Season 2, Episode 1, Part 2: Jeffrey Biegel - Concert Pianist, Arranger, Composer

You're listening to The Piano Pod, where we talk to the brightest minds in the industry about how they are bringing the piano into the 21st century. Last time, we spoke to concert pianist Jeffrey Beagle about his love of piano concerti, his pioneering work with technology and contemporary composers, and his studies with legendary pedagogue Adele Marcus. And now the conclusion. Jeffrey, can I jump in for a second? Sorry to interrupt you. First of all, I wanted to mention the PDQ Bach Concerto is on YouTube, which I was checking out the other day, and it's absolutely hilarious. I recommend for everybody to go search that up. I have a technical question for you because I'm just sitting here in awe of what you're able to do at the instrument. And you have so much repertoire at your command from every different time period, you know, Baroque to the most contemporary. How are you able to remember all this music? Like, how many hours of repertoire do you even have in your fingers?

I don't know. I mean, I work on what I need at the moment. And then if I know something's coming up, I like to— you know, I always say the things you remember the most are the things you learned when you were young.

That's true.

Brain cells soaking it up like a sponge. You know, sponges get old too. And I just remember things that I'll say, let me go get the score, and I can't find it. Now I'm playing the thing, I was like, how do I remember that? And I just think it has to do with that, just remembering things that you— I always say to students, don't stay on the same piece forever, it's not going to make it any better. You're going to go back to it 60 years later and you'll get it. He said, "I gotta wait that long?" I said, "Yes, so did I." But you know, you get things as well as you can, but you remember things, you know.

Wonderful.

But with new music, I use the score. I've been using score now for almost everything because I don't trust it for some reason. I trust my memory for certain things, but for performing— even when I was doing online concerts for the Sonata Piano Camp and in Vermont. We were remote, still are to some extent, and everything I did with all the YouTube concerts online in the pandemic forced me in a way to go away from concertos because you couldn't go to orchestras and dug out all the standard repertoire. I was playing so much standard repertoire again, which was great. It was a weird way to have to do it, but it was a positive way to deal with the situation.

So that's how Yeah, so speaking of pandemic, you've done quite a lot of compositions. I saw some of the YouTube clips.

And so could you tell us about your life during COVID I remember the last concert I did was in Florida in March, which was Kenneth Fuchs' piano concerto. And I came home and that was it. I went to teach at Brooklyn College that week, last day, that was it. We shut down. And that was like March 8th, 9th, 10th, around there. By the 27th, I was feeling really caged in. And I don't think I did the YouTube— I started doing weekly YouTube concerts from home and music of all styles. And I decided to write. I really haven't written much piano music at all because I thought, who am I competing with? I mean, Chopin, forget it. But it was a time in my life and in the lives of everybody where we were soul-searching, returning within, and I just heard music in my head. And so I'll play a little of this first piece I wrote March 27th. It's a waltz of hope. And it goes, it develops. And then a few weeks later, you know, one of my siblings got COVID and I was devastated and upset. I said, who knew what was going to be with anything? So I wrote a second Waltz of Hope. And it develops after that, develops more. That was the second piece. What's interesting though, when I write music like this, and I don't know if she knows it or not, I've certainly plastered it as much as I can everywhere around her to let her know, to Barbra Streisand, when I write music, I hear your voice. I hear Adel Marcus's voice. People would say, "But do you hear your voice?" That is my voice. It's the voice I don't have. My raspy, horrible singing voice. But you do. Those are the voices you hear. And I hear that when I'm writing these kind of pieces. Later on in the year, like come September or so, I wrote a little sonatina, like an homage to Clementi. But it was after Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away. I was kind of starting to feel burnt out in October. And online teaching, online playing, I wrote these pieces, I just said, "It's just not there. Nothing's there." I remember my wife said, "Go write something. Go write some music." I thought, "Nah, there's nothing there." I sat down, I thought of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in a way, There's a strange connection. I've never met her, but my father-in-law knew her. They grew up in Brooklyn together, and he knew her when they were teenagers. And I don't know how much they knew each other, but they called her Kiki Bader because her sister called her Kiki, and they called her Kiki Bader. Why did I feel this connection? Maybe because of him. Oddly, he passed away 3 months to the day before she did. And they were both attorneys. He was a real estate attorney and she, of course, became Supreme Court Justice. But I felt this need to write something about her, which inevitably filtered in this past July into two more pieces, one for JFK and one for MLK, Martin Luther King. That's the three reflections. The second movement of that concerto was the only piece. And during the pandemic, I wrote this piece for Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which will be— which has been orchestrated by a student of mine at Brooklyn College, Harrison Sheckler, who's now gone on this year to start his doctoral studies in Tucson. And he's going to orchestrate the other two movements. It's an amazing job he did. That's what Dallas will be doing with me in October. I thought, what do I write? I said, "Where do I begin?" I said, "Well, think of the names." And a friend of mine told me later on, "Well, Schumann did that with 'Carnival.' He took all the names and wrote music out of their letters." I said, "Oh, that's right." I didn't think about that. I didn't want to be Robert Schumann. I didn't even think of anything at that point. And who could be? I mean, my gosh. So I thought, "Let's make an alphabet of music." A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z. Yeah. Well, what if it's— can you use a D-flat? If it's a B, which is an R, is D, and a B, a G, or a T, an H-flat, can you make it flat? Yes. And then Those form the seats of the piece. So I have R, B, G. On and on. Then I come to her name Ruth. What do you do with that? You have a D, a G, an F, and an A. So can I do—

