Part 1 of Season 4 Episode 8: Carlos Franzetti & Allison Brewster Franzetti -- Grammy and Latin Grammy Award Winners and Nominees

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Happy December and welcome back to another episode of The Piano Pod. Here, tradition meets innovation. We bridge the timeless beauty of the piano with the dynamic pulse of today's world. I am your host, Yukimi Song. It's that time of the year when we're all buzzing with excitement, surrounded by friends and family, soaking in the holiday vibes. I hope you're feeling the festive spirit no matter where you're tuning into this episode. By the way, this is The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song's last episode of the year 2023. What a fantastic year I've had as a host of the show, connecting with you and with incredible guests through this magical medium of podcast. And I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you for tuning into The Piano Pod throughout 2023. Your support has been the greatest encouragement that has fueled my passion for sharing the world of piano with you. Whether you are a dedicated listener or a casual viewer of The Piano Pod, your presence has made this journey truly remarkable. It's been an incredible and meaningful year for me, and I couldn't have done it without you. So thank you. As we are ending the year 2023, I want to assure you that The Piano Pod is only getting started. So stay tuned for the year 2024, where we have an exciting lineup of guests ready to share their thoughts, ideas, and expertise. And I am thrilled to bring you more inspiring conversations, captivating performances, and behind the scenes into the world of classical music. Okay, so to end the year 2023 on a positive note, I want to bring you a love story. It's the story of two incredible souls who not only found love for one another but also shared a deep passion for music. You know those couples that just radiate power and success, and we call them power couples? And we've got our own power couple in our industry. They are Grammy and Latin Grammy Award winners and nominees, Carlos Franzetti and Allison Brewster Franzetti. Carlos and Allison are partners in life and music, making beautiful melodies together, and I mean it literally. So let me first introduce Mr. Carlos Franzetti, composer, arranger of 5 Latin Grammy Awards and a Grammy Award, a musical virtuoso of unparalleled versatility. His talent spans classical symphonies, big band jazz, Latin American rhythms, and captivating film scores. His compositions have graced stages globally, from the Boston Pops to Prague, uniting hearts worldwide. In jazz, he collaborated with celebrities like Arturo Sandoval, crafting unforgettable recordings. Mr. Franzetti's artistic imprint shines through in beloved films such as The Mambo Kings, enriching the narrative tapestry of cinema. His ongoing creative journey delights enthusiasts with recent hits like Legacy and Minotaur in the Labyrinth. Born in Buenos Aires, Mr. Franzetti's musical journey began at 6. Studying at prestigious schools like Juilliard, he pursued his dreams, becoming a global citizen through music. His compositions bridge cultures, uniting audiences through his extraordinary music and recordings. Now let me introduce pianist Alison Brewster-Franzetti, a renowned artist celebrated for her exceptional musicality. She's received accolades from prestigious organizations like the Latin Grammy and Grammy Awards. Ms. Franzetti's career spans solo performances at iconic venues like Carnegie Hall, collaborations with renowned artists, and orchestral engagements with groups like the Brooklyn Harmonic. As a prolific recording artist, her latest solo project, Pianista, earned a Silver Award from the Global Music Awards. Ms. Franzetti's influence goes beyond performance. She is an acclaimed author, composer, and editor, contributing to notable publications and collaborating with esteemed musicians. Her educational background includes degrees from the Manhattan School and Juilliard. In academia, she holds positions at Kean University, Rutgers University, and various music festivals. Ms. Franzetti's diverse talents and contributions to classical music and the arts have earned her recognitions from foundations and societies, cementing her status as a distinguished pianist and a globally respected artist. Before we dive into this special episode featuring Allison and Carlos, a warm welcome to all newcomers joining The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song with Yukimi Song with Yukimi Song. Today, I am a classical pianist and educator based in New York City, the creator and executive producer of this show. Whether you're fully immersed in a piano career deeply engaged in the classical music scene, or simply drawn to the beauty of the piano melodies, this podcast grants you an exclusive pass into the captivating world of the piano. To all our loyal TPP fans and listeners, just a quick reminder to rate and review the show on your favorite podcasting platform, because your ratings and review will play a crucial role in helping others discover this podcast. So grab your hot cocoa and brace yourself for the inspiration that awaits from Carlos and Allison's incredible journey. Welcome to the final episode of 2023.

Please enjoy the show.

You are listening to The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song with Yukimi Song.

You are listening to The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song, where we talk to the brightest minds in the industry about how they are bringing the piano into the 21st century.

Welcome to The Piano Pod, Allison and Carlos. Thank you so much for being here.

Well, we're delighted to be here. Thank you so much for inviting us, for having us.

Well, thank you. So you were both introduced to me by Donna Wang Friedman, who is a producer, concert pianist, and she was actually on The Piano Pod as a guest in Season 2. And then I think Donna is your really close friend.

