Season 3 Episode 17 Part 2: Hannah Reimann -- Pioneer/Advocate of Stretto Pianos and Creator of the International Stretto Piano Festival & Stretto Piano Concerts

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A stretto piano is any instrument with keyboards that has keys that are narrower than the conventional size of piano keyboard, which can be calculated different ways. You know, most piano keyboards with 88 keys are 48 inches. My reduced-width keyboard is 44 inches with 88 keys, but my colleagues around the world and other people have established a new way of measuring, and that is with an octave span. So the octave span of the conventional keys is 6.5 inches. Stretto pianos are different dimensions, but 6.0 or 5.9 or 5.5. And there are even some people making smaller ones. They can be in any kind of keyboard instruments, electronic instruments, wood and metal pianos. They don't have to have 88 keys.

Welcome back to The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song. I am your host, Yukimi Song. Thanks for tuning in for the second half of Season 3, Episode 17, with our guest Hannah Reimann, pioneer and advocate of stretto pianos and creator of the International Stretto Piano Festival and Stretto Piano Concerts. In Part 2, I asked Hannah more specific questions about stretto pianos, such as how easy or hard it is to adjust from a regular piano to stretto, And where can we have access to stretto? You will also hear about the exciting Stretto Piano Festival she is hosting in New York City during the summer. Don't forget to listen to Part 1 of this episode on your favorite podcasting platform if you missed it. Before continuing the show, I want to welcome everyone listening to The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song for the first time. I'm a classical pianist and educator from New York City, passionate about creating a thriving and meaningful community of the classical the music industry through this podcast. Please visit yukimisongseo.com to find out more about my work. In each episode of The Piano Pod, I interview a guest speaker who has been breaking exciting new ground in the industry. Please rate the show and review it on your favorite podcasting platform because every rating and review will help people find my show. So, my friends, here is Part 2 of The Piano Pod Season 3, Episode 17 with Hannah Ryman. Please enjoy the show. You are 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. I wondered what it's like to adjust from the regular-sized piano to the stretto in terms of playing-wise. I mean, you know, for someone like us with, you know, smaller hands, it feels easier. But however, we were trained in such a way that we have this muscular sort of memory of, let's say, I can sort of feel the octaves now without touching the keys, right? So how is it to adjust from— especially you can go back and forth between a conventional-sized piano to straight to piano, what's like to adjust?

It's much easier than most people would imagine. That's, that's like the biggest argument. I mean, I studied with Herman Diaz, who was the pupil of Claudio Arau. And I remember Mr. Diaz always used to tell me, you know, when you get the right technique, it's natural. And what's natural is easier to adjust to than what's unnatural. So play the natural way. And, you know, it's when you're doing something that really fits you. I mean, actually, what you're— when you have something that's too big for you, you're adjusting, you're adjusting and adjusting and adjusting. Have you played harpsichord or fortepiano ever? So, you know, you play like, you know, Goldberg Variations or some Bach. It's not that hard to go from the harpsichord to the piano. I also studied with Ken Cooper, who was, you know, this big tall man. He was a great pianist, but harpsichord was his instrument. He played, he changed all the time and he was big. So I think it's a much smaller deal than most people think. I mean, if you're playing virtuoso material, of course you've got to spend some time practicing. It should be memorized. You should use your eyes. You know, every now and then when I'm playing Claire de Lune, I really like the big keys because I got studied. You know, it was just like, it feels good. Actually to move that way. It feels smaller, but it is easier. I think everybody who has one of these pianos will attest that it's not difficult. We can ask all of them at some point.

Yeah. And then I was watching some of the videos that was posted on the organization. What is it? pascpiano.org. And some of the pianists, like when they first experienced the stretto pianos, they were in tears because just the sensation that they felt. They didn't have to make their hands bigger. They felt natural. They felt like— and then one of the pianists was like crying and she says, wow, my hands look bigger.

Yeah, they do. They do. You think, wow, this is what it feels like to be a big man. This is really interesting.

Right. Now, so let's talk about the International Strato Piano Festival. So what's the mission? Where does this festival take place and when does that happen?