or—

what do I do? I did this. "Bader" is B-A-D-E-R. "Ginsburg," G-I-N-S-B-U-R-G. And then I put them all together and created this kind of hoping she's in heaven spiritual stuff happening with all the themes. All the themes themes, and then climaxed with this. The Star-Spangled Banner, and then big climax, The Gavel. And then it ends just with her name. They had a nickname K-I-K-I, Kiki. So that became that piece. And from being burnt out to being creative, I don't know if that would have happened if not for a pandemic. I wasn't going in that direction. I was just commissioning music and planning projects, but it was a year of reflection, a year of soul searching, and just evolving and surviving. And a little strange here, I mean, I think as we live through things, we deal with it if we survive through it. I don't think we're going to really feel the impact of this until later on. It's like a PTSD. We won't really get it until we try to get back into whatever we knew. But it was an interesting part of the journey, and, um, If you told me a year ago you're going to write a piece and it will be orchestrated and you'll play it with the Dallas Symphony next year, I'd say, "Well, that's a nice dream to have." And you will raise money for Ellen Tate Swallow to write a piece about Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Denise Graves will sing it with you in Dallas. I'll be like, "You're a real dreamer." But sometimes things just happen because they're supposed to. And I raised money during the pandemic not only for that project but also for a project in 2 years from now to celebrate Rhapsody in Blue's centennial. So I asked William Boyer to be the composer for Rhapsody in Red, White, and Blue. I raised all this money during the pandemic so the orchestras don't have to pay toward this thing. The worst thing you could do to an orchestra now is say, can you help support a new project? What do you do coming out of a pandemic? So working on the premiere in that, I would like to make the 50 State Project that I started 20 years ago. So the pandemic had a different effect on everybody, and I guess just my voice within, even from the time I was unable to hear, it just came back to haunt me in a way, and that's why I wrote music and raise money for commissioning new pieces to come.

Wonderful, thank you. I know we want to keep going, we want to hear more stories. However, we are running out of time as always, so we just want to ask a few things. So you mentioned about, you know, the Ruth Bader Ginsburg piece being orchestrated and being a Concerto, and you're going to perform with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra on October 7th. And is it going to be livestreamed or—

I don't believe they livestream, but they will record. I have to ask them how that's going to happen.

Okay.

Ginsburg Movement. But see, it only started as the Ginsburg piece. And I decided to, I was feeling burnt out again in July, so I wrote a piece for Martin Luther King, "Reflection of Equality," and right after that, "Reflection of Freedom," a tribute to John F. Kennedy. I thought, that's a concerto. So it will be JFK, RBG, MLK will be the concerto. I don't have a date yet to do the premiere, but it's starting to get a little buzzy. So we'll see.