She's been my friend for many, many years, and I'm a huge admirer of her work and all the accolades she's getting for Never Fade Away. Very exciting to see what she created and all the recognition she's really, truly deserving to get for such an extraordinary project.

Absolutely. So a quick shout out to Donna. Thank you. And if you're listening, I love the morning of interview session, usually after I I make my coffee and I start my day because I get to listen to the music of the guest of that day that I'm about to interview. And then this morning I've been listening to both of your music. So in my YouTube playlist, I had started out with a Pasacollier, but the two-piano version.

Right.

I also, I realized that there's an actual version in the CD album, one of the CD albums you have, but this was particularly the to piano version both of you are playing, and then which led me to Circle the Alaval.

Yes, Circle the Alaval. Ah, that's a fun video with a small orchestra chamber, a few strings and a couple of woodwinds, flute and clarinet, and of course Alison playing piano and Krauss playing piano. And we also have this Argentine— well, actually it's a German instrument, the bandoneon. But adapted for Argentine tango and electric guitar. It was recorded, what, 10, 12 years ago?

It was 2012. It was right before Hurricane Sandy, actually. And we flew back from Buenos Aires right after Hurricane Sandy. We were able to see the devastation of the area from the air. And then of course had a lot of trouble getting home from Kennedy Airport at the time, but managed it because So many roads were closed here.

Right.

But the gas stations weren't giving gas either.

But the video itself, that was a really, really fun project. All the music was composed by Carlos. During the, with the recording, we had forgotten a baton. And so we used a straw to conduct when we were switching off. So, but you can't tell that it's a straw in the video, but that's actually what it was. Really?

Wow. But I also noticed Alison, you were conducting too. So you took turns, like, you know, while Carlos was playing the piano, Alison conducted, and vice versa. And I really enjoyed the video. And at one point, it was like 45 minutes of sort of like a documentary where you performed, but also there was like a talk in between. So I also watched the video clip of your performance of Lamento, which is the orchestral work by you, Carlos, and of course The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song with Alison.

Actually, a couple of days before, we went to a recording session in Prague, and I came out with this tune, this very simple tune, and Alison said, wait, what is that? That's something that came out, and I, you know, I'm gonna write it down. And I, I started writing it, but we were leaving in, in two days, so I wrote kind of half of it, you know, with orchestration, and then we left. We went to Prague and recorded. And the contractor, fixer they call us over there, of the orchestra, a very good friend of ours, James Fitzpatrick, said, by the way, you know, tomorrow instead of having half a session, you have the whole morning, so record whatever you want. And I said, well, you know, I have this piece, but I left it in in the computer, and I think that I had emailed it to Addison's computer.

You had. I was able to access the file. Carlos and the picture also had Finale.

Right. So then I went and finished the orchestration and we recorded it the next day. I mean, she sight read, and it's a very simple piece, but it was nice to do it on the spur of the moment and said, wow, this is not going to die or live in a drawer. And we were happy to record it.

So Carlos finished it in Finale. I extracted all the parts. The fixer printed all the parts and put them together. And the next day we just went and did it.

Oh my goodness. Wow. Yeah. But I noticed that there were one or two CD albums that you performed with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.

Yeah. Yeah. The CD of Prague Philharmonic. Actually, we did a lot of work. You know, I was called to do some arrangements for a very good jazz saxophonist, about 20 years ago. And they said the recording will be in Prague. I said, well, you know, wonderful. We had been there before with Allison doing some of the projects. So I then I discovered this wonderful orchestra, and, and I became very good friends with this person, James Fitzpatrick, who was the producer and, and contractor. And then I had other projects, and I mentioned this orchestra, so I was going to Prague like twice a year recording there, and I became very fond. It's a beautiful city. So did Alison. I mean, we did many albums of ourselves and then of other people as well, singers and musicians, saxophonists.

Oh, wow. We have to talk more about your compositional genres and styles, Carlos, because your style ranges from pure classical music to jazz, obviously, to Argentine tango. But before that, I really want to talk about you as a couple. So you each demonstrate individual achievements, and then together with your collaboration, you leave such a huge impact in our industry and society. And then through your strong partnership, you have inspired so many musicians and music lovers around the world. So, you know, people call you, call a duo like you, power couple, right?

And then just like, we have been referred to that way, which we find really fascinating because we really just do what we do and we don't put a label on us like other people would do at all.

And the good thing is that, I must say, I mean, she's, she's the pianist, she's the concert pianist. I am not. I am a composer. But we both do things. I mean, she had compose a great number of music and tunes and for shows and things and orchestrate and, as you said, conduct the City of Braxton Harmonic when I was playing. And on the side, I, you know, I did my classical training on piano and study and whatever. I did the basic repertoire, but my love was in composition. So we share things, but we don't get to the point of competing. You know, like yesterday, all of a sudden I was there, like, I said, why don't you play the Brahms Intermezzo that I love so much? Which one is that?