Well, I decided to create this festival after a composer from Germany gave me a piece of music that I could not play the first chord. And I thought, I want to play all the notes in this chord if I'm going to play this piece, if I'm going to premiere this work. So I decided I would only play it on my piano with little keys. And I said, you know, I'm going to invite other people. Let's have an event in New York. It was— everything was shut down in 2021. This was pre-vaccine, and I decided that I would have an online festival. Actually, I think it was like Ron Loosby and I were talking about this. He was the one who said, let's put your piano in a public space and see what happens. So the pandemic was actually— had a lot of silver linings for the Strezzo Piano because the church where the piano was, the gallery space was pretty crowded before the pandemic. And then suddenly I could practice there every day and I brainstormed and I was like, yeah, I'm going to have an online festival. I've been playing all these online concerts. There was, you know, a company that was doing online streaming concerts, and that was what led me to contact Rhonda and Carol. Rhonda Boyle of Past Piano. She and Ron— and Carol and Erica Booker created PASTE. And Carol Leone, as I told you, is this wonderful professor and pianist. They've got the worldwide network. I had the idea and I had a location, and the Stretto Festival was originally completely online because we couldn't have live audiences. And we had 18 concerts, people from 4 different continents. We grossed $8,600. There were 400 people in attendance. We did not market anything. This movement was so powerful. And when I told Ron that, I mean, I could hear the silence on the phone when I said, "We made $8,600, Ron." I think he didn't know what to do because he didn't think we would have success. So that was year one.

Wow.

And then the second year, we had 32 pianists on 5 continents, and I had many more live concerts with live audiences. I switched locations because we outgrew the first location. And at that point, the world was opening up more in 2022 and people didn't want to be online quite as much. So I try to tap into, with my friends in the entertainment industry, what's happening online and what's happening live in person. People want to go out and hear concerts. So my intention is to, for the next 2 years, is to make the festival more and more in person. Definitely in New York and wherever else we can do it around the world and hopefully have some solidarity with whatever those spaces are. I'm, you know, I'm hoping I would like to propose that to the community. But meanwhile, this year we have in-person concerts in New York and then we have uploaded virtual concerts during the festival period, which is July 15 to 23, 2023. And, you know, we are working very hard at it now in between all the other things that we all do in our careers. I have a fantastic new assistant whose name is Julia Furlan. She graduated with her master's having, you know, playing a stretto piano for years. So she's part of this community. She now lives in New York, and I really enjoy working on this with her. In fact, I'm hoping that we can have a few minutes with her on this podcast and she can talk about her experience in university.

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Here we have Julia Furlan, pianist and editor of The Violin Channel, and she is actually the fellow Brooklynite. We're very close to each other, and also she is Hannah's assistant. So Julia, thanks for being here today.

Thank you for having me. I'm so excited.

Yeah, and then the reason I wanted to include you in this episode is that you do use stretto piano and actually received your master's degree in piano studies with— yeah, with stretto pianos. That's amazing. So tell me your journey as a pianist. How did you discover stretto pianos and then end up getting a degree with stretto?

My story started out a little sad in a way. I was in college and playing around 6 or 7 hours a day and the overuse and the constant, you know, it's a piano performance degree, you're playing a lot. And by my junior year, I started getting some really bad tendonitis in my forearms. And I think part of it and what doctors were telling me, they basically said, you should just stop playing. After dedicating your whole life to playing an instrument and your whole college degree, that wasn't really an option. I think I remember vividly playing Rachmaninoff's Prelude in B-flat major and just thinking, I wish I had a bigger hand. It would be so much easier. Those loud octaves and chords were so uncomfortable and was creating so much tension. So I got through the degree with quite a lot of painkillers and physical therapy and all that. And by the end of it, I heard from a friend that the school in North Carolina called Salem College was offering a degree in piano performance that specializes in injury preventive technique, which isn't very offered in many places. So I got on the phone with the director. Her name is Dr. Barbara Lister-Sink, and she was walking me through, you know, they do a lot of retraining for injured pianists and you do an overhaul of your piano technique basically. And she mentioned during this phone call, oh, we have these small narrow keyboards that we allow our students to play on. And I was shocked. I said, "Well, what is this small narrow keyboard you're talking about?" And when I went down to North Carolina to try it, it was one of the most emotional experiences I have ever had. It was a combination of so much happiness because it felt so much comfortable— more comfortable. The forearm tension was barely there. After years of dealing with it. And then the other emotion was a little bit of anger, if I'm being honest, because I never heard of these and I couldn't help but think, oh gosh, you know, what could I have avoided if I had known these existed? And I had come from a pretty top-notch musical education, so I was just shocked that no one had known about these or, you know, educated myself and my colleagues in it. So, um, yeah, it was, it was quite an emotional journey, but once I found the narrow keys, I I kind of haven't gone back since. So, right.

