Season 5 Episode 2: "Between Keys & Creativity" feat. Jed Distler - Composer, Pianist, Radio Host

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Hey there, Piano Pod friends and listeners! Welcome back to our show. You're tuning in to the second episode of Season 5, and we are so thrilled to invite Steinway artist, composer, educator, and host of the renowned radio show Between the Keys, none other than Jed Dissler. The piece you just heard at the beginning of this episode is the second movement from Mr. Dissler's work for two pianos titled "Loose Changes," performed by the renowned piano duo Quattro Mani. A big welcome to all of our first-time listeners and viewers. I am Yukimi Song, a classical pianist and educator based in New York City. Whether you are pursuing a piano career, working in the classical music industry, or simply passionate about piano music, this podcast is your backstage pass to the fascinating world of the piano. Let me give you a quick overview of The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song. In our biweekly episodes, we dive into captivating conversations with guests who are making waves in the classical music industry. Our mission is to build a vibrant community that embraces fresh ideas, ensuring classical music stays alive and meaningful in our ever-changing world. If you haven't already, please check out the introductory episode of Season 5 to get a sense of what's in store for this season. And don't forget to catch up on our previous seasons, available on your favorite podcast platforms or on our YouTube channel. Now let me tell you a bit more about today's guest, Jed Distler. I've been a longtime admirer of his radio show Between the Keys for its insightful commentary on various piano recordings. What truly impresses me is Jed's ability to break down complex musical concepts in a way that's accessible to all listeners. I've also gained so much from the show's eclectic and diverse playlists. Which span from classical staples to contemporary works in jazz. Last spring, I came across Jed's profile on Facebook, and I couldn't resist sending a friend request. And to my delight and to my surprise, Jed accepted my request right away, and soon after, he also became a listener of The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song with Yukimi Song with Jed Macosko. After several email exchanges, he graciously invited me to his home in Manhattan And during my visit, I was warmly welcomed not only by Jed, but also by one of his cats, Shubi. So cute. I had a chance to see the behind the scenes of his radio show, and I was amazed by his vast collection of CD albums and records sent by artists and recording companies. It was a delightful experience, capped off with a lovely meal, a true testament to his kindness and hospitality. Jed is a powerhouse in the music world. As a composer, pianist, and educator, he has earned acclaim for his brilliant transcriptions of jazz legends like Art Tatum and Bill Evans. His innovative piano recitals have premiered works by some of the most significant names in contemporary music. His creativity knows no bounds. Jed founded Composer's Collaborative, which set a 2013 Guinness World Record for the largest keyboard ensemble featuring one of his compositions performed on 175 electronic keyboards. In a groundbreaking performance, he became the first pianist to play all Thelonious Monk's works in a single 90-minute concert. Currently, Jed is composing an astonishing 1,827 Bagatelles to celebrate Beethoven's anniversary in 2027. His solo piano CD, Frielis Monk, is a must-listen and he's recorded extensively for the high-resolution stereo player Piano by Steinway. In addition to his award-winning radio show Between the Keys, Jed has also added podcaster to his resume with the launch of his new podcast, The Podcast Maven with Jed Dissler, in July 2024. So before we dive in, I want to take a moment to thank our amazing TPP fans and loyal listeners for your continued support. If you enjoy the show, please take a moment to rate and review it on your favorite podcast platform, because every rating review will help people find my show. Now get ready to uncover the secrets behind Jed Dissler's remarkable multifaceted career as a Steinway artist, composer, and educator, as well as the success of his radio show and newly launched podcast. So please sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. 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 future and thriving in a complex, ever-evolving world. Welcome to The Piano Pod, Jed. It's an absolute honor to have you. Thank you.

Well, the honor is mine to be with you, and I am big, big fan of The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song with Yukimi Song.

Oh my goodness, I'm the biggest fan of your radio show from the Classic Network, Between the Keys.

Thank you so much. You know, I just produced my 480th episode. I can't believe it.

Oh my goodness, wow.

