I’d like to introduce you to two musician/teachers who have profoundly influenced my life.
Katharina Wolpe was my piano professor while I was pursuing a masters degree at the University of Toronto. I was young, and a bit intimidated by the U of T and its impressive faculty and students. Madame Wolpe was from London, spoke French and German fluently, and could play anything beautifully at the drop of a hat. She always wore black, wore her black hair in a bob, and often had a cigarette in her hand.
An immensely talented, as well as a warm and giving person, she took me under her wing, giving me valuable insight into the literature I was preparing for my graduate recital. While studying the slow movement of the Beethoven Op. 101 Piano Sonata, she told me to “imagine the vastness of the Alps and its sonic implications.” She herself was the daughter of composer Stefan Wolpe, who had studied with the Viennese composer Anton Webern. Katharina guided me through Webern’s atonal “Variations,” and I always remember her telling me that the complex last movement was “really just a waltz.”
Madame Wolpe passed away in February, 2013, and I recently discovered things about her life that she had previously not disclosed to me. Born in Vienna, she and her mother were arrested during the Anschluss; she escaped, and for years she survived in refugee camps, until she eventually arrived in London and made it her home. Despite her lack of a traditional music education, she established herself as an internationally acclaimed pianist and teacher of high degree. Although I was not the most talented pianist at the U of T at that time, she always treated me as if I had the potential to be the best.
You can read more about Madame Wolpe’s life here:
http://www.wolpe.org/resources/Bulletin_2014a_In-Memoriam.pdf
and listen to a fascinating BBC interview with her here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01qbrdg/broadcasts
Another piano teacher who profoundly influenced me was Margaret Saunders Ott. Known by her students and the music community as “Margie May,” she had a 100 watt smile and a personality that could win over anyone. She also emerged from humble beginnings. Raised in a rural community of eastern Washington State, she rode her horse to the next town to study with the best piano teacher around. Her talents blossomed, and she eventually went to the Juilliard School in New York City, where she studied with the renowned teacher Olga Samaroff (wife of conductor Leopold Stokowski).
I was teaching music at Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA, when I was introduced to Mrs. Ott, and I immediately felt a connection and knew that I wanted to study with her. She coached me through literature that I was preparing for performances, and also gave me valuable piano teaching advice. Some of her famous quotes were, “honey, nobody’s interested in hearing just a bunch of notes” and “honey, you have to sing and conduct to figure out the shape of the phrase.” She called ALL her students “honey.”
You can read more about Mrs. Ott here:
The Klice Piano Studio 