Salem College seems to be really open to this idea, but did you have a hard time convincing them, uh, in terms of getting your master's degree with stretto?

Actually, no, it was pretty encouraged, um, because there are all these studies that show the benefits of playing on a smaller keyboard. Um, so my teacher actually quite encouraged it, and it's important to note we played on both. So I would practice maybe like half my time on the stretto piano and then my other half on the conventional keyboard. And I even did my master's recital on the conventional, but I practiced for it basically on the stretto most of the time. And you would be quite surprised how easy it is to switch in between. It's really not.

Yeah, I was going to ask. I'm very curious, like switching from piano stretto. I think that's one of number one question that people probably would ask, right? I'm sure you had the similar question. That's why probably a lot of people will have a little doubt about Stretto. But that's my next question. What's, what's like from switching initially from standard conventional pianos to Stretto?

So we actually in our practice room had the conventional right next to the Stretto, and I would use the Stretto, especially if I was like feeling a little tightness in my arms that day and Everything would go great. And then when I wanted to switch to the bigger key, I would say it would take me 15 to 20 minutes to recalibrate. It's way quicker than you think. Your hands and your body know what to do. It, it's, I, I think people have the conception that, oh gosh, it'll mess me up. It'll, it really took me, it, it's very quick. The hardest thing for me was, um, the jumps and the leaps. That's the main thing that you have to. Practice getting again because that's such an exact movement that you have to do with arm and hand. So I have the master's recital to prove that you can practice on a stretto piano most of your days and then, you know, 2 weeks prior, start working on the conventional one and play a recital on the conventional keyboard.

So lastly, what's the message for our listeners who— most of my listeners probably do not know the existence of stretto pianos and plus probably while listening, just like when I first heard, it's like a little bit of a doubt in my mind. How is this possible? And how I didn't hear about this till now.

Yeah, I think the message is that when you think about all of the other instruments that people play, most of them can have different sizes, especially for children. They have children-sized violins and so on. And piano is really one of the one of the few that don't have a different size and don't accommodate other small hands. When you think about it, the narrow key can really benefit not just children, but college students that are playing big standard rep with small hands. It could benefit a professional pianist. It could really open up a world, a whole new world of repertoire for pianists that didn't otherwise think they could do it.

Right.

Yeah. The main message is that they should be more accepted and should be more known about. And the beautiful work that Hannah's doing with stretto piano concerts and festival— our main mission is just to get more awareness. And when people see professional pianists performing on these instruments, it'll be a no-brainer. They're like, oh, my, one of my favorite pianists performed on that. That's, that should be an accepted instrument. Um, and we're just working on the steps to make it not as niche and just more commonplace.

So, right, that's wonderful. And then I'm glad that you're part of this movement, right, of stretch pianos.

You could see it from the musician wellness standpoint. So many schools and universities these days are focusing on musician health, and they'll have a month or they'll have resources for their students. And I do think having stretcho pianos in your piano department can help with that. And would be a part of that and would be a really great idea to include that option for your smaller-handed pianists.

Universities all over the world now that have these pianos people don't know about, and they're getting degrees and they're playing repertoire that they would never be able to play without these pianos.

Really?

So I brought the PASC website up. PASC stands for Pianists for Alternately Sized Keys, and it's a great The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song. There's one page that tells you where you can play these pianos, and I'll just whip up a few names. Universities and music schools in North America. At the top of the list, SMU Meadows School of the Arts in Dallas, Texas, where Dr. Carol Leone teaches. She has many pianos with narrow keys. University of North Texas Denton, Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, Salem College, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, St. Olaf College in Minnesota, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Oh yeah, the professor there, Jess Johnson, she's a fantastic pianist. She's had been part of our festival for 2 years. University of Central Oklahoma, San Diego State University, Tina Cheong, fantastic pianist. She's also going to be playing with us for the second time this year. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song, Preparatory Department of Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Grace School of Music, Dallas, and then in Europe, in Stuttgart, in Manchester, England, in Nuremberg, Germany, Australia, in Melbourne. You know, it just goes on and on. And Cape Town, South Africa. Every time we have a meeting, I hear about another location, another university that has narrow keys, and I hear about students who are benefiting. And if anybody wants to hear the testimonials, you saw a short clip of our sizzle reel, you can go to thestrettopianoconzerts.org and hear what people have to say in studios, universities, homes. Yeah, it's arrived. Wow.

