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Sr Information Architect Specialist Sr User Experience Architect Specialist Sr Interaction Design Specialist Sr Navigational Systems Specialist Sr Usability Expert Specialist Sr Instructional Design Specialist Prior to attending The University to complete the Information Architecture and Instructional Technologies programs, I studied classical piano with The Juilliard School trained piano performance teachers, including my mother (source: the photo of ballet dancers is used by permission from The Juilliard School, Ms. Rosalie O'Conner). Piano Performance: The Juilliard School, Piano Performance Teachers Beethoven -> Czerny -> Leszetycki -> Raab -> Krasoff -> Heitman The Piano Performance Model—Most Influenced By: Arthur Rubinstein My Mentor and Very Good Friend—Most Influenced By: Alan Ford (Actor) The Juilliard School My mother attended The Juilliard School (graduate level) to study performance. At The Juilliard School, her study led her to specialize in the Baroque period of music—mainly, J.S. Bach's Preludes and Fugues. These long, extensive pieces that had to be learned for her lessons every week. That means 8-9-plus-hours of practicing a day since pieces required were 20 to 25 pages long, however. At The Juilliard School students work on 5-6-plus pieces a week. It requires being able to learn pieces the first time playing them. At Juilliard, high standards in piano performance playing are required. And, for example, piano concertos are usually 100-plus pages long that have to be memorized for performing them. That means a serious knowledge base of scales, arpeggios, double thirds, double sixths, octaves, et al. Arpeggios are done in closed and open position and in contrary motion up to the highest speed, like all the other required scales and Czerny (I draw from a knowledge base from these items; it is not necessary to know every technical exercise in every book) * (see Figure 3). Technique is only a means to an end. I believe it should be applied professionally to pieces, not to sound like an expressionless performer or like a mechanical robot. That is the type of piano performance playing I personally do not care for, under any circumstances. I believe more in a blending of schools; I prefer the French school of music. While being supervised by my mother in practicing sessions, which I prefer when no one bothers me. * Leszetycki Method * Hanon: Revisited * Czerny-Germer Preparatory Studies (selected) * Czerny: Selected Studies * Brahms: 51 Exercises * Phillip: Independence of Fingers * Dohnanyi: Finger Exercises for Obtaining a Sure Piano Technique * Duvernoy: The School of Mechanism, 15 Etudes * Plaidy: Technical Studies for Piano * Liszt: Technical Exercises * Czerny: The School of Velocity, Opus 299 * Czerny: The Art of Finger-Dexterity, Opus 740 * Cooke: Mastering The Scales & Arpeggios * Leszetycki: Preparatory Exercises * Scales and Arpeggios My mother used to remark: You are playing like Mr. Horowitz today. Under my low whisper, I replied: no, no, no, that is not it; I prefer Mr. Rubinstein—for obvious reasons—I cannot help it. For me, I prefer Mr. Rubinstein's piano performance playing because it is more expressive and representative of the French school of music (right phrasing, good posture, natural pianistic method). Yet in Mr. Rubinstein's playing, it is obvious that the training he received from the German school of music was solid. Of course, professional piano performance training provides solid foundational skills in piano performance. “You must sedulously practice all scales.” —Robert Schumann “Give special study to passing the thumb under the hand and passing the hand over the thumb. This makes the practice of scales and arpeggios indispensable.” —Ignacy Jan Paderewski “Do you ask me how good a player you may become? Then tell me how much you practice the scales.” —Carl Czerny “During the first five years, the backbone of all the daily work in Russian music schools is scales and arpeggios. The pupil who attempted complicated pieces without this preliminary drill would be laughed at in Russia.” —Josef Lhévinne The Leszetycki Method From the old school, per Leszetycki and Rubinstein, phrasing (dropping weight up and down correctly when performing), produces the right professional tonal quality (lifting up, for example, at the end of the phrase). I also learned this method handed down from Leszetycki from Raab from Krasoff. I mean, thinking about tonal quality, I like to think about how I control fingers for high-quality tonal production on a Steinway. This is a photo of my mother at The Juilliard School of Music, New York, practicing for her lessons (see Figure 1).   