Friday, January 18, 2008

master class, master teacher

My Saturday seminar...

One of the seminars featured Wilma Jensen giving a master class. That means a student volunteers to have a lesson in front of the rest of us.


Wilma is the one with white hair. She must be eighty-five, with seven grandchildren she told us, and as wirey as they come.


What struck me was a quiet confidence at the center of her. With this student her main objective was to loosen him up, to play expressively, to not be afraid to hold onto a note longer than the score prescribes. I was in the presence of a master musician.

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