Thank you so much. So strettopianoconzerts.org where you can find all these wonderful information if you're curious. And I would love for everybody to be actually on it, on this, on her project.

And importantly, passpiano.org, because there are a lot more statistics and years and years of research in the graphs and the articles. We are really focused on performance, but we dovetail with Pass Piano a bit. Yeah, I just, I want to focus on the performance and getting people to come to things live, and Pass Piano can give you even more information about electronic keyboards that have smaller keys, the universities, many, many things, much more information. And we'll be collaborating in the future.

Great. Hannah, where does this passion come from? I mean, with this threat to piano, I mean, it comes from your own experience as a pianist, I'm sure.

Well, it does, but oddly, I was a very happy pianist, you know, from being a small child until I grew up. I just loved playing the piano. And I didn't consider my size a problem. I think that kind of confidence has served me because I don't really feel discouraged. You know, I'm also a singer and I have all kinds of different outlets for my music making. If anybody ever told me that I had my hands were too small to be a pianist, I just didn't believe them. I loved making music. My father taught me my first Bach and Beethoven when I was a small child, and I just loved playing.

So your dad was a pianist?

He— my dad was a doctor. He was a very good amateur pianist. He had a harpsichord. He played the organ. His friend in university in Heidelberg, Reiner Schütze, was a harpsichord maker. So he had a, you know, had a kit and he built a harpsichord that I grew up with. He had this Steinway, Hamburg Steinway piano that I inherited. My father passed in 2014. So my dad was really, you know, a big influence on me. He taught me to love the great German and Austrian composers, and I wanted to play like him. And, you know, I'm also a multi-genre artist. I've never been only in the classical world. I sang in rock bands when I was a preteen, and I sang in a punk band, and I write music. I do all kinds of different things. I started making films when I became an actor. And I don't know, I think maybe the freedom that I've had not being boxed in, even though it limited me to not, like, going for the classical career, I really feel like I've seen the entertainment industry in a slightly bigger way. And I love classical piano and I will always play, but we have to realize that, you know, an innovation like changing the size of piano keys, the classical world, you know, that's a very small part of entertainment. And for this to be embraced by the world, we have to include everybody, all the amateurs, all the children, all the people who play pop. All the people who could care less about classical music. It's a world of invention. So I don't know, seeing that, I don't get discouraged easily by anything. I never wanted to quit doing this. I mean, I get tired of spending all this money and time and effort, but I knew that— I knew from playing and from, you know, more testimonials that I heard and things that popped up on my radar over 30 years that this was not a waste of time.

But with all the time time and effort you spent, and also money too. Eventually you'll have a piano named after you.

Oh no, Yukimi, when I was in my 20s, I told my mom that I was like, you think there can be a Ryman piano? And she's like, Anna, just forget about that. Just go on your path and just do whatever you can. So I forgot about it.

Well, I can really see that. That happened.

I was married to a man named Paul Coletti, who is a fabulous violist and, you know, famous violist. And I remember when I had to consider taking his name or not, I was like, well, if I make a piano called Ryman, it's going to sound like it's going to last forever. But if I make it Coletti, sounds very artistic, but a little delicate. I want the German name. That actually crossed my mind when I got married. And now we're not married, so, you know, we're still good friends. He's, he's still a very important person in my life.

Wonderful. Wow.

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I want to talk a little bit about your career. You have this interesting, as you mentioned, you are an actor, you do filmmaking, you do compose, you're also a teacher, right? Especially, I'm very curious about your project about Joni Mitchell, the famous Canadian songwriter, singer-songwriter. And actually, you resemble her a little bit. Yeah, like from her, like in 1970s, around that time of the picture, especially when she has the bangs. And I think I've seen your photos with the bangs, and then I was like, oh yeah, you look like Joni Mitchell. Anyway, so You devoted part of your career interpreting, you know, her music, Joni's music. And I think you created the show called Both Sides Now, which is actually the title of her very famous song. And as I was researching, Joni Mitchell actually, like, is encouraging you or advocating you, like, giving you, like, a lot of praise. Right? Or maybe it's a website?

I don't know if she herself is aware of my interpretations. I'm, you know, I'm a very careful— I don't want to approach her in a pushy way.

