Season 4, episode 40: Recital Nightmares
With cancelled gigs and the disappearance of live performances due of Covid-19, why are we still having performance anxiety dreams? Franny and Jeannette discuss the underlying anxieties for these recital nightmares. Note: We actually recorded this awhile ago, when the … Continued
Season 4, episode 39: Intermezzo: you gotta listen to this edition
The first of our listening series, in which we report with recordings we’ve been recently enjoying in hopes that you’ll share in the fun Max Richter: Vivaldi Recomposed: Daniel HopeKonzerthaus Kammerorchester BerlinAndré de RidderInt. Release 28 Apr. 2014 https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/us/cat/4792777 Liszt-Horowitz: … Continued
Season 4, episode 38: Holiday Quiz Time!
In this edition of our holiday episode, Jeannette quizzes Francis on weird Holiday facts, like the real meaning of We Wish You a Merry Christmas, how much it would cost to put on the 12 Days of Christmas, who invented … Continued
S4, episode 37: Prison with Cellos?
Fresh from his time at Juilliard, Francis and Jeannette take the opportunity to talk about both their experiences of having studied there.
S4, episode 36: We’re Baaaaack
So so sorry for the ridiculously long break! But we’re back, and we’ve got various news items to report as we catchup over the last year.
S3, episode 35: Stijn De Cock, part 1
Jeannette sits down with pianist and pedagogue Stijn De Cock for a conversation on teaching, work/life balance, and much more. Stijn teaches at Florida State University, and is the founding director of the Brancaleoni International Music Festival. He will be … Continued
S3, episode 34: Rhetoric!
Jeannette interviews Francis on Rhetoric in Music for a look into the origins and philosophies of it in historical performance, and how musicians today can apply it to their own performances.
S3, episode 33: Holiday weird facts edition
Happy Holidays everyone! We hope you all had a relatively stress-free gigging season and your travels went without snafu. For this special holiday episode, we find out about a whole bunch of weird facts about Christmas Carols, Bach, and Christmas … Continued
S3, episode 32: Money money money
Who likes to talk about money? No one. Especially musicians. Ew. Gross. So low. Don’t sully yourself with this dirty money talk. Leave that to Franny and Jeannette in this episode. Except, they just think that everyone should be more … Continued
S3 – episode 31 – Bad Teacher (part 2)
We continue our conversation on teaching piano, getting into topics of favoritism, drawing boundaries, and their latest obsessions. For the cardboard creations that are mentioned, go to Jeannette’s facebook or instagram
Season 3, ep.30: Bad Teacher (Part 1)
Whats makes a good piano teacher? Franny talks with Jeannette about growing up as the daughter of NJ’s piano nazi, their teaching philosophies, influential teachers of their lives, and bushels more.
Season 3, ep 29: Fang and Yun, catch up edition
In which we talk about our summers at various music festivals, being at Garth Newel, and give belated thanks and replies to our listeners. Special thanks to Shi-An Costello, who left us our very first review! Thanks for listening!
S3, Episode 28: Aisslinn the Rockstar, part 2
We continue our conversation with the fascinating Aisslinn Nosky with part 2 of our interview, romping through tuningland, conductor-less orchestras, how to talk to your keyboardist, and of course, stupid questions!
Season 3 – episode 27: Aisslinn the Rockstar, part 1
Franny and I interview the brilliant Aisslinn Nosky, the baroque violinist extraordinaire whose electrifying performances get everyone buzzing. She has coming to Garth Newel Music Center for the past three summers to lead our Emerging Artist Fellows in a baroque … Continued
Confessions of a Recovering Listening Addict
I used to listen to music. My dad had a big cd collection, mostly classical, and I remember listening to any of those cds any chance I had. At a certain point, my family bought an LP player and I … Continued
S2, episode 26: Richard Egarr
Francis sits down to talk with harpsichordist/conductor Richard Egarr! They talk about the harpsichord sound, creating dynamics on the instrument, and thoughts on continuo playing. And he only says f*ck once…(maybe it’s twice) To find out more about Richard Egarr, … Continued
S2, ep. 25: Being Asian in music
Ok, so we’ve been REALLY wanting to do an episode about BEING ASIAN in music. But every time we recorded something about this topic, we hated how tiresome and preachy we got. This is actually an episode we did awhile … Continued
S2, episode 24: Harry Doss
Our piano tech series continues with Harry Doss, piano technician at Virginia Tech, and also the guy who also makes the 2 hour trek to Garth Newel Music Center before every concert weekend to make our pianos sound concert worthy. … Continued
S2, episode 23: Garrett Schumann
Jeannette sits down with composer, teacher, and music observer Garrett Schumann. Garrett is someone who’s constantly thinking about music and its place in society and culture, and conversation with him is always interesting and thought provoking as a result. They … Continued
S2, episode 22: Shi An, part 2
Here’s the second part of the interview Francis did with musician, writer, actor, and activist Shi An! They talk about the intricacies of the composer/performer relationship. Remember to check out Shi An’s album, Rounded Binary!