Which means 500 is around the corner. We have to do something about that.

Yes, you have to do something about it. And so, you know, as I was researching your life and career and You've done so, so much. You've being a composer and pianist, but also you are the curator, producer. But I think it's proper that we will start with the topic of your radio show Between the Keys, as I have been a fan, biggest fan, but also you have a lot of huge fan base, right? And then this program has become a cherished gem for music and piano lovers and worldwide blending insightful commentary with musical treasures. That truly showcase your deep passion for the piano and highlight your expertise. So how did it come to life?

Oh, that's a really good question, as I would expect from you. Uh, it was a matter of serendipity. You know, I have always been a big radio fan since I was a little boy. I was obsessed with classical radio, with jazz radio, any radio. And I had a little tabletop radio, and in my bedroom I would listen to the radio all night long, even when I was sleeping. And even when I was a little boy, I would talk to myself in my bedroom and pretend to be a DJ, and I would make playlists. So this has been an obsession all my life. And then As I got into college, you know, in my late teens, early 20s, I became a big fan of a show called Concert Grand, which was hosted by Bruce Posner and my late dear friend Joseph Patrick, who passed away last December. And for 17 years, they had a wonderful piano show where they'd play recordings, they would compare performances of the same pieces. They interviewed many distinctive pianists. And also David Dubal had a radio show when he was the artistic director, the music director of WNCN, a wonderful New York station that no longer exists. And he would do something similar, making comparative, playing comparative performances and interviewing artists. And this really turned me on to a lot of the piano repertoire and made me aware of just how important interpretation was along with the works themselves. And then, um, as I started establishing my so-called career, I began appearing on many radio shows on New York, New York Public Radio, being a guest, and I love that experience so much, and I kept thinking, boy, I wish I was in the other chair being the host. And I always had fantasies about having a piano radio show, so I met at a concert purely by chance David Osenberg, who is the music director of WWFM, the classical network, and I just blatantly said to him, you know, I've always wanted my own radio show. Is there any chance I could do something like that? I just blurted it out, you know, for— with no rhyme or reason, because I'm, I'm like that. I'm, I'm very brash and direct and tactless, you know. And David said, well, you know, I've wanted to have you on as a guest, so why don't you come down to the station? And I thought, okay, I'll be coming down and maybe we'll talk about my being a guest on his show, because he has a wonderful show called Cadenza where he interviews musicians all over the world. It's a— and he's one of the best interviewers ever. So I show up at the station, and instead of talking about his show, he and the general manager of the station start interviewing me and saying, well, 'What kind of show would you like to have?' And I thought, 'What? What is this?' And I just started winging it, and I said, 'Oh, you know, I want to have a piano radio show where every week is different. Like, one week I'll play all the Chopin études with one different pianist in each étude, without repeating a pianist. Or then maybe the following week I'll have a composer like— oh, I don't know— Terry Riley or Elliott Carter.' Even though he was dead, I could still ask Elliott Carter, you know, somebody 'Have them be a guest DJ or put a playlist together,' or I, I was just, you know, winging it. And they said, 'You know, that sounds like a good idea. Well, let's give you a show, and we will also make you our artist-in-residence.' Oh my goodness. And I thought, 'Whoa, this is all falling into my lap.' It was all happening so fast. And so I quickly learned how to use their recording software, Adobe Audition, and I learned about the parameters of, you know, within 58 minutes and 30 seconds I can do whatever I want, but I do have to do some station identifications, you know, every once in a while. So I thought, this is amazing that I have a show where I have complete freedom. At the same time, I really try to use the freedom responsibly. For instance, you know, I'm not going to play 58 minutes of unlistenable 12-tone music, you know. You know, I'm not going to play the Ralph Shapey Fromm variations, or maybe I will sometime, you never know. But, uh, but to really, you know, treat the show as, um, you know, have a mission and really do what I set out to do and, uh So I've put a lot of time and thought and effort into this over the years, and I've gotten a lot of good feedback and suggestions. And, uh, it's going to go into its 10th anniversary next year, which is kind of wonderful. But what I, what I did consciously try to do was to not make the show time sensitive, meaning that I wouldn't talk about an immediately upcoming concert or upcoming event, because I wanted the shows to be kind of timeless in that they can be archived somewhere, and they are archived online, so that if you listen to them, they can really be from any era. Now, of course, there are exceptions, because I have done some shows to promote upcoming concerts, and I don't do those often, but I have done those where, let's say, a publicist approached me saying, can you do a program about this artist's upcoming concert and I can give you an exclusive interview? And I'm very happy to do that because I'm happy to have the interview. So I don't feel like I'm compromising my integrity at all.

