The must-read for summer is Piano Lessons, by pianist and writer Anna Goldsworthy. Just published by Black Inc, the book is at once the memoir of a prodigiously talented young girl who has become one of Australia's best pianists, and an homage to an extraordinary teacher and the type of teacher/student relationship that so often lies behind greatness.
When nine year old Anna met Eleonora Sivan, Russian émigré and world-class pianist, an amazing relationship began that was to define the pianist Anna would become. As Anna told Graceful Taylor recently, "I would still have played seriously, but the piano would be a different beast to me if I hadn't met Eleonora".
In the book Anna vividly gives us Eleonora's idiosyncratic voice and we begin to understand that learning to play the piano was a process of learning to understand life and learning to understand self. "It was hard being deconstructed every day," says Anna now. But the value of the lessons is evident in the person she has become, successfully managing careers as a solo pianist, member of the Seraphim Trio, teacher, writer and now mother.
The book is so honest that some of Anna's students have told her that they feel like they're trespassing when they read it. "But they're absorbing the teaching, " she says proudly. "Writing the book has forced me to articulate my relationship to music." And we're the better for it. This isn't just about the piano, or music, it's an insight into creativity from a woman who has an abundance and who once met a teacher who showed her how to release it. Sensational.
For more info, go to http://www.annagoldsworthy.com/
We're very proud to be involved with Anna through the Seraphim Trio (a classical piano trio). Cover graphic for the 2010 series brochure we've just developed is below.
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