S2, episode 21: Shi An, part 1
Francis interviews fabulous pianist, composer, writer, and activist Shi An! We talk about the importance of names, how we feel about the canon, and performance. You’ll find out much more about Shi An in the second part of our interview … Continued
S2, episode 20: piano technician “Boomer” Harold
This episode is the first part of a series of episodes we’ll be doing on the unsung heroes of the piano world: piano technicians. William “Boomer” Harold is the piano technician at Yale School of Music, and we have a … Continued
S2, episode 19: The future! Francis interviews two rising talents
Last year, I sat down with two talented high school students who I met while working at Friends Music Camp. They’re two of the most musical kids I’ve met and was happy that they were both attending performing arts high … Continued
Scheduling update
Due to being the sleep-deprived types of musicians who have no lives and a (happily) very busy year, Franny and I have decided to move our weekly episodes to a biweekly release schedule. We thought this was the best thing … Continued
S2, episode 18: Joe Gascho-part 2
My conversation with Joseph Gascho was so interesting that we couldn’t fit it into just one episode. For the 2nd part of our interview that started with episode 7, Joe talks about the instinct to go above and beyond as a teacher, … Continued
S2, episode 17: Holiday Question Time!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! And what better way to deal with the festivities than with a slew of stupid questions. We talk about everything from Christmas traditions, Mr. Hanky’s Christmas Classics, best gifts, Haley Joel Osment, favorite carols, … Continued
S2, episode 16: Joe Gascho-part 1
Harpsichord phenom Joe Gascho may be uncomfortable with me introducing him as an awesome person, but he’s just going have to be ok with it, because if anyone is deserving of the title, it’s him. Find out why in this … Continued
S2, Episode 15: practice practice practice
We talk about practicing anxiety, our fears behind procrastination, how we learned, effective practicing and planning techniques, how we got our theme song, and a bunch of other stuff. listen on iTunes and subscribe to get upcoming episodes!
S2, Ep.14: The stupid questions episode
The stupid questions episode. What do Rachmaninoff and pancakes have in common? What does “singing like a pianist” mean? Find out on our first episode devoted purely to stupid questions. Let us know what you thought of this episode! Mostly … Continued
S2, Ep.13: Brian Hsu, part 2
For part 2 of my interview with pianist Brian Hsu, we get into repertoire pet peeves, talk about his past and future recording projects, about how becoming a professor has made him see how they might have gotten some stuff … Continued
S2, Ep.12: Brian Hsu, part 1
This week we have for you the first part of my interview with Brian Hsu, one of my closest and oldest friends. I have mad respect for this guy, not in small part because you can always count on him … Continued
Inviolable Day of Rest
I feel slightly ashamed to admit this, but I spent most of the day in bed. Well, I should be more honest and say that I’m still in bed at this very moment with no real plans to get out … Continued
S2, Ep.11: Composers David Biedenbender and Matthew Browne
Jeannette talks to composers David Biedenbender and Matthew Browne about their experiences with working with performers, their compositional processes, their relationship to writing for the piano, and their thoughts on music today.
S2, Ep.10: You’ve got some nerve!
We’re back! For episode 1 of season 2, we catch up on our summers, get into the business of performance anxiety, talk about how nerves are actually not the enemy, and also about more important things like naming your spiders … Continued
Season 2 promo
A little taste of some of the interesting and incredible guests we have in store for you this coming season. New episodes coming soon!