Figure 1 At age four, I was also inspired by my mother's record recording of Beethoven Sonatas accomplished, from high school. When I was a child, a strange woman asked me: What are you going to do when you grow up (telling me I had such huge hands)? My response was that I should consider being a concert pianist, since I can reach from a C to a G. Of course, I listened to Bach's Brandenburg Concertos as well as Arthur Rubinstein's recordings (on those really old records—way before CDs). Quote from Arthur Rubinstein   Figure 2 “I want to live—live passionately. I’m passionately involved with life; I love its change, its color, its movement. To be alive, to be able to speak, to see, to walk, to have houses, music, paintings—it’s all a miracle. I have adopted the technique of living life from miracle to miracle (see Figure 2).” Arthur Rubinstein (1887-1982) Education—Professional Skills I believe in education because it is a way to expand one's mind and learn new ideas. I am very passionate about music since it makes me happy. I am extremely passionate and energetic about being an information architect because I am a Information Architect by choice. Many professional piano performance teachers do remark very seriously that a lot of Juilliard's training is already in Steven Heitman's piano playing, hands (see Figure 5) and demeanor—if you know what I mean—almost being born at Juilliard! I guess they mean I am considered talented at playing piano.  Figure 3 How do you think that happened? I take piano lessons from Maestro Rubinstein by listening to all his CDs, videos, and DVDs. I prefer the way he does phrases on piano pieces when playing. Piano performance is never the same—but different every time. Videos below are ranked in order. Rubinstein is my hero and absolute favorite (see Figure 4). Performance Videos Arthur Rubinstein in De Falla's “Ritual Fire Dance” Arthur Rubinstein Plays Mendelssohn Spinning Song Arthur Rubinstein Plays Chopin Fantasie Impromptu, Op. 66 Arthur Rubinstein “Heroic” Polonaise Arthur Rubinstein Plays Chopin Polonaise “Heroic” Arthur Rubinstein - Chopin Polonaise in la bémol majeur Arthur Rubinstein “Heroic” Polonaise Arthur Rubinstein Plays Chopin Grand Polonaise Brillante Op. 22 Arthur Rubinstein Plays Schubert Impromptu Arthur Rubinstein Plays - Chopin - Barcarolle Fis-Dur, Op. 60 Arthur Rubinstein Plays Schumann Aufschwung   Figure 4 Arthur Rubinstein Plays Debussy Prelude No.1 in A minor Arthur Rubinstein Plays Debussy Ondine Arthur Rubinstein Plays Chopin Scherzo No.3 Op. 39 Arthur Rubinstein Plays Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 23 1st Mov Arthur Rubinstein Plays Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 23 2nd Mov Arthur Rubinstein Plays Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 23 3rd Mov Arthur Rubinstein Vintage Home Movie 1939 Arthur Rubinstein Chopin First Ballade - Lessons with AR - 1 Arthur Rubinstein Chopin First Ballade - Lessons with AR - 2 Arthur Rubinstein Chopin First Ballade - Lessons with AR - 3 Arthur Rubinstein in Venice Arthur Rubinstein, Poland & Chopin Arthur Rubinstein in Poland part 2 Arthur Rubinstein Paris part 5 Arthur Rubinstein at 90 in Israel Arthur Rubinstein Plays Liszt Arthur Rubinstein Plays “La campanella” Arthur Rubinstein Plays Rachmaninov (www.vaimusic.com) Arthur Rubinstein and Eugene Ormandy-Leith Stevens Concerto Wladyslaw Szpilman - Grand Polonaise Wladyslaw Szpilman - plays Frederic Chopin's Nocturne in C#min Ivo Pogorelich Plays Beethoven - Fur Elise Glenn Gould Plays Bach - Italian concerto Bach Toccata & Fuga d-Moll (BWV 565) Bach Toccata and Fugue in D minor Murray Perahia - Schubert Impromptu D. 899-2 Martha Argerich - Scarlatti, Sonata K. 141 Martha Argerich - Ravel, Concerto in G, Mov 1: Allegramente Martha Argerich - Rach 3, Concerto Evgeny Kissin and the Critics - Interview Evgeny Kissin - Imagine... Being a Concert Pianist - Part IX Vladimir Horowitz Plays Chopin Ballade 1 Vladimir Horowitz Plays Chopin Polonaise Op. 53 in A-flat major Vladimir Horowitz at The White House Chopin Polonaise Heroic Vladimir Horowitz Plays Rach, Concerto No. 3 - 1st Movement Vladimir Horowitz at Carnegie Hall, Horowitz-Carmen Variations Justin Timberlake - My Love Justin Timberlake - Sexy Back Justin Timberlake - Director's Cut - What Goes Around... Happy Passover Happy Rosh Hashanah Figure 5 Steven Heitman's hands Contour drawing by Steven Heitman August 8, 2007 Grew Up in Musical Environment I grew up in a musical environment; I was almost born at Juilliard in New York on a very hot day on May 30th. Music has always been a part of my life. No, I was not forced to do piano performance; I was told not to do it. My Piano Performance Teachers To ignore any and all negative advice, I moved quickly forward to study with Sari Biro's assistant piano teacher and Sari Biro in San Francisco. She is a graduate of the Franz Liszt Academy. The water bell display you are viewing is responding to Hungarian-born pianist Sari Biro's interpretation of Pick-Mangiagalli's Danse d'Olaf (excerpt). Sari was one of the pre-eminent classical pianists of the 20th Century. In addition to performance, she had the innate ability to express the utmost subtlety in a musical passage in words, metaphor and pianistic example—so that her master students could better understand the composer's intent. Her review after her professional piano performance in New York at Carnegie Hall: “Sari