What are principles of the music that are the basis of interpretation? How can you develop your own personal reading of a piece, starting with an informed initial reading of the composition? How can your performance be personal, while at the same time respecting the instructions given by the composer?
How do you regulate your hand and arm movements to give you a sound that is richer and more varied? How can you avoid errors, and render your execution more fluid and natural? How can you manage the weight of the arm in legato and in the various dynamics of playing?
How can you make your practice sessions effective and rewarding? How can you speed up your reading of a new piece, immediately identifying the key elements? How can you prepare for a concert and solve the problem of performance anxiety?
These, and many others, are the questions that Roberto Prosseda’s Interactive Workshop for pianists is designed to answer. The Workshop is intended for all pianists wishing to further develop their piano technique and culture, perhaps with a view to a career in teaching or as a concert performer, and who wish to develop greater awareness of how to make music on a piano.
"In developing this new teaching project I had in mind any pianist (they may be students, or already have a career as a concert performer or teacher) who wants to focus on the basic principles that underlie interpretation of music and how these can then be expressed through the piano" explains Maestro Prosseda. "People often talk about “technique" and “interpretation” as if they were two distinct and independent elements, that you ”put together” after you’ve studied a piece. Whereas I see them as two inseparable factors in making music". This is why I begin the course by defining the interpretive project - without which study of the technical parts would just be a sterile exercise – and then follow that by demonstrating on the piano how this project can be actualised. So we will concentrate on identifying the principles at the basis of musical expression (first module), while discovering how they can be conveyed through the pianist’s execution, with the aim of acquiring a natural and aware piano technique, and of improving control of the technical skills that will give us command of expression and rhetoric in playing (second module). Finally, we will turn our attention to some learning tecniques (from the first reading of a score, to the strategies for preparing for a concert or for a competition), in order to succeed in getting the maximum benefit from the time that we dedicate every day to piano practice, and ultimately to be able to approach each performance opportunity with greater awareness and serenity.
The workshop consists of three modules, which can also be attended separately. This course, particularly if followed in its entirety, can offer effective solutions to the problems that pianists often encounter on their study path. The objective is also to give these pianists the didactic tools that will enable them to teach music through the piano in a way that is natural, clear and aware.
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MODULE 3: Fundamental teaching method for piano: for an effective and natural approach to studying the piano | INFO >>
Each module is held over 2 months and consist of:
- Six meetings online online of two hours each. The lessons will be recorded on video and will be available to students.
- Intensive 12-hour workshop in person, held at the Accademia di Musica, where Prosseda will accompany his teaching with frequent demonstrations on the piano and the students will have the opportunity to put into practice the principles they have learnt.
- One hour of individual guidance individuale.
- Online sharing of materials distributed, video recordings of demonstrations, and scores.
Pianist Roberto Prosseda, became internationally famous after recording, for Decca, music by Felix Mendelssohn, including the Concerto in E-minor with Riccardo Chailly and the Gewandhaus Orchester. In 2015 he finished the first recording of the complete works of Mendelssohn for piano (10 CDs for Decca) and in 2019 the complete Sonatas by Mozart, again for Decca. He has performed as a soloist with the London Philharmonic, the Gewandhaus Orchester, the Filarmonica della Scala, the Orchestra Santa Cecilia di Roma, the New Japan Philharmonic, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the Moscow State Philharmonic. He has made three documentaries, dedicated to Mendelssohn, Chopin and Liszt, which were produced by the RAI and distribuited by Euroarts, and written a listener’s guide to piano music, “Guida all’ascolto della musica pianistica” (Curci, 2012). He has created and presented many programmes about classical music, for the national TV and radio networks, RAI5 TV and RADIO3.
