Heya, Eugene!

YouTube cracks me up again. This is the last piano teacher with whom I studied in Vancouver. Eugene's a prof at the University of British Columbia, and was perhaps the least intense Russian teacher I ever had. Not only was he fabulously musical, but he was also ridiculously kind; he would pick me up, feed me, give me extra lessons, and take me back to school when I had spare blocks free. He was such a sweetheart.

Out of all my teachers, he was the most "muscular" sounding; he produced incredibly huge, space-filling sounds from the piano. Physically, he was the most impassive while performing; technically, he was super chill and a veritable cucumber when tackling crazy-difficult passages. Unusual for Russian pianists, he was also very, very unsentimental in his interpretations. It was cool to have such a mix of influences in my own playing as even within the Russian school, you could still have such a variety of teaching styles and mentors.

Here he is playing a gorgeous Rach. If you've ever seen Shine, then you know Rachmaninov pieces can be notoriously hard to play ~ even driving some pianists straight into the pit of insanity. And see what I mean by cool and "muscular"? My other teachers would've been playing with their eyes closed while swaying like palm trees in a hurricane !







With regards to sexy last names, he once mentioned that his literally translates into "frying pan" in Russian. I think the topic in question was Beethoven ("beet garden"). Who says you can't learn anything from someone's online spewings?

It is so surreal and funny to see darling Eugene "in action" again, and is inspiring me to start practicing in earnest again. Hooray!!!

Guess it's time to get out the Hanon...