Pianist Garrick Ohlsson On The Challenge Of A New Piano

Описание: Touring for any professional musician can be challenging.  But, for concert pianists, it's also about adapting to a new instrument at every stop. Pianist Garrick Ohlsson is a frequent soloist in Kansas City. As part of an occasional series called Tools of the Trade, about performers and their relationship to the tools that make their work possible, we listened in to one of Ohlsson's rehearsals...in an unusual location. 

Artist: Garrick Ohlsson, American classical pianist.
The Friends of Chamber Music brought Ohlsson to Kansas City, Mo. for a performance at the Folly Theater on January 31, 2014. The Independent's Paul Horsley described him as "the towering defensive tackle of a pianist" and called his performance of Beethoven's Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109 "sublime."

Tool: Piano.
Ohlsson says he's surprised when someone asks why he needs to practice, especially if it's a piece he's played before: "It's like saying to somebody who's about to run a marathon, 'Well, why do you have to train? You've done that before.' Oh yeah, right. You know, we know that peak athletes have to train and re-train. And we have to train too for athletic and musical reasons."

Rehearsal piano in Kansas City, Mo.: A rare Steinway Model C Concert Grand built in 1881. It belongs to Cynthia Siebert, president and founder of The Friends of Chamber Music.

Many touring performers have spent hours in Siebert's Brookside home, perfecting their technique on her Steinway. "Our job is to make their lives as simple and as streamlined as possible because we ask these people to go on stage and to bare their hearts in front of us. And that's a very difficult thing to do," she says. "We can hardly do it with our most beloved people, but we ask that of artists every day."