Teaching

The Discipline of Listening to the Person Next to You

Professor of Keyboard Studies at the USC Thornton School of Music, with masterclasses and residencies internationally.

University of Southern California

Professor of Keyboard Studies, USC Thornton School of Music. Studio auditions and admissions run through the school. music.usc.edu

Approach

Teaching, for me, is not the transmission of solutions. It is the slow construction of a student's own ear — the capacity to hear what is actually happening in the room, rather than what one intended to happen.

Lessons work outward from the score: what the notation says, what it withholds, and what performance practice has quietly added over two centuries. Technique is addressed where it stands in the way of a musical decision, not as an end in itself.

Chamber music and play-directing are central to the studio. A pianist who has had to lead an ensemble from the keyboard learns things about phrasing that no amount of solo practice will teach.

Jeffrey Kahane leaning on an open concert grand piano — Photo: Photographer unknown

Classics and the Study of Ancient Literature

Alongside music, a long parallel study of ancient languages and literature: an MA in Classics from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2011, and current doctoral work in Classics at the University of Southern California. That reading shapes the studio — how a text is construed, how a rhetorical figure lands, how an argument is carried through a long paragraph or a long movement.

Training

From age 5First piano studies with Howard Weisel, who encouraged improvisation
From age 14Private study with the Polish émigré pianist Jakob Gimpel
From age 16San Francisco Conservatory of Music — teachers included Mack McCray, Paul Hersh and John Adams
Three summersRehearsal pianist for Robert Shaw's Festival of Masses, San Francisco
LaterPrivate studies with John Perry
1981Finalist, Van Cliburn International Piano Competition
1983Grand Prize, Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition
2011MA in Classics, University of Colorado at Boulder
CurrentPhD candidate in Classics, University of Southern California

Masterclasses & Inquiries

Invitations for masterclasses, residencies and festival teaching, and inquiries from prospective students, are welcome. Contact details.