So each episode, is it more like a spontaneous process when it comes to like thinking about the theme or is it well planned ahead?

It's both actually. I sometimes I will plan things ahead or I'll think about a show, and I always write down ideas for episodes. And of course, these are all subject to revision and negotiation and rejection over time, but I do plan these in advance. And I also try not to have similar kinds of shows in close proximity. For instance, if I do a program let's say I talked about the ideal Chopin Opus 10 Études, where I will play all 12 Études with one pianist for each Étude without repeating a pianist. I may do that one week, but I'm not going to do something similar the following week or even the next month. Maybe I might just take a couple of months in between that kind of programming. And if I have a program with a guest, I don't want to have 2 or 3 programs with a guest in one after another, you know, over 2 or 3 weeks, although sometimes it can be unavoidable. Recently I did 2 programs featuring young Italian pianists, and because I really wanted to give them attention, because I have friends who've been giving me CDs and they really wanted to have a forum for these artists, and understandably so. I thought I'll just do two programs, you know, part one and part two, you know, one week after the next. And I thought that was perfectly fine. I don't do that all the time, so I really try to strike a balance so that there's something for everyone. Um, at the end of July this year, I put on a show, one large-scale work, which is a piece called 48 Variations for Two Pianos by John McGuire, which is, I think, one of the great minimalist masterpieces in the piano literature. And it's a mesmerizing kind of piece. And this is the kind of thing that ordinarily you'd never hear it on the radio, and it takes almost an entire program. But now, I probably would not have programmed this piece, let's say, early in the show's run. But I think since we have developed a following and I've been on the air for so long, I thought, well, I could do something different. And people who usually tune into the show, I can say, look, trust me, I want to try something new and just check your expectations at the door. Just give yourself over to this music, and don't worry, next week we'll have Beethoven, Bach, and Brahms, and Chopin, you know. And I also think it's very important to be as inclusive as possible as far as composers and performers. You don't want to have just dead male Austrians or dead male Polish pianists, you know. You want to have everybody, because the piano world is so vast and so broad and so wide-ranging, and there is so much wonderful piano playing and piano music from all over the world. And I think it's important to represent it as best that I can. And another thing that I do is, let's say if I want to put a Chopin waltz into the mix, I will look for a recording by a pianist who maybe isn't so well known or has a CD on a small label, but it's a really good performance that deserves to be broadcast. So instead of, you know, pulling out the usual Arthur Rubinstein— you know, I love Arthur Rubinstein, but he doesn't need my promotion— but this young pianist, you will need more promotion. And David Dubal actually does this on his program, The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song, and I think that's a very noble thing, you know, because, you know, he's been involved with teaching and mentoring young pianists for a long time. And I think that's also part of my mission too, to just have the past and the present and the future, you know.

That's awesome. That's quite a progressive idea. Now, what kind of feedback do you usually receive from listeners? Is there any particular feedback that touched you or surprised you, or how does this feedback influence the direction of the episodes, future episodes?