Opus 118, No. 2, the A major.

Beautiful piece. And she played it. She said, well, I'm going to download the music on her iPad and started playing. And it was just like a perfect performance, which I can't do. Yeah.

So, but I don't improvise like he does. So there you go.

That's what I mean about that. We kind of, we, it's not that we compensate each other.

We complement.

We complement.

That's the word you're looking for.

You know, and as I said, we never got into a competition. It's like, you know, look, I mean, you know, the way Richard Mann wrote.

And that's really true. I mean, it's, we've been extraordinarily fortunate that way. We're very, very respectful of each other's work, very separately, as well as everything that we've done together. And we started out knowing each other professionally first. So, you know, people have asked us over the years, well, aren't you prejudiced because you're married? And I said, well, frankly, no, because the first months that I knew Carlos was strictly professional relationship. And so I—

Alison had a trio, I'm sorry for interrupting.

It's okay, go ahead.

A chamber trio of saxophone, piano, and cello. And, uh, Two of the people, I mean like my music, or one of them, you know, the cellist, approached me and asked me to write for them for this trio called Urban Birds. I said, "Fine, I would love to." And so they came to my house and they commissioned me this music. I always said on the second visit, Alison gave me a check.

It's actually true.

Because, you know, they pay for the—

I mean, we pay for the arrangement. This is what you did. Here I'm paying you for it.

And then they played it, and then I brought some music for them and they played some other music. And then we started seeing each other. I mean, but this happened like 6 months after that. So, and since then, Alison has performed a lot of my music. I've written a lot of music for Alison. I had a piano concerto at that time, but then I got a commission from the Philharmonic of Buenos Aires to write a piece. And I said, well, you know, I'd like to write a piece, a new piano concerto. What about if Allison plays it? He said fine. So, so we did it at the Teatro Colón in Argentina. And then I got some of the music that I, uh, you know, I wrote for you. I mean, from, for, for the album.

And you've written all sorts of music, a lot of music.

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And in this suite, you know, the suite for, uh, The Minotaur for 3 pianists that Allison— initially was going to be played by 3 pianists, and then COVID and the problem of getting people together, and one of the pianists lived in, in, in Europe, the other one was someplace else, and We could never get, not even a rehearsal. And 3 pianos, you need a place with 3 pianos. So we went over and over this and finally we decided to record it ourselves, overdubbing. And Alison did it at the Skywalker Studio in San Francisco.

So that recording we had done December of 2021, and that's what came out in March. And that's the record called Pianista, and that's on Navona Records, which is part of Parma Recordings. Yeah, so I basically— so I overdubbed. And when I was learning the other parts, because I was originally playing piano too, which was really the motor behind the whole thing in many ways, I had to learn the other parts. So I was practicing to a click, which is how I also recorded to a click track, which made it of course much easier. So I would record one part and then I could hear the part I already recorded with click when I recorded the next part. And so the little editing that had to be done was done right then and there as I recorded each part so that when, when we finished all the recording, the suite was already edited. All we had to do when we got back here was to have it mixed and mastered. And the other pieces that I recorded required very little editing. So it was a pretty quick process to be able to turn it around. From the raw recording to actually the finished product.

Wow, that's amazing. That's the album Pianista, which was released this March, March 2023, and you already received an award, a silver award for outstanding achievement from the Global Music Awards, correct?

Correct.

Well, congratulations. And so I was wondering about the 3 piano parts, like how in the world did it happen? But it was The dubbing, putting the recording together.

It was overdubbed. For the people who don't, I mean, you record one track and then on a multitrack recording room in the past, now on computers or whatever, you record the second track as if you were listening to the first track played by another person, another pianist, and then you add the third and final track. So it is multitracking. We will be doing this live, but with 3 pianists when in February.

February 11th at Clavier House in New York. And so what I did for the other pianists is I took MIDI files at the tempo which I actually recorded everything, and I made music minus ones.

Right.

So that they can hear the parts that they're not playing and practice their part with it so they know how things work ahead of time, which is gonna save us an awful lot of rehearsal headache. I did that myself also, that I would even record myself playing to click, play a part, and then practice with that too. So I got used to what the process was actually going to be when we recorded it. So I was really prepared at the time.

Wow. So at the Klavierhaus, you'll be performing, but after performance, you will perform with—

I'll have two other pianists, young women who have both studied with me, are going to play piano 2 and 3 respectively. And the other music, Actually, Carlos is gonna play with me on the 3 pieces that are online, the Pasacalla, the Tango Fatal, and Argentum. And then there's a suite by Amanda Harburg, who's an excellent composer, 2-piano suite that I'm doing. And then there's 1 Piano Four Hands by Alan Shawn, whose music I recently performed at the Beddington, and a piece of his that I'm going to do with one of the other pianists. 1 piano, 2 piano, 3 piano was basically the idea. Idea of the concert.

Oh, wonderful.

