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chapter five Ann Schein An American Concert Pianist in Today’s World “Oh, do I have piano stories to tell.” This author has been hearing Ann Schein play since we were both about junior high school age. In fact, a prodigy first recognized when she climbed up on the piano bench at the age of three, she has never stopped playing. And her parents, Ernest and Betty Schein, gave her unceasing encouragement and expertise gained from their own intense musical pasts. What was it about Schein that has always drawn me and countless others to her playing? From the first time I heard her, I was entranced by the tonal beauty she could draw from the piano (by no means always a superb instrument). Her sensitive phrasing, deep emotional experience in performing, and her brilliant technique all reveal her total immersion in the music at hand. In short, she takes unmistakable delight in interpreting a score with the result that the audience, too, can comprehend, relive, and revel in what a composer is expressing. And since those early days, she has never lost any of these aspects of her artistry, meanwhile gaining the experience and depth that only the years can provide. But the road has by no means been strewn with roses. She herself once remarked that “being a musician is the building of character. But music is a brutal, competitive world full of managers, boards, egos, ambitions, and ‘career elbows,’ and you have to learn to deal with it.”1 (And this “brutal, competitive world” is made all the more apparent when one surveys the critiques of the press, upon which today’s performing artists—and at least back to those of the nineteenth century—realistically depend to succeed in their profession. Samples of such reviews, therefore, are included in both the Schein and Maria Bach chapters. Why Schein? Until several years ago, I had heard and read about Schein only from a distance. I did not come to know her personally until I set out to interview her for this book. And I found a gold mine. As I worked with her, I was struck that here was a musical artist who could express feelings, subjective opinions that I could record instantly and as accurately as possible. I did not need to rely solely on second- or even third-hand quotes taken from written sources in historical annals. Also, I wanted to include someone whose story would strike a balance with those of the other women I discuss, but offer some contrast. First, as a critic of music today, I wanted a living subject currently engaged in music making now and therefore immediately accessible for first-hand study. Second, I wanted someone who belonged to the same Western society as the earlier women, therefore maintaining a historical continuum with the others—but a woman representing a different corner of Western society, the New World set against the Old Europe of the other artists. Third, I wanted someone who has pursued a career first and foremost as a performer. The musical roles of Duchess Sophie-Elisabeth, Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre, Josephine Lang, and Maria Bach encompassed performance as only one—not necessarily foremost—of several musical undertakings. Schein continues to pursue a decades-long distinguished career as a performer in more than fifty countries, as well as having taught hundreds of students, lectured , and presided as an adjudicator at internationally renowned musical competitions . She has appeared with such notable conductors as George Szell, James Levine, Seiji Ozawa, James DePriest, David Zinman, Stanislaw Skrowacewski, and Sir Colin Davis—all leading the world’s most famous orchestras, such as the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic , the London Symphony, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Schein also has played at the White House during the Kennedy years and before royalty, as well as other distinguished audiences. Today her schedule continues to overflow with solo recitals, chamber music concerts, and solo concerto appearances with major symphony orchestras— ranging widely throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Schein is one of an exclusive roster of pianists chosen to present piano recitals in new venues in American cities and communities under the auspices of the Adams Foundation Piano Recital Series. By the end of the 2007 season, the series had sponsored 103 recitals in twenty-five communities in...

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