New Inspiration

November 14, 2012 at 2:09 AM

The amazing Serbian violinist, Andrej Kurti came to my school today to help the violins with our all state pieces. He is a really cool guy in my opinion. Very funny and easy to talk to.I love his attitude. He wanted to play a little bit of his CD for us and he said something about wishing he had brought the sheet music with him so we could all follow along.(Most people hadn't heard of the pieces he was talking about) Me being the classical music freak that am....I raised my hand and suggested that I should plug my laptop into the t.v. screen because I have all the pieces on file :)

It worked out. Everyone got to see the beautiful madness that is Ysaye. He thanked me for helping by giving me one of his CDs for free! He even signed the booklet\poster inside!!! At the end of his helping I went to talk to Mr.Kurti. He asked about my concerto concert audition (remembering that I was the one that played the Accolay) he said he was very impressed, especially since I've only been playing for 2 years. He asked about my plans for college and what I want to major in. After all that he suggested that I go to Northwestern to study with him. He said 'Institution is nice, but you really need a good teacher to get you moving , free you up,etc. because you're serious about this,not just *makes giggly noise* around. Julliard and Curtis are greats school but really hard to get into. I'm not trying to discourage you in any way,if that's what you want to do, but you know I studied at the Moscow Conservatory and you've heard me play, ah?' After telling him I'm a sophomore he said he wasn't sure where he'd be teaching in 2 years but encouraged me to study with him.

As you can see he's pretty awesome! Very confident but not cocky at all. He's really down to earth and very funny. Anyone who gets the opportunity needs to see this guy play! I'm going to attend his performance of the Ysaye sonatas in spring :) Maybe one day he'll be my teacher...you never know. Well I've got to get back to practicing. Till next time.

T.W.J

From Terez Mertes
Posted on November 14, 2012 at 3:44 PM

Wow, very cool! Enjoyed reading this. : )

From Anne-Marie Proulx
Posted on November 15, 2012 at 3:24 AM

How cool! Probably the best teaching deal I agree...

My teacher isn't a "famous" musician though she is from Russia and had a very good training there (well, a russian from Ukraine which was then URSS : ) I also worked with a pianist and ear training/theory teacher from Moscow.

It is a whole different teaching world and philosophy if you can find a good teacher from this part of the world (but not only a good technician... someone who knows how to teach)

Some like, others dislike. If you like strict, directive, scientific like training, it's for you... They will "force" you to be 100% confident while playing (at least then...) if you are not :)

However nowadays, many musicians have some russian teachers in their background so it's not as black and white as it used to be...

Good luck!

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