That is exciting.

I have to be there. Yes, I'll be definitely.

Okay, we'll let you know.

Oh, great. Thank you. Wow. But 3 pianos is a very unique idea. You know, usually it's 2, and so I was wondering how this would work, but it sounds like—

It was a commission from somebody from San Francisco. The name is Ted Viviani, and he had commissioned me before a two-piano concerto.

Not for me.

Which I wrote, yeah, for two other pianists. And it was recorded in Prague, as a matter of fact. And he was commissioning other composers to do music for two pianos. And then all of a sudden he came with this idea of three pianos. I said, with orchestra? No, no, just the three pianos. I said, fine. And it's challenging. It's very challenging to write that. Obviously there's a lot of counterpoint involved. There are not too many pieces for 3 pianos. I mean, there are pieces written for 4 pianos like Le Nos, but that's, you know, that's Stravinsky.

Carlos, so you also produced and released your album this year. It's called Legacy, correct?

Legacy is a compendium of different 30 years of music that I wanted to put together, thinking about what I consider to be most, not important, but the music that I preferred of of all the hundreds of pieces that I have composed. And this includes a full symphony, my first symphony, and also pieces from Piano Concerto No. 2 that I wrote for Alison, a piece for violin and orchestra which I wrote right after September 11th. It's an homage to, you know, to the victims, and also an intermezzo from my opera Corpus Evita, which is an opera that I recorded also in San Francisco, and it was performed there, and now it's opening again next year in February in Palo Alto, California.

And Carlos got a Grammy nomination for the composition of that opera.

Oh, wow.

I lost to William Balkan, which he deserved to win. I mean, beautifully, he wrote beautiful music, so. I'm not sorry, sorry about that.

Both of you are such incredible musicians. Like, you know, both are nominated for Grammy, Latin Grammy, both.

And Carlos, you won 5 awards, correct?

6 Grammys. Yes. 2 in composition, 2 in tango, and 1 with an album that I did duets with a fabulous jazz bass player, Eddie Gomez.

And the Grammy was producing, that was Ruben's?

Ruben Blades. Yeah, Ruben Blades. So yeah, yeah, I was very fortunate to.

Wow. And then Alison, you are also nominated.

Yeah, I've been nominated twice for Grammys and three for Latins. And my name is on one of his wins. Carlos won for composition. It was a piece that I recorded, but I'm not the winner because the piece won, not the recording itself.

In my book, you are.

Oh, that's, that's so sweet.

Yeah, it's so sweet. Just about 30 years married.

Yeah, I'm still—

yeah, that's so cute. Wow. But this is a huge thing, you know, any musician would dream just to be even nominated. It's a huge deal. I know I wanted to talk more about you as a couple, but we'll get back to it. But How did you start your musical journey? I mean, to get to the Grammy nominee, Grammy Award winner, where is the start for you?

I mean, I've been doing music. I'm, you know, I never hide my age. I'm 75. I was born in 1948 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. And music was always something that I wanted to be, musician. I mean, from the time that I started playing piano at 6, and later on I got more and more involved in music to the dismay of my parents who They wanted me to be a doctor or whatever, but music prevailed. And I was a professional musician when I was 18, playing, writing my first arrangements. And then I—

Actually, it was earlier than that.

Well, yeah, you can say, well, when you're 10 or 11, but I mean—

Well, but you had— he had his own television show.

He did not tell me. It wasn't mine. I sang in there. I used to sing.

Really?

Yes. And that's one of the reasons I became an arranger, because I was in a show. With a big orchestra and everything, and I needed arrangements every week. And I had to pay from my own pocket. So I was spending a lot of my money in arrangements, and I couldn't repeat the same songs on the second show or the third, whatever. So I said, well, how difficult can this be? So I started and said, well, I'm going to write an arrangement. And I wrote the very simple arrangement for strings and Woodwind. And, and, uh, it went fine. And all the singers from the show said, who wrote that chart for you? I said, I did. Well, can you write for me? I said, sure. And then I started writing for other people, and I found that's what I wanted to do. I didn't want to be a singer. I didn't want to be a pianist. I wanted to be a composer arranger. And by the time I was 21, I left Argentina, went to Mexico, uh, where I also studied. In Mexico. I studied with a very good composer, Humberto Hernández Medrano, and I lived there for 3 years. And that was really my school because I was writing all kinds of arrangements from classical to mariachi to Latin music. And my dream was to be in New York, to be in, you know, United States, to live in New York and to play in New York. And by 1974, I had been here as a tourist. By 1974, I moved here. Very happy with it.

Now, so, you know, Carlos, as a composer, you compose for orchestra, classical style, jazz, and Argentine tango.

Where was the beginning?

Did you start as a classical musician, classical training?

