It does appear you have not been on the witness stand yet.

Here's a few questions:

1. Did you consider being, or were you ever, a full-time professional pianist? Composer? (I don't really have to ask why you would have given that up.)

2. Do you think it's possible to memorize the entire set of variations on "The People United Shall Never Be Divided"? Have you done it?

3. Do you have a favorite piece of music? If so, what is it?

Ax - you are among the top 10 smartest people I ever met.

How'd ya get so smart?

Ax, we had a great time visiting you when IT and I were in town!

quote:

Originally posted by Piano Again:
It does appear you have not been on the witness stand yet.

Oh well, all good things must come to an end eventually.

I have to take care of a few things this morning, but will return to respond to questions later today.

Man, do I have a lot of questions!

You mentioned recently that you are not playing as much. I can only imagine why with those 2 little ones!

What pieces have you in mind to study next?

What would be your ultimate goal in music? Playing on large stage? with an orchestra? composing? recording?

Have you started teaching your boys yet (other than exposure/fun time)? Are they still playing violin? Will you be teaching them or finding a teacher for them

What piano would you like if you had the $$$ and room?

Are you still visiting all the piano stores available when you travel?

What mgf have tweaked your interest lately in these stores?

quote:

Originally posted by Piano Again:

1. Did you consider being, or were you ever, a full-time professional pianist? Composer? (I don't really have to ask why you would have given that up.)

Never. I knew very early on that it would be hard to make a decent living with music, especially in the classical genre. Lots of tough competition for very little reward. I have never had any serious desire to make money with music.

quote:

2. Do you think it's possible to memorize the entire set of variations on "The People United Shall Never Be Divided Defeated"? Have you done it?

Yes, I think it is possible to memorize the entire set. No, I have not done so (and, frankly, have no desire to do so).

quote:

3. Do you have a favorite piece of music? If so, what is it?

"The favorite" changes from time to time. I can cite a few Western classical and pop stuff ... but most of you would already be familiar with them. So I'll cite a couple I like that are perhaps more obscure around here:

1. Little Sisters of the Grassland - might have to sit through 30 seconds of commercial before the music starts. For this work, I consider this performance the gold standard.

2. The Flying Apsaras - just an amateur recording of a junior college student orchestra executing this piece, but, in a pinch, that'll have to do.

Enjoy!

quote:

Originally posted by apple*:
Ax - you are among the top 10 smartest people I ever met.

How'd ya get so smart?

Ah ... I love being misoverestimated. (Either that or you need to get out more. )

I blame it on the Darwinian conspiracy and sheer luck to be born into an environment that accommodated said conspiracy.

quote:

Originally posted by lilylady:

What pieces have you in mind to study next?

None, to be honest.

quote:

What would be your ultimate goal in music? Playing on large stage? with an orchestra? composing? recording?

Buy the Vienna Philharmonic, the Shanghai Music Conservatory, Mike Mangini, this guy, Zack Kim, may be this pianist as well. Have them perform whatever "compositions" I come up with, then buy Apple, Inc. to distribute the output worldwide.

quote:

Have you started teaching your boys yet (other than exposure/fun time)? Are they still playing violin? Will you be teaching them or finding a teacher for them

I'll invoke the 5th Amendment on this one. Don't want The Google caching any info about ol' Ax's private life on the open Internet.

quote:

What piano would you like if you had the $$$ and room?

I'll put my current piano in a private jumbo jet and fly around the world visiting great halls and great rooms with great pianos. Since not all great pianos are already matched to the proper room and vice versa, I'll also have a second private cargo jet and dedicated moving crew moving select pianos to select venues. At some point, I may get around to extending OT a proposition about maintaining the pianos on the jets.

quote:

Are you still visiting all the piano stores available when you travel?
What mgf have tweaked your interest lately in these stores?

Not as much ... there are fewer and fewer piano stores, and fewer still that carry exotic makes/models that I haven't sampled before.

Ax, your Christmas in July, August, September, October, November December Santa Claus hat intrigues me.

