently more who have made the same choice I did.

Then, after graduate school and some years in California (where I also learned a lot about new music from a different perspective), I applied and became a Creative Associate back in Buffalo in that selfsame program. Of course, since the personnel always rotated, there was a whole different group of people, apart from a few involved university faculty and the directors.

As to the question of when I started in classical training, I think I answered that in one of my previous posts.

The "famous" modern composers that I learned about in school were Schoenberg, Webern, and Berg.

What do you think about each of these composers, and could you please be as specific and detailed as possible (I'm not a musician, composer, or musicologist).

How would you "rank" (or more generally, how do you feel about) these composers in the context of other modern composers?

Thanks.

Do you ever still play "regular" classical music?
* * * * *

Yes, more for my own edification...Bach mostly. And I accompany some singers in classical repertory. But I still have an aversion to the great pianistic warhorses. Probably due to my more introspective nature, and partly because I just got tired of them, hearing everyone at music school play them over and over.

To which warhorses are you referring?

god i hope i am not playing them!!!

How much practicing do you do on a regular basis?

Is it always new pieces or do you play your old repetoire once in a while to keep them up, or..

Do you only practice on what you need to for performances these days?

Very few days do I just sit and play...do you ever?

Do you play other instruments?

Do your children play?

Did you teach them?

Should I keep answering these in order received?

"How long have you been married, Joe? Tell us about your kids."

* * * * *

Married in 1974 in San Francisco, where I met my wife. Two kids, boy and girl, about 6 yeas apart, now in their late 20's/early 30's.

Met my wife-to-be when I was teaching in a music school in SF. She happened to be secretary at a neighborhood center whose offices were in the same building as the music school; she was also going for her masters degree in literature at SF State. We would meet in the school's courtyard, eating our bag lunches!

One afternoon, sitting there, we noticed a moth on the tree and I happened to quote some poem by William Carlos Williams concerning a moth. I think she was amazed that I even knew who WCW was, let alone reciting a poem extempore. I think that got her attention.

As I mentioned in some other thread, I'm ambivalent about divulging too much information on my family here, to respect their privacy. If this were a completely closed forum, I might feel differently. Certainly I would to my long-time friends here, but anybody can come here and read everything.

That ought to shorten the number of pages somewhat!

quote:

One afternoon, sitting there, we noticed a moth on the tree and I happened to quote some poem by William Carlos Williams concerning a moth. I think she was amazed that I even knew who WCW was, let alone reciting a poem extempore. I think that got her attention. 2 Hearts

love this story! i can picture it so well.

oh, and joe's story is on p. 199 of "grand obsession"

quote:

Originally posted by RealPlayer:
As I mentioned in some other thread, I'm ambivalent about divulging too much information on my family here, to respect their privacy. If this were a completely closed forum, I might feel differently. Certainly I would to my long-time friends here, but anybody can come here and read everything.

That seems prudent. Some of us can be a little more liberal with personal details, particularly concerning our families, because only a limited circle of friends know exactly who we are or where, in less than vague terms, we live. However, your public celebrity does not let you enjoy such anonymity. Feel free to mark any queries that seem too personal as NOYB.

Big Al

quote:

Originally posted by piqué:
love this story! i can picture it so well.

Aha, found the poem:


PRELUDE TO WINTER

The moth under the eaves
with wings like
the bark of a tree, lies
symmetrically still --

And love is a curious
soft-winged thing
unmoving under the eaves
when the leaves fall.

Is there some glitch in the WTF software?

Nobody's asked me what my favorite pastry is yet.