Well, the classical training helped tremendously because I had the know-how of writing for orchestra, you know, the instrumentation, the range of instruments and things like that. But when I first came to New York, I mean, I wasn't going to get an offer to write symphonies or anything like that. So I had to play with whatever was available. I could play piano, I could write. So I started playing for Latin bands, for salsa bands. That was the New York, the big productions of Latin music by Fania Records. With people like Tito Puente and Celia Cruz and Ruben Blades and Willie Colon. And I started learning those styles of, you know, what they call the montunos and things like that. So I started writing and playing, and then eventually I started playing and writing for other people. Then I started writing music for commercials, for TV and radio, what they call jingles, which is very lucrative. A kind of a secret world because you have some of the best musicians in the world playing there for you. Nobody knows who's playing on a Clay Roll or whatever. I shouldn't mention any of the products that I was writing for, but you have people, the concertmaster from the New York Philharmonic, and you have some of the best. I mean, at that time, Mike Brecker, Randy Brecker, Lou Solov, and the, I mean, all the best musicians in the world. Were playing in, uh, you know, in those orchestras to do the jingles. And I, I think I did that for about 25, 26 years. Unless you're in the business, unless you're part of this commercial advertising world, you don't know who's doing what. Because if, you know, I mean, they played on TV, you say, well, you know, this is a nice, nice jingle, or this is horrible, whatever. You never know who wrote it, who's playing there, and who's singing. So, um, as I said, this was a very lucrative career, but also kind of a secret. And it gave me time to write other types of music that I wanted to write. It also gave me access to other musicians who were fine musicians. I said, would you like to play this? Would you like to record it? Yeah, absolutely. So, and that's why I said that my commercial in record career started later than that. And, and that's why the Grammys and all that.

For some things, that's true.

But then, no, because I was, you know, basically involved in writing music for commercials.

And well, yeah, but what—

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But he's not telling you is there's a record of his that has become this super cult classic. That's— this is a really cool story and it's your story.

No, no, no, no, I've been talking all the time.

You gotta know Graffiti is your story. You get to tell it.

Well, briefly, uh, it's a recording that I did in 1977. It was called Graffiti. I did it in one day and the record was never released properly. Nothing happened with this recording. I totally forgot about it. I gave one copy to my mother and, you know, friends.

But understand what's on it is that it's all stuff that he wrote.

Yeah, all my music.

Plus he's playing on it and he's singing on it.

Wow.

And he's got these amazing musicians on it. And at the time it was really a groundbreaking kind of musical event to do what this record was.

20 years after that, I got a call from London that they wanted to put one of the tracks of Graffiti on a compilation. And I said, fine, you know, I mean, how do you know this tune? Oh, well, you know, we heard it in a disco. I gave them the rights, they put it out. And 10 years after that, I got a call from Germany. They wanted to put out the whole album. Last year, another call from England. They put out the album in England. But the thing is that at one point with Google and everything, I started looking for Graffiti. And I found my album going in an auction for $500.

Oh, wow.

And I said, well, I don't even have an album. I don't think I want to spend $500 on an old album. It became kind of a hit on—

in the discos. Yeah, in London, this particular track called Coco Funk.

Coco Funk. And as a result of that, last year— no, this year.

This year.

We went to— last year I was in London, actually. You know, I saw the people and I did an interview for the BBC with Giles Peterson. Last year I thought I was going to be there 10 minutes. I was there for 2 hours. And this year they invited me. We went back to England. This time we sailed on the Queen Mary 2. And I was invited to this record release party where they had my albums as well and to sign some copies. I said, that's fine. Maybe sign one copy, whatever. No, I was there. There was a lot of people bringing me not only that album but also other albums that I have done.

First pressings though, understand, the original pressing of all these records, some of which we don't have either.

Right, right.

And all these people are like, Hosanna, Hosanna, we're, we're so excited to meet you, you are a legend to us. It was really fun to watch that. It really was. DJs from all over the UK converge on this bookstore in the East End of London, right? I mean, it was such a gasp to see The Piano Pod with—

So that kind of answers your question. It was an accumulation of things during the years. And then, as I said, when I quit the business of doing music for shampoos and airlines, I started writing more music and releasing more music. And I was lucky to be on a label like Sunnyside Records and and also Chesky Records, where Allison also recorded. Some of those products were out, and I was amazed when I first got my first nomination. We were in Argentina with Allison doing concerts in Chaco.

Yeah, we were in the, right, which is the north of Argentina.

The north of Argentina. You know, it was a festival and we were going to play, but we did play.

Anyway, and I had submitted this recording. I submitted it. Carl was like, Forget it. He's like, forget it. And it's like, I have a feeling I'm submitting it.

It was Tango Fatal. And we were in a hotel. I got a phone call from a friend and said, oh, you got a Grammy nomination. You got a— I said, what? What do you— it's in the papers. So I bought the newspaper and there it was. And thanks to her. And we forgot about it. I mean, you know, we went, we did our concert, we came back, we decided to go to the ceremony. And the ceremony was going to be on September 11th, 2001. We got there the day before. We flew the day before.

