RÜCKBLICK: NEW PIANO MUSIC INSPIRED BY BRAHMS: Ann DuHamel,  The depth of programming and playing in DuHamel's latest album, which introduces newly commissioned works inspired by Johannes Brahms' oeuvre, is striking. Casual listeners will enjoy snippets of his most beloved melodies, while astute connoisseurs will be delighted by the cleve...

The unconscionable neglect of one of America's greatest composers is finally encountering a slow-burn renaissance which one hopes, for all those pianists and piano teachers with progress in their sights, will become an incandescence of music-making. While those interested in the keyboard music of this composer, described by...

PAMELA D. PIKE, Editor in Chief and Chief Content Director As I write the editorial column for this issue, the restful summer days are waning, autumn is on the horizon, and preparations for a new year of teaching are underway. Parker Palmer reminds us that autumn "…scatters the seeds that will bring new growth in the spring…"1 This is a valuable me...

Piano Sonata in E Minor by Florence Price  Performance Videos

First steps into Ragtime If you're looking for a lively early-intermediate piece in ragtime style, you can find it in the music of Florence B. Price, one of America's preeminent African American composers. Ticklin' Toes checks all of the ragtime boxes, yet in a way that is accessible for students who are not advanced enough to tackle the music...

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In her book Hidden Figures (the basis for the 2016 movie of the same name), Margot Lee Shetterly observed, "The electrified fence of segregation and the centuries of shocks it delivered so effectively circumscribed the lives of American blacks that even after the current was turned off, the idea of climbing the fence inspir...