I—

the quickest way for me to express this is Joni Mitchell is a wonderful composer whose music I love. I think of her the same way I think of Beethoven or, you know, I specialize in Astor Piazzolla. When I was in my 20s and early 30s. She's— I love her music, and the same way I want to honor those composers, I want to honor her work. Um, she's very famous in the pop music world. You know, there's a lot of guard dogs. Uh, it's, it's, it's a different world than classical music. There's like all this music publishing and millions of dollars involved with, you know, people of that stature. I mean, some famous classical composers the same. But, you know, if the opportunity arises that she hears our interpretations, me and my band, or, you know, me and my colleagues, I would love that. The best I can do is just, you know, continuing to play her music. I started that project for very deeply personal reasons when my dad was extremely sick with dementia. And like from around 2010 to 2014, I mean, it's just And like, as a musician, can you imagine if you didn't have a memory anymore? If you just lost your memory? I remember when my father, you know, he played the accordion, he played the piano. Eventually he just refused because he started to forget what to do. And it made him so angry that he just quit playing everything. But he would sing when I would accompany him. And we, you know, my movie has some— him singing a song by Schubert. I made a movie about him and the last 3 years of his life. And the Joni Mitchell project is related with all of that. I turned to a record called Blue that she wrote in the late '60s and '70s. These were really special songs to help me heal from this terrible pain that I was feeling. And that was how the project started. But it was, it was not as easy as I thought it would be. And it was so much work that the guitar player I work with, Michelle Temple, we decided to continue performing her music, and then I would hire more people to do the larger ensembles for birthday shows and bigger shows to celebrate her birthday. And it's been really very rewarding to play this music. I really— it's really taught me a lot as a songwriter and as a musician, as an arranger. Yeah, I'm very grateful to her for all the amazing amount of work that she's produced over the— you know, she'll be 80 this year. And it's quite amazing.

You also have made independent films. You appeared in over 20 independent films and everything. I mean, do you have like 27 hours a day or something?

That and that, you know, my acting career was also interrupted by my father's illness. I had this dream too that I wanted to play in movies. I wanted to play piano in movies because I kept seeing all these actors pretending to play, or they'd have a body double. I thought, maybe I could do both. I went to acting school, and then I fell in love with acting, and I started playing all kinds of roles. I realized that this whole thing about playing to camera, there's this many roles with that. It's very hard to create that role. Maybe I'll create my own film one day. Who knows? It was also, I think, I think it's important for singers to study acting because it changes the performance, you know, of presentation of song lyrics. A lot of opera singers have dramatic coaches, you know. Yeah, it's— I'm an artist. I don't really fit into a box. But that was— it was a gift to me to become an actor and to work in those films because when my father got sick, I thought, you know, I want to make a documentary about my dad and his illness. And it gave me the courage, you know, from working on these very small productions to just do it myself in an inexpensive way. Just, you know, work with cinematographers and get a camera myself. So my film is for sale. It's called My Father's House: A Journey of Love and Memory. I have a distributor, and I learned a lot from that experience. But that's, you know, it kind of dovetails with the Joni project.

Wow. Incredible. Dear listeners, The Piano Pod is in its third season. Thanks to all of you for watching or listening to every episode since its launch in 2020. I started this show with a simple question I had in mind for quite some time, which is: How can we as classical pianists and music educators present the beautiful classical music tradition to the 21st century audience in a fun, contemporary, and engaging way? It's been incredible journey for the last 3 years. I love what I do through this podcast, providing a platform for pianists and educators to reflect and discuss freely how we can keep the classical music industry thriving and relevant in this rapidly changing world. Now more than ever, I need your support so that I can continue my work by bringing you highly valuable content biweekly by interviewing groundbreakers in the industry. Your support will go directly to all the costs of The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song, such as a yearly subscription to the podcast hosting platform, the software I use for high-quality recording sessions and tech gear, as well as all the hours I spend researching and audio and video editing. You can make a one-time donation or monthly pledge by clicking the PayPal link in the show notes or going to TPP's website at thepianopod.com. As a thank you, you will receive The Piano Pod's fun logo sticker in the mail. So please support my show today and don't forget to subscribe, continue listening, and tell your friends and colleagues about The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song. Let's continue with the episode. So now I kind of want to more go toward the philosophical questions I want to know your vision of the classical music industry. So what's your thought on keeping classical music itself relevant and then thriving in this fast-paced society, especially in this post-pandemic era?