Should we assume that your hat is a permanent part of your avatar now?

quote:

Originally posted by Axtremus:

quote:

Originally posted by Piano Again:

[QUOTE]2. Do you think it's possible to memorize the entire set of variations on "The People United Shall Never Be Divided Defeated"? Have you done it?

Oops, sorry.

quote:

3. Do you have a favorite piece of music? If so, what is it?

"The favorite" changes from time to time. I can cite a few Western classical and pop stuff ... but most of you would already be familiar with them. So I'll cite a couple I like that are perhaps more obscure around here:

1. Little Sisters of the Grassland - might have to sit through 30 seconds of commercial before the music starts. For this work, I consider this performance the gold standard.

2. The Flying Apsaras - just an amateur recording of a junior college student orchestra executing this piece, but, in a pinch, that'll have to do.

Enjoy!

The first one sounds like Dvorak, don't you think? (To anyone who clicks on the link, it starts with an ad, but that's not the music in question.)

those are very interesting pieces Ax..

wish you lived closer so I could see you more often.

I am enjoying learning more about you as you are one of my favorite PW/WTF persons.

I have a few more questions Ax...

Why do you live where you live?

If not there, then where would you choose?

Does your wife play piano or another instrument?

How did you choose your profession? Some of us fall into it, some of us fall into our dreams, some choose because relatives are in it, some choose to earn the best living they can....

Would you choose another if you could and what?

Let me add a few questions to the mix...

Do you have any other avocations besides music?

What is the story behind the 2005 piano recital you link to in your signature?

Given that you seem to turn up in a number of different cities, do you have any particular favorites?

Do the visual arts appeal to you as much as the aural ones? If so, do you have any favorite eras, artists, or works?

Given your taking of the 5th in response to one of LL's questions, where do you draw the line on personal revelation in a forum such as this?

I imagine you and JonNYC might be the forumites here who have personally met more of us than anyone else. What are some surprising things, individually or collectively, that you have found during these encounters?

Big Al

quote:

Originally posted by big al:

Do you have any other avocations besides music?

Years ago, I used to do large format calligraphy about once a year, usually just before Chinese New Year. Samples below. Focus was pretty bad, those were taken in the hayday of digital photography. I usually hung a few myself, and gave most of them to friends. Even longer ago, I also painted water color and drew comics.

quote:

What is the story behind the 2005 piano recital you link to in your signature?

Years ago, I used to give annual recitals together with a few friends. Free for all, and all for fun. That link is the vestige from that time. I suppose I still leave that in the sig line hoping that someday I'll return to giving recitals.

quote:

Given that you seem to turn up in a number of different cities, do you have any particular favorites?

Different cities (and their people) for different things. Vienna for its cleanliness, Toronto for its understated fun factor, Quebec City for its charm, Hong Kong for its vibrancy, Singapore for being hyper competitive yet totally civil, Tokyo for its business-oriented order and courtesy, Seoul for trying harder than just about any one else, Paris for its cheeses, Prague for its beautiful river banks, cheap good beer and flirty young women.

quote:

Do the visual arts appeal to you as much as the aural ones? If so, do you have any favorite eras, artists, or works?

Yes. Every once in a (long) while, I go into a fine arts museum or a gallery or stare at a street painting and I admire a work here and there. But I do not have any strong favorite when it comes to particular eras or artists. Met a guy in Rome years ago who did some of the best chalk-on-asphalt drawings I've ever seen ... got a picture with him and his painting, but can't recall his name or find that picture now.

quote:

Given your taking of the 5th in response to one of LL's questions, where do you draw the line on personal revelation in a forum such as this?

No remark on my "day job," my education history, career history, and residential history, or any particular family member. I may relate a story or two about "a relative" every now and then, but never say which relative.

quote:

I imagine you and JonNYC might be the forumites here who have personally met more of us than anyone else. What are some surprising things, individually or collectively, that you have found during these encounters?

You're all surprisingly nice and normal in person. Every one of you whom I've met in person, I'd be very happy to see again in person. If I may quote the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to sum you all up, it'd be "mostly harmless."

quote:

Originally posted by Piano Again:

The first one sounds like Dvorak, don't you think?

Don't know ... I haven't listen to that much Dvorak to be able to say one way or another.