And you have some other projects coming up, so could you tell us briefly? You have November 5th, Islamey by Balakirev under Steinway label coming up.

They're going to release the Islamey Fantasy by Balakirev, which I previously recorded for Grand Romance, but there wasn't room on the disc for that, so they'd like to release it now. Which is very nice. I believe that's coming out in November as a single download.

Um, and also you have your personal, uh, recording— I mean, label.

Yes.

And coming up, actually, by the time we released this episode, I think it's out on all music streaming services. So can you tell us a little bit more?

Rhapsody in Blue. One of the most recorded pieces in the history of recordings. But this will be the 1924 version in the orchestration that was first written, and it has soprano sax and different— it's a different sound in many respects. Piano part has a lot of extra measures that were cut, so that will be on my label Naturally Sharp, and it's with the Adrian Symphony and Bruce Kiesling conducting. And we actually had to postpone that quite a bit, but finally in June we did the recording sessions in Adrian College in Michigan. And so that's coming out in September, and that's an edition by Ryan Bandigalli. It's fabulous. He did his whole dissertation on that rhapsody, and it's quite interesting to hear it this way. So that's coming out, and Wonderful. Yes, the projects. And then another premiere in January that had been postponed many times by the— to A Planet's Odyssey for piano and orchestra with the Canton Symphony. My dear friend Gerhard Zimmermann will conduct.

Great, thank you so much for that. Now we want to ask more questions, but lastly, do you have any advice for young artists, upcoming artists, to students?

Yes.

Study as much as you can when you're young. Make as many friends as you can when you're young, because they may be composers one day that you will commission to write music for you. But I always just narrow it down to one line: follow your yellow brick road. Sometimes the things you force you work to happen don't, and some things you work less to happen do. And I think, I mean, I've learned a lot over the years too, but I pushed as much as I can because it was— I mean, before technology, I mean, honestly, I used to just take a book and call conductors at home. I, I really tried to get through somehow. I mean, I remember Arthur Rubinstein was playing a recital in Long Island. I little kid. I couldn't get near him through the crowd. Something made me run outside after him when he was going to the presenter's car to go back wherever he was going. I had him all to myself. So don't let people say no. Follow your heart. If it feels right, it is right. If it doesn't, or something doesn't sit right, walk away from it. Um, okay, like that. You just be true to yourself. Know thyself is what Adele Marcus used to say, and it's true. And she used to say we make our own careers. I understand that, um, you have to control all of it yourself to some extent, um, and let others help you, but don't expect others to do it for for you. That puts a lot of pressure on them. When I grew up, it was like, make a New York debut, win competitions, get a manager, you're a star. No, it's not the way it works. Some people have been very fortunate to have elder statesmen artists help them along and help get them situated in managements and have wonderful careers. It's fabulous. That happens very rarely. And now with the technology and the internet, Use it to your advantage. Make friends. There's so much people could do today with technology we didn't do. We could— we couldn't.

Absolutely.

Disadvantage. But don't abuse it.

Absolutely. Thank you so much. So, um, we have this fun segment of the show every episode, and this is called The Piano Pod's Rapid Fire Questions. So it's a rapid fire, so we're going to ask I have some really fun questions and I would like for you to respond in short answers. Short is the key to make this one really fun. Ready or not? Question number 1: What is your comfort food?

I feel like I'm on The Dating Game. Comfort food. That's a tough question to ask a musician. I relate everything to food. M&Ms. I haven't had them in so long. I lost some weight.

It's okay, we all have. Great. So number 2, cats or dogs?

I've always had dogs, but cats would be great too. I'm a dog guy. Beagle, what do you expect?

Absolutely right. So what is your word or words to live by?

Integrity, respect, grateful.

Okay, thank you. What is the most important quality you look for in people?

Respect.

What is the worst quality in people you want to stay away from?

Entitlement.