And I originally had planned to fly the day of, and Carlos was like, no, you're coming with me the day before. So I did.

Well, the worst that could happen, I mean, you know, just imagine, but I mean, you could have been stranded. Anyway, everything was canceled, of course, you know, and this is on a Tuesday, and on Friday we rented a car and drove back from Los Angeles to New Jersey.

We couldn't get any other way. We tried to get on trains to Chicago, buses to Chicago, anywhere. We couldn't get anything. And so I started calling rental car companies. We got one of the last cars out, in fact, that we could get. And yeah, we drove home.

Oh my goodness. What a story.

And then 3 months after that, they call me on the phone, the president of the Recording Academy, and said, we would like you to come to Los Angeles. There's going to be, uh, this presentation of the Grammys that we couldn't do, and it's going to be in December. And, uh, and then I said, well, I don't know if I want to fly. I don't know if I want to go to 3,000 miles to Los Angeles. And this person said, no, I understand, but you have to understand why I call you. And then a couple of days after that, I, you know, it was in the newspapers that I had won my, my first Latin Grammy. That was a Latin Grammy for tango. No, and then the other ones came. I was a name there that people would look at when they see, you know, the list of— and some people, I think some people just voted for out of sympathy for me or whatever. Some people like what they heard.

I don't think so.

I don't think so.

I think when you have somebody, you know, and have won a Grammy or an award or whatever, you know. And you're not too sure about certain categories. You know, being in classical music, you don't expect 10,000 people to vote for you. You know, more like a fraction of that. So it happens also in jazz and other categories that are not so— it's not pop or Latin or anything like that, rock. It's more selective. And, you know, but I've been— I got very lucky.

No, you deserved it.

Yeah. But, you know, you have the 5 awards to— or 6 awards to prove that that's not out of sympathy that you got the votes.

So no, no, people would, but I think, I'd like to think that the vast majority voted because of the, you know, the music.

Of course, yes, incredible. Now then, Allison, so how about you? When, how did you discover the love for music and then get to where you are right now, especially, you know, you have such interesting experiences, you know, Grammy Awards, classical music tribute to Earl Wilde and Lang Lang at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA. And yeah, many other things. But where was the beginning?

I don't remember. I kid you not. I am told that when I was 2, my parents got their first piano. It was a spinet. Now my grandmother taught piano locally. For like 55 years. And I evidently started really figuring out how to play the piano. I didn't do the baby bang, bang, bang. I actually figured out how to play. What I can tell you is that I can remember by the time I was 4, I could play whatever I wanted. If I heard it, I could figure out how to play it. I could play it in whatever key. I could make it major. I could make it minor. If I heard stuff, I could sing it. I have perfect pitch, so I could sing it. So I could sing all sorts of scores of Broadway shows because that's a lot of what was played in my house and Harry Belafonte records and stuff like that. So when I was 6, my mother and my grandmother took me for a consultation to Juilliard because my grandmother said I was beyond anything that she could teach. And I got assigned a Juilliard pre-college teacher at the time. Started actually at Juilliard when I was either 8 or 9. And then when Juilliard moved, I ended up at Manhattan School of Music. So I then did pre-college there, got my bachelor's at Manhattan, my master's at Juilliard, and then way later I got my doctorate at Rutgers. So, but that was, and I had not planned on that, but I was already teaching at Kean University and a whole bunch of people from completely different parts of my life who had nothing to do with each other said, so when are you gonna get a doctorate? And when you hear enough of that, you start thinking, hmm. So I looked into various programs and Rutgers was really happy to have me. And I was an older candidate for a doctorate, which is not unusual at Rutgers at all. So I finished my doctorate when our daughter finished high school. It was like at the same time. So I kind of sailed through. I was very fortunate. 2 years and 7 months from the time I started in the classroom, my doctorate, I finished all my exams, I was done. Yeah, I really blazed my way through that one. And while I was also not only teaching at Kean, but I was teaching at Rutgers, I was an active performer, and our daughter was also in the midst of college applications.

Oh, wow.

And my dad passed in the midst of all that. No, no, wrong. He died right after I finished. So it was, it was quite a time. And my doctorate was based on a Polish composer named Mieczysław Weinberg. A lot of his music at the time that I did was not published yet. It now all is. And so I was the first person to record a lot of that music too. So there's a 4-record set that Noxos put out, and then they combined it into one complete set that they released in 2015. And I had very little time to learn all of it. So initially I'd done 2 records worth, then I was offered first crack at all these archives. And so I got in touch with Noxos and said, are you willing to suspend my deadlines? Because I have now lucked out. I have access to all this music. If you're willing to play ball with me, you will have it too. And that's pretty much what happened. So 4 records worth of music, basically recorded in about a 5-day period, but not all at the same time. So some of it was recorded in 2009 and some of it was recorded in 2010. And then the rest happened from there.

