Gary Graffman - A Conversation with the Legendary Gary Graffman for Teachers Steinway Artist and Educator

A Conversation with Gary Graffman, for Teachers only. Lunch included. He is a Steinway Artist and Renowned Educator, teacher of Lang Lang, Yuja Wang and Haochen Zhang. It is once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet him in person to hear his experience.

The former President of Curtis Institute of Music, Gary Graffman is world renowned. He has numerous recordings with the orchestras of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland, and Chicago under such conductors as Bernstein, Ormandy, Szell, and Mehta. He has performed concertos by the most highly respected composers in history - Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Brahms, Chopin, and Beethoven. Despite a hand injury in 1979, he continues to have an active performing career. After studying at Curtis Institute of Music beginning in 1936 and graduating ten years later, he returned in 1986 and served as director until May 2006, and then president from 1995 to 2006.

Graffman’s teaching acumen is attributed in part to his attention to detail. He is skilled at interpreting what composers write in score and parlaying the knowledge to his students. Pieces of music played by Graffman students often sound more refined and nuanced. He can readily identify proper speed and dynamics phrasing. Every pianist has their own sound, but with Graffman’s assistance pupils often take their playing to the next level.

From beginning to the end of the class, you can see the pianist has changed their interpretation. The piece sounds better.