Well, sometimes I'll get a suggestion from somebody saying, can you devote a program to this artist or this composer? And I will usually consider that, or even if I don't do a whole episode, I will seriously consider, you know, a piece of music. What I often don't consider is people— a lot of people Sometimes I'll say, you know, would you like to interview this artist or that artist? And sometimes if I don't really like the music, then I'm not going to give them the time of day. And, and I'm usually very honest with publicists. Like, if somebody says, can you have this person on your show, I'll, I'll send them some reviews that I wrote. I'll say, well, I don't think this person wants to meet me because I said that their recording of this piece or that piece is the worst one ever made. That's, you know, that's kind of, you know, trying to balance out the reviewer and the presenter and the host. You know, that it can be kind of difficult. I have gotten some feedback from people saying that the show really helped them get through an illness or get through a difficult time in their life. And during the pandemic, when there were no concerts I was getting a lot of feedback from people saying that, I'm so happy to have your show because this is something that makes me happy and makes me calm. And that kind of feedback really, really means the world to me. Also, I often get feedback when I will play a recording of a pianist who I think is rather obscure or unknown, and I'll get an email from out of nowhere, from a total stranger, saying, 'Oh, thank you for playing the piano recordings of Webster Aitken. I studied with him.' And they gave the whole backstory, and that's so fascinating. And I remember I played a recording of a composer who I knew nothing about, and I got a very extensive email from somebody who knew this person, or this person was a relative or something like that. So it's always getting the feedback with the personal connection, saying, oh, I didn't realize you played my mother's piece, and I didn't realize that this composer's son was listening. So that, that kind of thing makes me happy.

It's going to be 10th year next year.

Well, uh, the first show I did was March 2015. So, and so if we get into March 2025, then I guess that's 10 years. But, uh, having regular faithful listeners is great, but what's even more important is getting more people to listen. And for those who are just discovering the show, for them to know that there are webcasts of the program that are posted on the station's website for whenever you want to listen.

WFM.org.

.org and The Classical Network. And they also post webcasts for their other special programs because they have a lot of varied programming that is so interesting and all very specialized in different ways.

It's a really wonderful station, and I am so grateful for the freedom that I have And then you've done an amazing job, and somehow your voice through everybody— you, you have the vocal quality tone that is so interesting.

Well, I was never trained as a radio personality, although I remember when I was talking with Joe Patrick years and years ago about wanting to be a radio host, he said, oh, your voice is too high, you have a tenor voice, it's not going to work on the radio because so many radio commentators are very low Oh yeah, that's true. No comforting voices. And that, and that was the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven. Or there is one, and, and of course they have very an affection in how they pronounce things. There's a very famous radio station where they had an announcer say, and that was the overture to Candide. Candide, not Candied, Candide by Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein? Well, like, what is this Germanization?

Oh, come on.

But I did hear that. I swear to God, I heard that. And it's interesting because the first shows I did, you know, I script everything I do because I can't speak spontaneously to save my life. But I scripted these, and when I hear how I was reading the scripts and talking. It sounds so stilted and so formal, and I cringe a little bit. And then I worked with a friend of mine, Darren Zimmer, who was a fantastic soprano, and she had listened to some of the first shows, and she said, you know, you have to work on your vocal quality. So she gave me some coaching, but I try to modulate my voice, and I I try not to make it sound like this, and that was the Italian Concerto of Bach. And I just tried to do it conversationally, like I'll write a script, but then when I'm reading it, I look away. And, you know, of course I do a lot of editing where if I go, um, and, ah, or if I mess up somebody's name because my pronunciation of foreign names, especially Eastern European names, leaves a lot to be desired. So if you listen to my unedited vocal tracks on my show, you'll hear me messing up pronunciations and then practicing it, and then I have to edit everything. And then, and then I— and sometimes you'll hear me cursing when I screw something up. In fact, I think there was one broadcast where I messed up an edit and a four-letter word went by.

Oh no.

And I don't think— and nobody complained about it, but apparently in the webcast, somebody heard the webcast and wrote back saying, hey, you said the F-word.

I—

and I thought, oh my God, this went on the radio. I'm gonna get— I mean, on podcasts, certain podcasts you can curse, but, uh, you know, you can't— you can't on the— on broadcast radio.