You know, that's such a great question, Yukimi Song, and I haven't thought about it for years, but when I saw it on the list of questions you sent me, I was like, wow. What a wonderful thing that you're doing, asking about this now, because life does race ahead and classical music was built on this foundation of being in the moment, creating, you know, notes on pages that we don't— didn't use iPads for. Like, I still use a pencil and staff paper. I think that's, you know, part of the beauty of great classical music. When I started this project with Narrow Keys, what kept ringing in my mind was, I want to meet the next Mozart. I want to put as many young kids in front of a piano that fits them and see who improvises and writes great music. That is, you know, okay, so it's going to be protected by copyright. They didn't have copyright back in the 1700s and 1800s. People shared ideas. Constantly, you know, being married to Paul and playing all over the world with Paul. We didn't steal from each other. We didn't, you know, we weren't possessive about a phrase of music. We wrote together. And like, I mean, I'm not going to compare myself with Mozart and Haydn, but, you know, they shared music. They learned from each other. They didn't have to pay each other fees to do this. I truly believe that compositions that come forth from improvisation and from the activity of playing is the most beautiful and pure expression of music. I'm not against academic music. That's, you know, like we used to call it plink-plonk music. That's just very mathematic and doesn't necessarily have recognizable melodies or harmonies or rhythm, which is what I always thought music was, but whatever. The expression of passion and emotion that all the great composers that we continue to play and memorize thousands of hours, where that came from. Those kids, those young composers, I know they're out there. I know that there's beautiful music that can continue to be flowing from people's hearts and minds and hands. And I guess I would like to see that celebrated in whatever way is possible. And I, you know, that was what changed the development of musical instruments Let's see if we can just have a little bit more fun with that and, you know, look into innovation and new practices.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think we're ever going to change, like, you know, the harmonies and the scales from Western and Eastern music. They're mixing together the Indian scales, the, you know, we're both have East Asian blood. I'm half Korean, in case anybody doesn't know out there, you know. Everything will continue to mix together, but we're not going to reinvent the wheel to an unrecognizable place.

Right. Then also, you do a lot of multidisciplinary project or creation when it comes to music, but also you have this multidisciplinary career anyway. You have your actor, filmmaker, composer, musician. So under the umbrella of classical music, you know, quote unquote, how far can we push in terms of multidisciplinary other culinary works and performances, you think?

I know more and more musicians like myself who switch genres. I think it's just much more accepted now. I mean, there are people like Steve Sandberg, Chris O'Reilly, David Amram, who's in his 90s. They're all going to be in the Stretto Festival this year, and some of them have been in the past. I know more and more pianists who switch from jazz to classical and to playing pop accompanying. I think it's a much more flexible world today than it was when I was a student. There were an enormous number of prejudices against me. Like, you know, you can't be a Renaissance person, you can't do all of these things well. Again, like, I just didn't let it discourage me. And I, you know, I listened to Joni Mitchell. She doesn't have a genre. She has like dozens of records and they're all different. They couldn't be put in boxes. Now suddenly she's getting all this acclaim for that. That. So, you know, I mean, business, creativity, those are the things that is the problem, that those things butt heads against each other. And putting people in boxes, I, I think people are beginning to realize that they don't really care about that anymore, you know. Okay, so there's copyright, there's— you can't make money off of CDs or albums anymore, right? What do you get, like 0.0017 cents for every stream. Like maybe, maybe after 20 years you might make $10,000 or $20,000 or $30,000 on Spotify. But, you know, it depends on who you are. But I think in a way that has opened things up a little bit. That business broke down a bit and is really disappointing for musicians. But it's opened something up. It's allowed people to be a little bit more multidisciplinary. I mean, there are many— don't you think there are many more multidisciplinary artists now? Than when we were a lot younger.

Oh yeah, I've interviewed so many of them. Even they have this really straightforward classical career, classical music career, but then on the side, for example, they do a lot of multidisciplinary things and that I did not know about.

You know, after teaching for 30 years, the other thing is, it's like, I think it's just good not to have prejudices against each other. Some of my students will only be classical musicians. Some of them will only be improvisers. Some of them will only, you know, sing a certain style. You know, I don't think anybody should attack anybody else for being this or being that. I think it's, you know, it's like you were talking in the beginning of our conversations about equity. People choose. They can make discoveries, have experiences, and choose what suits them. And if you can do more than one thing, there's nothing wrong with that.

