Blog

“How did the rose ever open its heart and show the world all of its beauty? It felt the encouragement of light against its being. Otherwise, we all remain too frightened.” – Hafiz The thing is, without the scariness and vulnerability, nothing powerful can happen....

Many musicians don’t trust themselves to perform the way they want to – with physical and emotional freedom, and with deep confidence. But it turns out that there are specific ways to build belief and trust in yourself at the piano – and in front of an audience. It's...

Every pianist who comes to me for help with their playing is struggling in one way or another with not believing in themselves enough. Isn’t that what we’re all up against, as we navigate the ups and downs of our lives? Maybe you’ve had a teacher who discouraged you,...

I once zoomed in on Peter Serkin’s hands with binoculars from the balcony of Carnegie Hall. He was playing an extremely virtuosic contemporary piece that had his hands running all over the keyboard. As usual in watching any great instrumentalist, I sat there stunned -...

My student Marina cheered me up so much at her lesson last week. She’s been living with a practice related injury for at least 20 years, and now, after working with me for a few months, she’s having an amazing breakthrough. To recover from the injury, Marina has had...

I recently posted a video on Facebook that brought many comments – people couldn’t understand how this pianist was playing with so much freedom and fluidity with so little body movement. The pianist in the video is me, 35 years ago. And although I understand how I...

by Francesca Leo Attending the Art of Practicing Institute’s summer program last year was a completely transformative experience. Prior to this program, I had recently graduated with my master’s degree in classical flute performance during a global pandemic, I was...

Thursday night I attended a livestream performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra, featuring the Piano Concerto in One Movement by Florence Price, a brilliant Black composer whose works were “historically erased” for decades. Written in 1934, the score of this...

My student Seth plays lead guitar in the Avett Brothers—a band that has often performed for audiences of 20,000 or 30,000 people. He came to me because he wanted to learn how to play Mozart. Seth already had experience playing the piano, and in his few months of...