Oh, sure, sure, sure. You are right now joining this conversation from your home, right?

And this is my music studio. You've been here.

I know, you invited me. You, um, yes, and then we had a great time. So is that the room actually you do the recording session for?

Yeah, this is, this is, this is the chamber. Yeah, wow, torture chamber. And I see, I see the stack of CDs and, yeah, well In my music studio here, all the CDs are only piano, and they are meticulously organized and alphabetized. In other rooms, uh, in, in the hallway are my non-piano CDs— classical, jazz, world music, whatever. But then I have other closets where I have box sets that are not piano box sets, because as a reviewer, you know, I get sent so many things. And also because I write booklet notes for a lot of these releases, I get copies of them. And I still have a lot of vinyl. I keep— I play a lot of vinyl on my show because there are so many recordings that have never been transferred to a digital format. And often when I do programs of rare recordings that I like to share, which is I consider kind of a mission. Sometimes I'll pull down vinyl, and I also have a lot of hard drives that have digital files which I get from all kinds of places. And these files are— these drives are backed up in triplicate because you don't want them to crash. And then, so where I'm sitting now is— this is my— this is my reviewing broadcasting desk, but then I have another desk which is my composing desk. Desk, which is right next to one of my pianos because I have two pianos in the studio. So it— there's a lot in the studio, but I try not to have it cluttered or disorganized because it's so easy for me to discombobulate things. And I am— I, I live in the terror of ever becoming a hoarder. I don't know if you know that television show Hoarders. Yes, I've seen it. Yes, I am so afraid of this because my parents who died a long time ago, had hoarding tendencies. And my father's father was a very serious hoarder. I mean, it's not like he had garbage piled up, but he would buy things in bulk. I think this was an attitude among people who were affected by the Depression, where if they had to buy a pencil, they would buy boxes of pencils because they'd be afraid that you wouldn't be able to find these anymore. And, you know, they would have a pantry full of canned food that was there for years and years. And I've seen this a lot, and I, I'm a thrower outer, but I get so much mail every day that it's really hard to negotiate that. And sometimes things just, you know, pile up, you know, and And, and so organization does not come naturally to me. But like what I was talking about, organizing the radio show and organizing my life, you know, I'm a compulsive list maker and I, I just make sure things are put away as much as possible. Or, you know, I can always renegotiate the spaces, but sometimes I'll forget about things and I'm thinking, oh my God, what are all these CDs doing here? I haven't opened them in a year. It's hard to keep track of all that, as you can imagine.

Yeah, yeah, but it's a really fun room. I visit there, and then there are so many, and you showed me this and that, different kinds of CDs. So speaking of, you know, with your charm and kindness, Jed, you are after all a music critic, so How can one make it onto your good list rather than the bad list?

Uh, for me, I think it's just, I'm just always in pursuit of excellence. That's simply that. And I think artistic excellence is its own justification. Often somebody will say, I just recorded a CD of Schumann's Kreisleriana. How many recordings of Christ lauriana do we need in the world? Because there are only about 10,000 of them out there, and 954 are probably excellent. But I think excellence is its own reward, and whether one needs something or not, you know, you have to just take each really case by case. And I'll give you a wonderful example of this. About 20 or so years ago, I received a recording on a small Polish label— actually not all that small— by a Polish pianist playing the Prokofiev 7th Sonata, along with works of Scriabin and Rachmaninoff. And I thought, okay, I've never heard of this pianist, and this is a small label, and how many recordings of the Prokofiev 7th Sonata do we need? And it was a knockout. It was one of the best performances of this piece I had ever heard, and I made comparisons with Maurizio Pollini and Sviatoslav Richter and Glenn Gould, and it yielded nothing to that. And you can say the same for so many other pieces of standard repertoire. Now, of course, when I'm reviewing something like this, you can't compare it to every previous recording because you'd go nuts. But I think that it's important as a critic to know the catalog because you know something about performance practice and the evolution of styles. So if somebody's going to come out with a new cycle of Beethoven sonatas, I will make certain comparisons, but I won't compare it to everyone. But I may say that this pianist is closer in style to the intimacy of Wilhelm Kempff than the more dynamic Arthur Schnabel version, or people like that. You know, I mean, these aren't the best examples, but at least you can provide a small context. And then if the performer does something that's kind of unique or interesting, you would mention that. But you, you have to talk about what the performance sounds like in the most clear and accurate yet entertaining words as possible. So I think for me it's just the pursuit of excellence is what I look for. The pursuit of excellence is really everything.