Right. What's next step for you, for your career, especially with this Stretto?

I had to face that if I really wanted to devote myself to this concert series and, you know, put my pianos in a public space, I would have to make that the biggest thing in my life, even if it, you know, like I have to humble myself and put it before other parts of my career. But I need to balance that with the fact that I am a performer and that I'm a creator and that, that is part of my identity. So I'm— and it's a balancing act. I'm trying to find ways to progress with all of those things. But I feel like the time has really come to offer people a choice of key size. And since my piano is the only one in New York that's been in a public space, I don't really know in New York City where the other pianos with small keys are, or if there are any like my piano that we could have concerts on. So I feel like, you know, it's time for me to devote myself to that. Very difficult in New York City with the price of real estate, challenges of real estate. That's really the biggest challenge of my life. But I'm confident that it will happen. And I encourage everybody to donate to our cause. Come and play the piano, help us put it in a place and play with us. You know, have fun. Let's do something enjoyable together. That's what I'm devoted to right now.

Sounds great. So Piano If you want to find more about straight pianos and then the International Stretto Piano Festival, please go to strettopianoconzerts.org. But also you can check out pascpiano.org to learn more about pianos of alternatively sized keyboards.

And as a side note, because I know my producer would kill me if I didn't say this, strettopianoconzerts.org is really important However, I am coming out with an EP this year. You know, I, I— it's been put off for years because of the pandemic. I'll have a new record this year. I just released a single. If you want to hear it, it's on my website. There's a little teaser music video. I'll be working on some music videos. I plan to go to Los Angeles to do my Joni show, and we'll have more shows in New York. And I'll be, you know, making a solo piano record as well. I've been quiet about that. But that's, that's something that I have been wanting to do for many years, and it's time to do that too with my stretto piano. So there's a recording that I made back in the 1990s that I never released, and I'm excited about, you know, getting that music out too and just having the courage to be seen as a classical player as well.

Wow, you are amazing. But not a lot of people even can accomplish half of what you're doing. So that's That's amazing. That's great.

I hope that you'll come and try the piano when it's in the right place.

I know I would love to. I would love to really attend one of the concerts or festival.

Get it in a space before then. I'll invite you as soon as possible. Right now the piano's in storage and I'm anxiously hoping to move it, you know, by and have it in a place where people can come and try it.

Oh yes, please, please invite me. I would love to try it. So this has been such a fun and really inspirational conversation, Hannah. And before I let you go, we have one more thing to do, which is The Piano Pod with rapid-fire questions. And this is a part of the show where I get to ask fun questions to each guest. So here's a little warning: as silly as these questions may sound, your answers may reveal who you truly are. So Ready or not.

Okay.

All right, so question number 1: What is your comfort food?

Bibimbap.

Amen.

Yes.

How do you like your coffee?

I drank it black this morning, but I'm usually, I'm usually an oat latte or a half and half person. Depends on the day.

Cats or dogs?

Oh my God, that one I can't answer. I love them both. Sorry.

It's okay.

No, I'm okay. I'm a dog person, but Solomon, my cat, you know, whatever. He's my soulmate.

What is your word or words to live by?

Carpe diem. Live in the moment. Presence. Now. Yeah.

What is the most important quality you look for in other people?

Authenticity.

Name 3 people who inspire you, living or dead.

Joseph Hoffman, Marie Curie. And then the last person is going to be Elliott Sharp because I just met him. I have many people, but I just met him. He's a really cool composer, totally out of the box. Just heard him play, really interesting.

So name one piece in your current playlist.

The Boho Dance by Joni Mitchell.

Now this is the last one, so fill in the blank. Music is blank.

My life.

Thank you for answering all these questions. So this concludes this episode of The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song with Hannah Raven. Thank you, Hannah, for joining my show today and then sharing your stories and insights and expertise. You can learn more about Hannah and her amazing work through her website at HannahRaven.com, and you can find more information about Stretto Pianos at Strettopianoconzerts.org. All the links are in the show notes. And thank you to my wonderful audience and fans for tuning in. If you enjoyed today's episode, please rate and review it on whatever podcasting platform you use. Remember to hit the thumbs up button and subscribe to my YouTube channel if you're watching from YouTube. And follow The Piano Pod with social media to get the latest piano news via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. I will see you for the next episode of The Piano Pod with everyone. And thank you, Hannah. Thank you so much. Thank you.

What a pleasure. Thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you.

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