And which albums did you receive the nomination?

Okay, so the first one was— No, that was later. The very first record I received a nomination for was the Latin Grammys for Tango the year after Carlos won and I didn't. But that was a record called Tango Bar. And Tango Bar, I wasn't even originally supposed to play on it.

I was supposed to.

He was.

But I got called to do something else and then I said, well—

You were adjudicating for the SGA.

Right. Alison should play this. And I produced, kind of produced, after it was recorded because I would go to the sessions when they would finish it and basically be the driver back to New Jersey.

But I was actually the one who then put things in order and any edits that got done and stuff, I actually was the one to do that.

So anyway, that was the first one.

So that was the first one was when we were nominated together for the Grammys, and that was Poeta de Árbol.

That was for best—

it was crossover, and Carlos was nominated for an arrangement of a piece that actually I mostly wrote, right, which was— I hadn't composed for a while, and Carlos kind of was like, would you write something for this? And to cure him, I wrote most of this particular tango that then he got nominated for the arrangement, which is simply gorgeous. Then I was nominated for a solo record that was on Naxos. That was for—

That was a fabulous recording.

That was 20th Century Piano Sonatas. So I was nominated for that. I lost to Garrick Olson. I thought I was going to lose to Marc-André Hamelin. And I remember thinking at the time that I'm so honored to whom I'm going to lose to because I knew I wouldn't win given the—

Well, you never know.

You never know. But I was pretty sure I wasn't going to win. But I was very excited to not be there.

Tell us about the repertoire that you played on.

So the repertoire on that was the Berg Sonata, then these pieces by Schoenberg, which at the time were not being performed, and they were very early pieces from 1894. Then the Hindemith Second Piano Sonata. But then I did the complete Carl Amadeus Sonata, 25 April— 24, whatever, 27 April, 1945. The whole sonata had not been recorded at that point. Parts of it had been. So it's actually— although there are 4 movements, the last movement has 2 different versions. One of the most difficult pieces I have ever, ever attempted to do. And Carlos actually told me about this composer because Carlos was familiar with his symphonies, which are not done in this country, but they're fabulous pieces. So, Hartmann was German and he did not allow his music to be performed during the war. And this particular piece was based on seeing prisoners march to Dachau. At the very end of the war. And that's why it's called 27 April 1945. That's what it's about.

Oh, I see.

So it, it was, it was extraordinary getting to actually do this record, which we did at Skywalker.

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For the ceremony, you played for Lang Lang and, uh, in a while, in a while. I mean, it was a tribute to both of them and to the music of Rachmaninoff, the transcriptions of Rachmaninoff that Earl Wilde had done.

So I was asked to do "O Cease Thy Singing," the Earl Wilde transcription.

And I have to say that Lang Lang was very, very impressed and complimentary of you and your playing. Wow. She won't say that, but I was there.

He was very impressed. He really was nice. So was Earl Wilde, who I'd known from my Juilliard days. Although I had not studied with him. And so Earl at this point was blind and wasn't performing in public anymore, but he did. He played a fantasy impromptu that was just beautiful. It was really beautiful and very touching to hear him play at that point. So then after that, I was nominated for a Latin Grammy for Alma Piano Music of Argentina, and then we were nominated together, for a record called Buenos Aires Noir. And so those are the nominations. I think I've thought of all of them. So those are mine. KISS I lost track of. There's so many. Yeah, Carlos was nominated a grand total between the two, I think 16 times.

Yeah, something like that. Oh my goodness.

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Yeah, you both have individually had this incredible career. But then now let's talk about you together. You know, you are basically finishing sentences to each other.

So cute.

We look like an old couple, right?

So sweet. That's so sweet. Now, you maybe mentioned already, but what was the, like, a sort of a defining moment you realized you wanted to build a, not only the life, but also career together? Or is it, did it happen like sort of because you started your relationship as a professional relationship, so maybe that was a natural thing.

We continue that, and, you know, we don't have to be Laurel and Hardy. We don't work together all the time, but it's wonderful to work together. So sometimes I have, like, I have a project now to this suite, this 3-piano suite. I want to orchestrate that for 1 piano and orchestra, so it will be available for Alison and other pianists to play it without having to go and get two other pianists, you know. And it's something that I just finished composing a piece and something that I will do during the winter to orchestrate this and to create a suite for piano and orchestra. And obviously Alison will be the first one. She'll have the first refusal.

Yeah, so yeah, working together for us is really very organic, and it was—

we have fun working.

Yeah, we really do, and we have fun traveling together and working together. So yeah, and you know, the only, the only difficulty I have with Carl's music is sometimes he'll write these 10ths in the left hand and I really can't reach him, and he has an 11th, and it's just not—

oh my goodness.

Yeah, he really does.

But no, but I said no, I understand, you know, you can roll Right.

Yeah.