That's a good one.

Name 3 people who inspire you, living or dead.

Beethoven.

Hmm. Adele Marcus. My parents. Oh, my wife and kids. You got 5. Sorry, guys.

We will change the question. And which historical figure or composer do you want to learn or take lessons from if he or she were alive?

That's a tough question because there's— you want certain things from certain composers. Um, I would say Chopin because it's the instrument that we're dealing with and it's the sound. He was the one who wanted The Piano Pod to sound like the voice. I mean, you could study with other people too, and Beethoven for things. I would like to ask certain questions. That's part of why I like the commissioning process. You can actually— I can actually call Ellen Zwilich and say, on that measure, I can't talk— and say, do you want me to like go up a little here and use those notes you didn't have because you jumped down an octave?

And we'd be like, "Of course." Well, now is your chance to do that. So which historic figure or composer do you wish to hang out with or ask the question at the bar if he or she were still alive?

Beethoven.

Totally.

Beethoven.

Because there's so many things in the score, like, "Well, I'm using this piano. Do you really want to mark that forte in your score?" "No, it's too loud. Mark it down." Great. Beautiful. So many questions for him because he kind of revolutionized the use of the instrument as it is lifetime.

All right, my turn. Name one piece in your current playlist.

Oh, playlist. I don't even have a playlist. It's fresh and new. I don't have a playlist. I couldn't even make that up because I like to see what's going on at the moment and I click on it.

So what's, what's the last piece you listened to?

Uh, I was just— I don't even remember which one it was. It was a whole bunch of it. I love The Piano Files of Mark Ainley on Facebook and Instagram because he shares recordings by artists we've never heard of absolutely stunningly beautiful performances from the middle of the 20th century, people that just didn't become famous but their work was so incredible. So I definitely recommend, you know, visiting The Piano Files of Marc Ainley, A-I-N-L-E-Y. They are really fascinating. I mean, I could click on the Schildzeffler arrangement of The Blue Danube and there's over a dozen different recordings on YouTube by pianists I never heard of playing it. It's remarkable.

That sounds like an incredible resource. Okay, uh, well, what's a book title that you are currently reading?

I'm not reading anything right now. Okay, right now it's— right now it's, um, uh, The Planet's Odyssey of Daniel Pertu and, uh, The Legend of Bijan and Bani by, um, Farhad Poupel, a new piece that I'm going to learn for next year, uh, Iranian composer. So the book titles are now the, like, new music. So I'm going to really go away and just read something. Totally run away and watch HBO Max. I just watched a really wacky series. I really like The White Lotus. Whoa, whoa, you know, I liked it. The scenery, the music sounded like Renaissance Hawaiian music for choir. The music was fabulous. I really enjoyed— I mean, the series, it was crazy, but the music and the scenery was fabulous.

I'll have to check it out. All right, everybody loves this next question. You only get one piece to listen to for the rest of your life. What is it?

Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto. Lovely.

Okay, final question, fill in the blank: music is blank.

A language.

Ding ding ding! You won the question, so you're the winner. Yay!

I got a new Steinway B!

Yeah, all right. I hope. Count me on your way. Thank you so much for this wonderful conversations we had. We really are so inspired by your stories and your beautiful music. You just demonstrated a little bit for us. So, and thank you for joining us today. So we would like to remind our audience that your— Mr. Beagle's digital recording release from his own label, Naturally Sharp, will be available actually soon, or maybe about the time that we release this episode, all on digital outlets. And that's the Rhapsody in Blue in 1924 version. And also you will be performing, it's the premiere of your piece, Reflection of Justice: An Ode to RBG, which you're going to be performing with the Dallas Symphony on October 7th. And November 5th, release, Steinway label, Islamey. And January, you will be premiering A Planet's Odyssey by Daniel Partou. Yes. Yes, and I— we want to thank the audience for joining us today.

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We'll see you for the next episode of The Piano Pod. Bye everyone! Goodbye!

Ciao!

Thank you, Mr. Bibo.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for coming on our show.

We love you. Thank you. Thank you so much.