Category Archives: Piano

Billy Joel, Piano Culture, and Rock’s Road Not Taken

Posted on October 9, 2016 by

Here is the paper I gave on October 8, 2016 at the wonderful Billy Joel conference organized at Colorado College by Ryan Bañagale and Josh Duchan, an exercise in Public Musicology that was a huge success by any measure.  One … Continue reading →

Posted in Piano, Pop Culture, Rock | 2 Comments

Billy Joel/Public Musicology Notice

Posted on October 7, 2016 by

Just a note to alert everyone to the Public Musicology conference that will be held today and tomorrow at Colorado College in Colorado Springs.  One of the goals of conference organizers Ryan Bañagale and Josh Duchan is to reach beyond … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Piano, Pop Aesthetics, Pop Culture, Rock, Society | 2 Comments

I really should be practicing

Posted on September 8, 2015 by

My earliest piano lessons were intermittent and inconclusive: like an old lawnmower, I had to start it a few times before it caught. As a very small child (I hardly remember this at all) I took lessons from a little … Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Piano | 3 Comments

Let Me Tell You a Story

Posted on August 24, 2013 by

Or four, or (really) seven. A Certain Young Man returned a couple of weeks ago from his summer internship in Washington, D. C. bearing gifts, including a recording of Chopin Ballades—plus three Nocturnes—by Nelson Goerner.  The recording was done in … Continue reading →

Posted in Performance, Performance Practice, Piano, Recordings, Uncategorized

All I Want For Chanuka

Posted on November 23, 2009 by

Jonathan Bellman Ever heard of Geoff Smith and his “fluid piano”? Dig this article and video.  Now, forget all the experimenting-with-eastern-scales-a-genuinely-new-world-awaits claptrap.  That’s as may be; I’ll leave that to the—um—visionaries.  I’ve got my bona fides, after all; I published an article on Raga … Continue reading →

Posted in Piano, Research, Technology | 5 Comments

What’s Polish for *scandale*?

Posted on April 29, 2009 by

Jonathan Bellman Krystian Zimerman, Polish superpianist, declared—before his final piece at a recital at Disney hall in Los Angeles on Sunday evening, April 26—that he was never coming back to the U.S.  Our military is trying to take over the world, etc. etc. … Continue reading →

Posted in Performance, Piano, Scandal! | 14 Comments

A Public Letter

Posted on January 31, 2009 by

Jonathan Bellman Joel Shapiro, my piano teacher at the University of Illinois (where I earned my M.M. in Piano Performance over a quarter-century ago), recently asked me what was special or interesting about my current project, the Fantasie und Variationen … Continue reading →

Posted in Manuscripts, New Discoveries, Performance, Piano | 8 Comments