Although competitions in classical music have a long history, the number of contests has risen dramatically since the Second World War, all of them aiming to launch young artists' careers. This is not the symptom of marketization that it might appear to be. Despite the establishment of an international governing body, competitions are plagued by rumors of corruption, and even the most mathematically sophisticated voting system cannot quell accusations that the best talent is overlooked. Why do musicians take part? Why do audiences care so much about who wins? Performing Civility is the first book to address these questions. In this groundbreaking study, Lisa McCormick draws from firsthand observations of contests in Europe and the US, and in-depth interviews with competitors, jurors and directors, as well as blog data from competition observers to argue that competitions have endured because they are not only about music, they are also about civility.

This book focuses on piano teachers and the many pains they encounter in their careers. These pains play an essential role in blocking the musical inspiration of their students. The author identifies with the sensitivities of the teachers, aiming at the inspiration permeated and safer playing of their students. The book penetrates the protective mechanisms of the teachers that, on the one hand, maintain their professional functioning, while on the other hand, block refreshing ideas. It combines exploration of secure and culturally informed inspired playing, coping with exaggerated anxiety and understanding the interaction of piano actions with pianist’s physiology. This book helps to open teachers’ perceptions of the ways to enable more secure and more inspired performances while remembering the inner feelings of the piano teachers.

Virtuosi A Defense and a (Sometimes Erotic) Celebration of Great Pianists Mark Mitchell A bravura performance "Vigorous, opinionated, and always entertaining, here is a personal essayist of great charm and sincerity. Mitchell's erudition--his collection of odd and illuminating bits of knowledge--is always a delight and adds a sauce piquanteto the whole dish " --Edmund White "...a literary work of real lan, vibrancy, and grace--the very qualities that in his view define the virtuoso. Mr. Mitchell explores] the traditional linking of musical and sexual virtuosity, the ethical implications of the original instruments' movement, the near deification of Mozart in Anglo-Saxon culture, and, in a particularly witty section, the relationship of the virtuoso to his stool. Throughout, Mr. Mitchell's prose is humorous, intimate, and unapologeticaly polemical." --Cynthia Ozick The artistic merit of performers with superior technique has long been almost ipso facto denied. At last, Mark Mitchell launches a counterattack. In essays crackling with pianistic lore, Mitchell takes on topics such as encores, prodigies, competitions, virtuosi in film and literature, and the erotics of musical performance. Liszt, Horowitz, and Argerich share these pages with the eccentric Pachmann, Ervin Nyiregyh ("the skid-row pianist"), and Liberace. The illustrations include rare portraits of long-forgotten girl prodigies, historic concert programs, and stills from a lost 1927 film on Beethoven. Punctuating this celebration of personal voice are vignettes, running from the beginnings of the author's obsession with the piano to the particularities of concert-going in Italy (where he now lives). Mark Mitchell's piano studies led to a friendship with Vladimir Horowitz and other pianistic luminaries. With David Leavitt he co-authored Italian Pleasures and co-edited Pages Passed from Hand to Hand. He also edited The Penguin Book of International Gay Writing.

In The Pianist’s Craft 2, pianist and scholar Richard P. Anderson gathers together a new collection of essays by renowned performing artists and teachers and discusses the preparation, pedagogy, and performance of selected works by an entirely different set of composers whose works are standard in the piano literature. In this volume, readers will find an invaluable collection of contributions on C.P.E. Bach, Antonio Soler, Felix Mendelssohn, Gabriel Fauré, Erno Dohnányi, Francis Poulenc, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Dmitri Kabalevsky, Alberto Ginastera, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Olivier Messiaen, and John Cage. The contributors—all nationally and internationally recognized as performing artists, teachers, recording artists, and clinicians—write thoughtfully about the composers whose work they have studied and played for years. Each author addresses issues unique to an individual composer, examining questions of phrasing, tempo, articulation, dynamics, rhythm, color, gesture, lyricism, instrumentation, and genre. Valuable insight is provided into teaching, performing, and preparing these great works—information otherwise available only in conferences, master classes, and private lessons. This collection, with more than 250 musical illustrations, is intended for teachers and students of the intermediate and advanced levels of piano, instructors and performers at the university level, and those who love piano and piano music.

Women are an essential part of the history of the piano—but how many women pianists can you name? Throughout most of the piano’s history, women pianists lacked access to formal training and were excluded from male-dominated performance spaces. Even the modern piano’s keys were designed without consideration of women’s typically smaller hands. Yet despite their music being largely confined to the domestic sphere, women continued to play, perform, and compose on their own terms. Celebrated pianist and author Susan Tomes traces fifty such women across the piano’s history. Including now-famous names such as Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn, Tomes also highlights overlooked women: from Hélène de Montgeroult, whose playing saved her life during the French Revolution, to Leopoldine Wittgenstein, influential Viennese salonnière, and Hazel Scott, the first Black performer in the United States to have a nationally syndicated TV show. From Maria Szymanowska to Nina Simone, and including interviews with women performing today, this is a much-needed corrective to our understanding of the piano—and a timely testament to women’s musical lives.

A Pianist's Dictionary is an exploration of the world of the classical pianist and piano professor. The author deconstructs the many familiar words that help describe these worlds as well as their practitioners. Based upon a lifetime of experience as an active concert artist and college professor, this book will resonate with both past and current students of the piano and with music lovers with even a passing interest in these worlds. Written in an accessible style, A Pianist's Dictionary covers the piano world from accompanist to tone and voicing, and helps the reader understand the mysteries of practicing and the challenges of how to find a suitable piano teacher. Filled with amusing anecdotes and observations, this book is a welcome addition to the literature about pianos and pianists.