The Art of the Piano: Competition, Teaching and Performance
January 22, 2021, 3:00 pm to 3:00 pm
An Afternoon with Debra Saylor, Laureate, Van Cliburn Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs
Talk and Moderated Q&A
Part of the Vulnerable Virtuosities: Disability in Competition and Concert Workshop.
Moderator: Stefan Sunandan Honisch, PhD, Banting Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Theatre and Film, University of British Columbia
This invited talk by Debra Saylor, laureate of the Van Cliburn Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs connected to Dr. Honisch's book project (in progress), Vulnerable Virtuosities: Disability in Competition and Concert. This work explores how descriptions of musical virtuosity in competitions and concerts depend on idealized notions of musical ability shaped, in turn, by the systemic privilege and oppression that intersect race, gender, sexuality, disability, and class. The book’s projected fifth chapter will discuss three blind pianists who have achieved distinction in both the professional and amateur streams of the Van Cliburn Piano Competition: Judyth Walker (1947-2009); Debra Saylor (b. 1962), and Nobuyuki Tsujii (b. 1988). The question-and-answer session following Debra Saylor’s talk provided an opportunity to discuss her life and work as a pianist and music teacher. The Interdisciplinary Histories Research Cluster is pleased to make a recording of the event available on its Website.
Accessibility: This event included Communication Access Real Time (CART) and American Sign Language (ASL)-English for its entire duration.
This event was organized and moderated by Dr. Stefan Sunandan Honisch, a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Theatre and Film, at the University of British Columbia. His postdoctoral research explores the relationship between aesthetics and politics in Helen Keller’s musical life, documented in Keller’s own writings, and in contemporaneous newspaper, magazines, photographs, and films.
Debra Saylor, playing Claude Debussy's "Clair de Lune":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHdcm99cyCE
Image Credit: Martin Honisch, 2010, oil on canvas
Painting Description: A landscape that shows three trees, each situated at the top of a small hill. The trees have richly textured dark green foliage, and the hills and cliffs in the background are rendered in subtle mixtures of green, brown, and grey. The landscape is set against a sombre, overcast sky, with a patch of blue in the center.
This event took place in the past, and registrations are closed.
