Leonard Bernstein once said, "To teach is suffering, but to see other people learn is a joy!"
Learning and teaching are two profiles of the same face.
In my daily study work I feel like both a student and a teacher. Sometimes I am mainly a student, other times more of a teacher. Whether it's an up-and-coming talent, or a future winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition, a dedicated enthusiast, or a piano teacher who teaches children, my role is one and the same. My role is to discover the music behind the notes; clearing the way to music. I help eliminate the friction between what we imagine musically and the sound reality.
When does the rule correct the emotion and when does the emotion adjust the rule?
It is very important to stay within the constraints, including my own. There have been times when I myself needed "help" "from my student.
Last July I gave a workshop to six young pianists from the Talent Class at the local theater. A student came to the session to master his playing of Liszt's Notturno No. 3 "Liebestraum".