Stress Junkie
Everyone has their drug of choice. Mine is stress. Nothing gets me going more than having a lot to do, lots of projects on my plate, running around from place to place, trying to do anything and everything, always saying … Continued
Literally, so many wrong notes.
I struggle with the lameness of my blog posts this summer. Every lazy conclusion I hurriedly tack on deepens the shame of contributing to the wormhole of stupidity that is the internet. I know I’ve been phoning it in. The summer … Continued
Piano, My Clunky, Clumsy, Brash Inelegant Cousin
A funny thing happened to me this summer. When I made the switch to harpsichord, I was positive that I would never play piano seriously again. I had fallen head over heels in love with the harpsichord. It was more … Continued
4 pianists walk into a bar
Every summer at Garth Newel’s there’s a keyboard weekend. It’s a tradition that started before my hire, and it involves 3 pianists descending onto Garth Newel to join me and give the term “piano quartet” a whole new meaning. You … Continued
Nice Piece 2: Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody no.2
For a long time I dismissed Franz Liszt as pianistic masturbation. For me his music was too bombastic, too over the top, too virtuosic for the sake of virtuosity. He was the Jerry Bruckheimer of piano music: gratuitous special effects, … Continued
Baby pianists
If you’re my age, (32), you start becoming surrounded by babies. Not only are all your friends pregnant, you can’t log onto your Facebook feed without getting buffeted by so many chubby pink things to like that they all start … Continued
Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach
Could there be any stupider expression in the English language? It’s something I never understood; after all, everything I value most I only care about because I had great teachers who introduced me to them. I cannot understand why so … Continued
String Envy
When I started college my closest friends were a cellist and a violinist. Come to think of it, they were my only friends…but whatever, they were GOOD friends. The type of friends that you walk 120 blocks with because you’re … Continued
The Weird Pianos Club
If you’re a pianist that likes to work, you’ve probably played on some weird pianos. Which is a nice way of saying that you’ve probably played on some teeerrrrible pianos. And if you’ve been doing this for awhile now, you’ve … Continued
Interview on NPR podcast “Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer”
It’s always thrilling to be interviewed by people who really know what they’re doing, and even more of a treat when they’re as kindred and hilarious as Tom Wilmer. I had the chance to chat with Tom Wilmer as part of the … Continued
On Vulnerability
“A musician cannot move others unless he too is moved. He must of necessity feel all of the affects that he hopes to arouse in his audience, for the revealing of his own humor will stimulate a like humor … Continued
Episode 9: Jonathan Tsay-the pianist who doesn’t care how you pronounce pianist (Part 2)
For Part 2, Jonathan bares all: how a glitch in paperwork nearly cost him a musical career, how he chose freelancing over tenure track, what he has learned from his musical mentors, and how he is thankful even for lessons that … Continued
Go Slow, Stupid
Go slow. Take it one step at a time. Speed will come quicker than you think. I said these things so often in my music theory classes this past semester that it almost became a mantra. My students probably … Continued
Episode 8: Jonathan Tsay: the pianist you always want to hang out with (Part 1)
It was so good to catch up with Jonathan that we had to split this interview into 2 episodes. In Part 1, we talk about what he’s learned from being the director of his own chamber music series, what it … Continued
Finger This Blog
S3 – episode 31 – Bad Teacher (part 2)
We continue our conversation on teaching piano, getting into topics of favoritism, drawing boundaries, and their latest obsessions. For the cardboard creations that are mentioned, go to Jeannette’s facebook or instagram READ MORE
Confessions of a Recovering Listening Addict
I used to listen to music. My dad had a big cd collection, mostly classical, and I remember listening to any of those cds any chance I had. At a certain point, my... READ MORE
Scheduling update
Due to being the sleep-deprived types of musicians who have no lives and a (happily) very busy year, Franny and I have decided to move our weekly episodes to a biweekly release schedule.... READ MORE
Inviolable Day of Rest
I feel slightly ashamed to admit this, but I spent most of the day in bed. Well, I should be more honest and say that I’m still in bed at this very moment... READ MORE