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Frédéric Chopin, who is our “other” famous great-great-great-great grandteacher, was of course from Poland. As was our great-great-great-great grandmother (on our father’s side), Ida Weisman Rice, who came to the United States around the year 1910, when she was about the age we Rice Brothers are now. Perhaps the fact that we are Polish-rooted, both biologically and musically, explains, at least in part, why both of us have such a profound love for Chopin’s music. His music, after all, is quintessentially Polish, and is universally considered to embody the Polish spirit. (But on the other hand, we have friends from all over the world who absolutely love Chopin’s music, so maybe we’d have loved it just as much if our ancestors came from somewhere entirely else!)

When we play Chopin’s music, we have a very specific goal in mind. Our hope is that we will play it in such a passionate, moving, and beautiful way that, one fine and Blessed day, we will be invited by modern-day Poles to play it for them in Poland.

Said slightly differently: Kiedy gramy muzykę Chopina, mają bardzo konkretne cele na uwadze. Mamy nadzieję, że będziemy grać w taki sposób, ruchome i piękne, że prędzej czy później, zostaną zaproszeni przez dzisiejszej Polaków do odegrania dla nich Polska.

Which may or may not be a good translation (we got just a tiny bit of help from Google translator…) But we hope that someone in Poland will read it and understand, and that our music will move their Spirit so deeply that… Well, we’ll let you know how it all works out. Read the rest of this post »

Lately, our family has been re-watching the Ken Burns *Jazz* series. There is a wonderful interview segment with Artie Shaw. (He was an American jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader, widely considered to be one of the greatest jazz musicians of his time.) Speaking of something which hugely influenced him when he was in his late teens, Shaw said, “I went to Chicago, I made a pilgrimage [to see Louis Armstrong play], I took a week off and went up to Chicago, I had a little car, and I found my way to a place called the Savoy. And I sat on a rug-covered bandstand and waited, and he came on, and the first thing he played was ‘West End Blues.’ And I heard this cascade of notes coming out of a trumpet, no one had ever done that before. I was obsessed with the idea that this was what you had to do, something that was your own, that had nothing to do with anybody else, but I was influenced by him, not in terms of notes, but in terms of doing what you are, who you are.”

Now… Great musicians, whether they play jazz or classical music, always bring to bear their own personalities, who they are, when they play. It doesn’t matter whether they’re improvising or playing something which has been arranged or composed earlier. When a performer is just copying someone else’s way of playing something, they’re just playing notes, and there’s no life in the music.

Which brings me to Sami, a spectacular new young friend of mine. (Well, hey, she’s five months and three days younger than I am.) There is something truly and powerfully unique about her. She’s a musician, but it’s not her main thing. She’s spent a lot of time traveling … Read the rest of this post »

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Franz Joseph Haydn is three generations back, on our “teacherly tree,” from Franz Liszt, making “Papa Joe” our great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandteacher. So far, he’s better known for writing “The Haydn C,” which is what many people call his Cello Concerto in C, than he is for being part of our teacherly line… <smile>

We just love the piece, and our audiences seem to love it, too! Probably this is at least partly because of Papa Joe’s sense of humor! I mean, he writes things which are amazingly beautiful, and which really let a musician “show off” what she or he can do, technically speaking. This latter is called being “virtuosic.” If we musicians don’t demonstrate some degree of virtuosity in our playing, members of our audiences … if anyone is willing to listen to us at all … tend to doze off, and maybe even snore. Except infants and other very young children, who aren’t likely to doze off, but often start screaming. As they should. (Adults are usually too inhibited to start screaming. But not always…) Read the rest of this post »

There are two reasons we wanted to welcome you with Franz Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2.” First, we think it’s stunningly, vastly beautiful. And second, we want to honor two of the teachers who are most loved by us (and also the teachers you love the most)! (We intend to rhapsodize about such teachers… <smile>)

Franz Liszt is one of our two famous great-great-great-great grandteachers. One thing about terrific teachers … they have a way of making comments that are … memorable. This is almost always a good thing, a Blessing. But not always.

Our piano teacher, Robert Hamilton, the first of the two teachers we wish to honor here, is one of the world’s most respected and honored pianists and teachers. He has a profound ability to convey ideas in utterly unforgettable ways, so he seldom has to make the same point twice. 98 or 99% of the time, we wouldn’t have it any other way! But then there was the comment he made about two months ago… Read the rest of this post »

Sometimes there’s a smile or a nod first, but we most often play music for people … a bit of piano, a bit of cello … before we talk with them. For us, this is like first handing someone a rose, to honor the beautiful music which lives in them (whether or not that “beautiful music” involves instruments and the like). In that spirit … welcome … and … we hope you enjoy Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, by Franz Liszt!

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