City of Tomorrow Master Class

A couple of weeks ago, my piano Trio played for City of Tomorrow, last year's winner of the wind division of the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.  It was a good experience.  They gave us feedback about a number useful things when playing chamber music.

We played the first movement of the Mozart Kegelstatt Trio for viola, clarinet and piano, and they had a number of comments to make about how we could improve our performance.  One thing was the turns that happen many times throughout the piece need to all be exactly the same no matter who is playing them.  They also talked a lot about the style of playing Mozart, and how it should be very even and very lyrical.  In a way Mozart can be harder than more complicated pieces, because everything has to be perfect or it really stands out.

They talked a lot about communication.  They said we should look at each other more, which, of course we know, but we don't always remember to do as much as we should.  They pointed out that we should look like we are enjoying each other's performance of their parts, as the audience will pick up on how we view each other.  That was something I haven't heard very often and a really good point.

Playing for City of Tomorrow was a great experience.  I hope shows in our performance on Sunday.