Announcing a new project by and for collaborative pianists

Hello, Music Minus None readers:

This newsletter has been a long time in the making, and I’m so excited to finally send it. There be news!

You may well know the work of pianist/musicologist (/podcaster/feminist/aerialist) Chanda VanderHart; I’ve talked about her in these pages often.

Last year, Chanda published Accompaniment in America: Contextualizing Collaborative Piano. Dr. Elvia Puccinelli, myself, and many collaborative pianists across North America contributed to this work (I wrote about it here). Ever since, Chanda and I have been dreaming up our next project, and we’re ready to reveal the first step in what promises to be a long, researchtastic road.

After interviewing dozens of our colleagues for AIA:CCP, we were wildly inspired by their vast dedication, accomplishment, and heart for the profession. We were also concerned - and sometimes incensed - by things people told us in confidence about the pressures and impacts of the work. Collaborative piano life - meaning the institutional operations surrounding it - demands a great deal from pianists’ bodies, minds, and hearts. We became excited about weaving these personal experiences into the kind of detailed, expansive story capable of inviting and inspiring change.

What a collaborative thing to say. How about demanding change? I think I like that better.

Let’s get started.

Announcing:

ahem

HEALTH IMPACTS ON COLLABORATIVE PIANISTS - the survey.

In collaboration with amazing colleagues (see below), we have formulated a survey intended for widespread use both professionally and geographically, which will be our first step in a more extensive research project. We intend to gather global data on collaborative pianists working across the profession. We invite all collaborative pianists to take part in this survey. And we mean all y’all:

• Full-time, part-time, freelance, portfolio career, and dual career (to participate, you do not have to make all of your income, or even the majority of it, from collaborative piano work).

• Teachers, church musicians, performers, coaches, vocal and/or instrumental collaborative artists.

• Early, mid-, and late career collaborative artists.

• Retired artists and current graduate students are also welcome to take part.

• Organists and conductors, if any kind of collaborative keyboard is part of your practice, you are welcome.

If you are reading this, you are either a collaborative pianist yourself, or you are connected to collaborative artists. I humbly and enthusiastically request your assistance and participation! Please complete the survey if you are a collaborative artist yourself. If you work with collaborative pianists in any setting, please share the survey with them: the pianists who play in your lessons and coachings, your choirs, your ensembles, your churches, conventions, and competitions.

Since we are talking about sensitive topics - physical and mental health and the amount and types of support available to us - it’s imperative that you are able to stay anonymous should you choose. Your anonymity is assured. At the end of the survey, you can share your contact information with us if you’d be willing to talk further, but that’s not required.

The survey should take 12-15 minutes to complete. It functions smoothly on all devices.

I hope you’ll participate with us in this work. Finally, don’t hesitate to share the links below, forward this newsletter, and/or contact me with any questions.

Here is the link to the survey.

You can also access it through this QR code:

Ultimately, this will be a work we accomplish together, as a huge, indispensable, global community. Thank you for your part in this project and in our wonderful profession!

Thanks to the pianists who have already helped shape this survey so much. Here in North America, that’s Elvia Puccinelli, Ana Maria Otamendi, Elena Lacheva, Brad Baker, Casey Robards, Byunghee Yoo, Erica Guo, Yang Lin, Alison d’Amato, Tracy Cowden, and Arlene Shrut. More as we roll out the international versions in the coming months!