Career in Classical Piano

p***@gmail.com

2013-08-24 07:39:54 UTC

Forget it. If you were going to have a career, you would have won
something like the Chopin Competition when you were 18 (like Pollini,
whose Chopin Etudes were better than ours will ever be). Also, don't
think a company will sign you for the Chopin 24. Learn some seldom heard
repertoire written after 1930. I'm 25 and have been fortunate enough to
find LOCAL success as a chamber pianist (the music there is just as good
and probably more challenging due to the added factor of the group
dynamic), and I personally know dozens of composers who would love to get
their pieces heard. Lift your eyes to more possibilities than being
another Horowitz (whose technique sucked and what makes us think he was
truly happy being famous?)

At this point in time I have a lengthy career history in the commercial piano field. That means I performed five shows a night, six nights a week for thirty five years. Since I raised four girls in New Orleans on the proceeds from my work I would think that would qualify as a definition of a professional musician. I'm a concert trained pianist and made six tours as a concert pianist
before I got out of college. By then the hand-writing was on the wall in very big letters. There is NO venue where you can go to hear the great pianist XYZ five times a night, six days a week. It doesn't exist - ergo: finding a concert pianist who performs classical music in that manner is virtually impossible. If you have any other definition that disagrees with this I would certainly like to hear it.

Fritz Owens