Looking for piano accompanist for violinist

[Dreamaurora]

Sleepy, I thought normally violin teachers will have a list of accompanists for reference. I am quite surprised you actually had to find one yourself.


If you realise the accompanist is poor, can still quickly locate one fast before the exam. Experienced ones just need a few days notice unless we are talking about difficult stuff like franck violin sonata.

[sleepy]

Dreamaurora:

Sleepy, I thought normally violin teachers will have a list of accompanists for reference. I am quite surprised you actually had to find one yourself.


If you realise the accompanist is poor, can still quickly locate one fast before the exam. Experienced ones just need a few days notice unless we are talking about difficult stuff like franck violin sonata.

dd's string teacher doesn't have any reference for accompanists because teacher is not a local. Didn't forsee this problem upfront when engaging teacher

We've been trying to look for an accompanist on our own for months to no avail. So as a last resort, I have to turn to music schools & sign up one of their accompaniment packages once I know the exact date of exam & accept whichever teacher music school assigned whose schedule is open on exam day. Changing accompanist will be another lucky spin as it means walking in to another music school & start all over again. There wasn't sufficient time as we are required to follow music school's inflexible schedule.

However, I didn't expect a piano teacher who is teaching in a music school can't even play without mistakes, whether with or without prior experience in accompaniment :faint:

[sleepy]

Hearsay examiner will sieve out bad accompaniment so examinee will not be unduly penalised. Afterall, the examinee is the one being graded, not the accompanist. Not sure how true though.


But as mentioned by other parents earlier, an accompanist is supposed to "help" & not become a burden instead

[Dreamaurora]

sleepy:

Hearsay examiner will sieve out bad accompaniment so examinee will not be unduly penalised. Afterall, the examinee is the one being graded, not the accompanist. Not sure how true though.


But as mentioned by other parents earlier, an accompanist is supposed to \"help\" & not become a burden instead

I've spoken to an examiner before about this and yes, examiners are aware that many accompanists are not professionals and they try their best to evaluate the soloists' performance regardless of the accompanists' capabilities. However, unfortunately what the examiners see are only the end results and an accompanist might actually affect the performance of the soloist quite significantly.

A less than capable accompanist may actually prevent the soloist from realising his/her full capability as a musician. For example, an accompanist who cannot 'take breath' or 'follow' will in turn cause the soloist to not be able to do this as it will cause the piece to sound out of sync. The other common complaint is that some accompanists are incapable of playing the accompaniment up to speed; but in exam there is no way to convey to examiners that you play under tempo because of the accompanist. Some accompanists may also play their accompaniments as if they are playing their solo pieces and drown out the soloists' playing; someone I know actually found out this the hard way after auditioning for an orchestra (the music director told her the accompanist was too loud and he could not hear her playing clearly).

I do agree with Jce that you do not need to be a very good solo performer to accompany well, but you do need to be competent technically and confident. I accompanied strings and did chamber works quite extensively in NAFA and I can say the skill sets required in chamber works is quite different than solo playing. Being able to communicate, listen and adapt to other people definitely ranks higher. That is why some very good solo pianists are lousy chamber musicians. And vice versa. And good accompanists can do more than just 'help', they can actually even help to improve the intepretations of the piece by giving some suggestions.

Speaking of music schools, it is quite a common misconception that music school teachers are all capable pianists as most music schools employ teachers who just start their career (hard to go full private at start without any reputation or good portfolio). In fact, not even all private teachers are. A common issue that plague many teachers are that once they get the certifications they want, they stop practicing and just teach. Practicing is hard work and yes, I do sometimes drag myself to practice, often past midnight because I could not put in enough time during the day. For many teachers, there is no simply no motivation whatsoever to practice since you cannot make a living concertizing here and there is no more cert to aim for. This is why even if you get a degree holder teacher, there is no guarantee he/she is still able to play like his/her prime. This does not mean someone who do not practice cannot teach well though. Best example of this is Prof Yu Chun Yee. He does not practice piano anymore but yet his teaching is still stellar enough that he can produce very capable pianists who win national competitions.

[buds]

Thankfully DD1's teacher is also her accompanist. :please:

[maykenth]

wow!! wats the qualifications to b accompanist actually? i am taking dip in piano performance tis year…

[buds]

Sleepy… mebbe in future can consider asking accompanist to come over your place for a few paid trial runs prior to exams? This; if you hv ur own piano at home… or else can book studio for the sessions as well.

[Dreamaurora]

luckystar:

Any one knows the nafa piano accopanist ? Do you think he/she will like to accompany non-nafa ?

NAFA does not have a full time accompanist, unlike Yong Siew Toh. Student accompanists are assigned to each individual instrumentalits, but the accompanists are not obligated to accompany them because it is not compulsory for pianists to accompany and there is no mark involved.

NAFA only source out external accompanists when instrumentalists could not find accompaniments last minute (happened more often than necessary). And then the BA students were given a choice also to do section accompaniment or sing in the choir choir (at least during my time, I don't know about now). Most chose choir though because learning accompaniments are tedious work and our solo repertoire are so heavy already. For my case I chose to do string accompaniment in my final year although I was fully aware of how 'peculiar' Volker Hartung was :evil: . In hindsight, maybe it was not such a good idea since I needed more time for my solo repertoire and paper, but hey, I had a great time of my life and I got to learn quite a lot string repertoire. And Hartung is a really good musician, learnt quite a lot from him.

[Dreamaurora]

maykenth:

wow!! wats the qualifications to b accompanist actually? i am taking dip in piano performance tis year..

There is no qualification needed, you just need to start accompanying (start with the lower grades one first) and the instrumental teacher will give you pointers on how to do it. Then the more you do, the easier it becomes. If you do want to be certified, I believe Trinity offers grade 1-8 piano accompaniment.

[sleepy]

buds:

Sleepy.. mebbe in future can consider asking accompanist to come over your place for a few paid trial runs prior to exams? This; if you hv ur own piano at home.. or else can book studio for the sessions as well.

Yes, have piano at home but root problem is I couldn't find a private accompanist with references. Been asking around for months to no avail.

And I'm not comfortable to just anyhow pick an accompanist from the earlier web link & entering a private arrangement without referrals. With a music school, at least they have some control over their teachers & I'm assured accompanist will show up on exam day.

I would much much prefer referrals but since there isn't, going to a music school was the last resort. I signed up for accompaniment package at music school so there were numerous practise sessions before exam.

Any music school which conduct string lessons will have accompaniment package during exam period because they need to provide accompaniment for their existing string students too. Hey, come to think of it, that music school strings students also 'kanna' because that same teacher will be accompanist for many of their existing students.