Biro must be reckoned among the foremost women exponents of the keyboard of the time.” —Reviewed by, The New York Times   Figure 6 My primary teacher was Wanda Krasoff (no college degree). Wanda was born in San Francisco—the third generation of her family to disclose extraordinary musical ability (see Figure 6). Her father, of Czarist Russian nobility, was an operatic tenor who sang leading roles with Luisa Tetrazzini at the New Tivoli in San Francisco. Her uncle, a pupil of the great Anton Rubinstein and Moritz Moszkowski, was a celebrated pianist, composer, and conductor. When very young, Wanda played for Paderewski and, in later years, for Arthur Rubinstein. Their interest in her talent as well as the advice and sharing of their musical knowledge has made a lasting impression on her. The eminent Józef Kazimierz Hofmann offered her a scholarship to study with him at The Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. Unable to accept because of serious illness in the family, young Wanda, upon the advice of Hofmann sought the guidance of the distinguished Hungarian pianist and pedagogue, Alexander Raab, under whose careful tutelage she matured into an outstanding pianist. Through his teaching, she can trace her musical lineage back to Beethoven. Her review after her professional piano performance in New York at Town Hall: “Her interpretations commanded respect for their general musicianship and efficiency. Miss Krasoff left no doubt she is an accomplished artist and a fine musician.” —Reviewed by Harold C. Schonberg, The New York Times Beethoven -> Czerny -> Leszetycki -> Raab -> Krasoff Liszt -> Unknown Names -> Krasoff Liszt -> Unknown Names -> Biro Alexander Raab—Krasoff's Piano Performance Teacher Wanda's piano teacher, Alexander Raab (Online Archive California, Inventory of the Alexander Raab papers, 1931-1946), studied with Teodor Leszetycki in Europe (was friends with Leszetycki and Brahms). For sure a true fact, I have seen the actual and really old photographs that Wanda shared with me at a piano lesson. Through Wanda's teaching, I can trace my musical lineage back to Czerny, Beethoven, and Liszt. Both of my primary piano teachers trace their musical lineage back to Liszt. Wanda was very fortunate to have had friendships with both Arthur Rubinstein as well as Józef Kazimierz Hofmann. An interesting TIME's magazine article about Arthur Rubinstein from February 25, 1966, The Undeniable Romantic, tells a tale about the life of a pianist and his performances—The Undeniable Romantic.pdf. I can also tell many tales about performances and other pianists! But gossip is so ignoble—let us continue to be professional. I had made no plans to study piano with Wanda. It was only because a previous piano teacher insisted I leave him and study with her—it was all by accident and unplanned. Wanda was infamous for training piano performance students for Rosina Lhévinne at Juilliard. Many of Wanda's piano performance students studied classical piano at Juilliard. I attended the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for private piano lessons many years ago. My favorite pianist is Arthur Rubinstein because I prefer the way he expresses himself on the piano. For more information on Arthur Rubinstein, see this link about The Rubinstein Collection (a way unfolded for me to obtain a factory sealed box of The Rubinstein Collection—again, thank you, Mr. Rubinstein, not many new boxes left!). As far as I am concerned, Arthur Rubinstein is a very fine pianist. My unique specialization with regard to my piano performance goal includes performing Beethoven Sonatas. While my mother specialized in the Baroque period of music, I specialize in the Romantic period of music (all composers). I prefer not to play Mozart. Preference for Hamburg Steinway The only piano I enjoy performing and playing on is a Hamburg Steinway because the Steinway's tone is superior, like dark chocolate in the bass. The bass has to sound right—actually, it has to sound perfect, clean, and sharp. The higher notes must sound like bells. The action must be regulated as light as possible—perhaps 50% to 60% down from 50 grams. Though a Steinway with a weighted action of approximately 50 grams or more for practicing (a stiff action) is professional. The action must take the punishment of my extra firm deep-down-finger-direct-hits—or it brakes. A Steinway's action, like soft velvet is what I prefer; the Steinway is quite responsive to my extreme technical demands for very difficult piano performance pieces (Steinway—Haus Hamburg). Only the right Steinway works for me. And a word about tonal quality, it has to be in perfect tune or I will not play on it. Because the pitch has to be in perfect pitch on a Steinway, no strings can be out of tune. When I inspect a Steinway, I get very upset in two seconds, if not tuned right. top   |   back to portfolio Copyright ©—2007-2012. All rights reserved. Last updated: January 1, 2009 Steven Heitman, IA MAIA, IA MAEd Sr Information Architect Specialist Corporate Training Specialist IA Design & Usability