So in tango, that doesn't work really well. So sometimes occasionally I'll do a revoice thing or ask Carlos, can I do this or can I do this? He's— and he's done some really challenging stuff. His piano concerti are very challenging to play, but super rewarding.

And they're beautiful. I enjoyed listening to. Yeah, really. So Carlos, when you compose music for the piano, does Allison's influence shape your creative process? Can you—

Yeah, actually, I learned a great deal from, uh, you know, I mean, I could write a piece that will be played, you know, but, but she would give me some certain points about, you know, do this this way, I think is, you know, revoice this or whatever. Not only because of her hand, but because it's practical sense of, of writing something that is much more playable for other pianists. But I asked her, I mean, you know, I just finished a symphony. I wanted to write a fourth symphony and I just finished it, you know, like a couple of days ago. And I call Alison and say, so what do you think of this? Oh yeah, I like it. I think you're close. I think you're, you know, I kind of, because at this point I am so immersed in the music. I work sometimes 6, 8 hours a day. And at one point I lose the concept of it, you know, being objective and not so subjective to, well, I like it, but I mean, is this resignation that I accept this thing? I have to play for somebody else. Who better than Alison? So I do this and I can see her reactions toward the music. Like yesterday I told her, you know, the last movement of this symphony, you know what it's based on? Give me 3 composers. She said Shostakovich.

"Mother." I said, "No, Rossini." And I went, "What?" "He speaks a lot of words." And then he showed me what?

And he says, "Ferso." And I went, "Oh, okay." Literally.

And I went, "Oh, okay, I see that." But you liked it, right? I did. I did. And in fact, you know, Carlos had worked on several different versions of a particular section.

Right.

That he's been working on it, working on it, working on it. And he played a version for me last night. He said, that's the one. You know, I just knew immediately. I went, that's the one. And I could tell also that he felt the same way.

I agonized over the ending. One of the most difficult things to do is to stop a piece, to bring it to a conclusion. And, you know, I found it so difficult. After 4 movements, and I did it in kind of a chronological order. So I kept the last movement, this kind of Rossini, for the end. And I found that it was so difficult. I could end the piece, but the ending wasn't going to be what the piece required. Not that particular movement, but the other 3 movements. You know, I have to think from the beginning of it to the end. It's 45 minutes long. It's a long symphony. And I said, well, I can't, you know, I can, I can develop this and develop and keep going and going and going. And then at the end, eventually this has to, you know, it cannot just stop, you know. So, um, I, I was trying to end up toying with the idea, well, has to be a brilliant ending, like a Star Wars kind of things, or, and, um, you know, it, it made me stop for a week, right? I mean, basically. And kind of retreat and start thinking the music away from the medium, away from the piano. I don't use the piano to compose, but I use a keyboard because I enter the notes to the computer with a keyboard. But it's good sometimes to take distance, you know, and say, well, this is not going anywhere. And then the music comes back to you and it keeps you awake at night. And then you start deciding and writing things.

And when I do compose, which is only for very select kinds of things that I do, I'll turn to Carlos for advice, especially if I have to do an arrangement of something. So a few months ago, I co-wrote a song that came out very differently than the lyricist thought it was going to, and it turned out really, really well. So he asked me, could I do an arrangement, add in winds and harp and strings to it. So I did. I turned to Carlos a couple times and said, what do you think would work here in a particular spot? And he said, well, try this, try this, try this, which I did. And then—

Then she played it for me.

Then I played the full arrangement and he, when I was done with it, he said, sounds like me. And I said—

I said it sounds like me. It looks like I wrote it.

Which At all.

He didn't.

But I mean the voicing and everything.

It was just a couple of suggestions he'd made, but he said, it sounds like I wrote it. And I said, well, I take that as an extreme compliment because I don't think of myself that way. And yet I used to, you know, in teaching, I would have to rewrite pieces for students all the time.

Whether it's good or bad, it sounds like I wrote it. I don't want to say that if I write it, it's Bach.

Oh no, I took it as an extreme compliment. Yeah. And there is some other, a couple of times where Carlos entrusted me to write a couple of arrangements for things, for projects, in fact, where people had no idea that I'd done it, but it was because I know how he writes, you know, and so, but he would make suggestions about how to voice certain things that I hadn't thought of that I just went, oh, that texture is just way cooler. Than what I thought to do.

And then all of a sudden she decides to call me and said, let's play, let's, let's do this thing.

And then I have to go back to, you know, so now he's gonna have to practice to practice.

Wow. So you both are the good influence and good impact for one another.

That's, that's, oh, I, oh, I absolutely, I, I, we definitely, that's for sure. We really do bring out the best in each other constantly. And it's really great to have that kind of support.

And that's a wrap for the first part of this engaging episode on The Piano Pod with Grammy and Latin Grammy Award-winning artists Carlos Franzetti and Allison Brewster Franzetti. If you've been enjoying our episodes, please rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform.

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