Jeffrey Chappell – Pianist

People who were there: “Were you happy with your performance?” People who missed it: “How was your concert?” Well, if this had been any other concert, I could briefly answer, “It went great,” and then we could move on to the next part of our conversation. Not this time. How was it? It was like… [continue reading]

“Were you nervous?” I don’t get nervous for a performance in the sense of being frantic or having the shakes or anything like that. But I do notice that I sometimes start behaving a little differently right before a concert. I’ll find something to do until the concert begins, like fiddling with my cuff links… [continue reading]

“It looked like you were really enjoying yourself up there. Were you?” There is an unusual line down which interpreting musicians walk. On one side is feeling, on the other side is control. A performer has to hold a teetering balance between these two. The composer’s score is like a playwright’s script, and the interpreting… [continue reading]

“Who runs the show in a concerto performance—the soloist or the conductor?” Ideally, it is the soloist. The concerto was written to feature the soloist, and the conductor’s job is to shape the accompaniment to the soloist’s playing. That is the ideal, but it doesn’t always happen that way. Some conductors see themselves as the… [continue reading]

“What’s it like onstage?” Well, for most people, it is not an everyday experience. It feels out of the ordinary. There you are in this huge room, sitting at the one end of a concert grand piano, staring down the shiny golden 9-foot length of its interior workings and often with a direct line of… [continue reading]