But specifically, do you look for technical precision, emotional depth into one recording, or maybe perhaps Well, you— the pianist has to be excellent, but blend of everything, blending of those qualities, or—

oh, ideally, yes. I think that also with modern recordings, because the standard of engineering and also technical proficiency is so high that you really do have to judge the performer. One problem is because the technical standard is so high, it can be very difficult to ascertain the different levels of excellence, like what is more excellent than another. But, uh, but you want to have a combination of technical proficiency and musicality and emotional involvement and communication of musical meaning and You know, you do get that a lot, but because there's so much out there, sometimes it's— to really try to, you know, find these, it can be difficult. But the truth is that there are more excellent recordings of classical music on the market at lower prices than at any other time in history. You know, the catalog just abounds with wonderful releases. I mean, the standard is higher than ever before.

So what's the opposite end? What makes a recording fall flat, for example?

It can be many things. It could be substandard engineering. It could be a performer who is just very mannered, or it's not just a matter of not following what's in the score but imposing so many things on the interpretation, or micro managing things. And you do find a lot of really fine musicians overthinking or micromanaging their performances, where they focus on little details that draw more attention to themselves than to the music. And they don't really have to do that, because if you have a strong personality and you just play a piece of music as straight as possible, the personality is going to come out anyway. But there's a lot of micromanaging and a lot of performers behaving badly, and I think it's just this determination to do something different for the sake of being different.

Now, for the sake of being different, can you do that by, um, having to have a very interesting layout in the CD album, for example, like a combination of different composers that will make one album stand out, or more thoughtful way of programming?

Oh, well, actually, that's a really good solution because there are more and more pianists who are making CDs that are more like DJ sets, where they're taking— they're mixing and matching pieces from all over the place. And I think that that this is a very refreshing and interesting idea because a good example of this is Yuja Wong, because most of her solo releases mix and match repertoire in really interesting and provocative ways. She is not one who's going to come out and record all the Chopin nocturnes, but she may record one or two nocturnes in conjunction with a Ligeti étude or Philip Glass Étude, and then another piece that you may think has nothing to do with it, but actually the program trajectory really works quite well. And she's done this both on record and in concert, and it's an interesting concept. And I think that this kind of thing can be very healthy as long as it's not gimmicky. If it's about the gimmick in and of itself, then there can be problems. But I think that this is one way how contemporary culture, like DJ culture, where you're mixing and matching things and making playlists, is having a positive impact. And, uh, I think— well, I think, I think in terms of programming and coming up with unusual yet provocative and artistically valid ways of presenting the music. Because if this is a good way to introduce the repertoire to listeners or performers, then it gets them into the music. And then, you know, there are pianists who do want to put out an all-Schumann recital or do a cycle of pieces, and that's certainly very valid, but I think there's so many other ways of doing it. And in a way, I think these mix-and-match playlists parallel what I try to do with Between the Keys, because I don't always play complete works on Between the Keys. Or if I'm focusing on a certain artist, or I'm focusing on the genre, I'll break up pieces like this. But then every once in a while, I may do a show where I'll just have one or two large works. Like recently I did a chamber music show focusing on the cellist Pablo Casals, and I had a complete Bach sonata with him and pianist Mieczysław Horczowski, and then a Beethoven sonata with Wilhelm Kempff. And this isn't the kind of program I do all the time, but I think you need both. They complement one another.

Wow, interesting to hear that thought on music streaming services because I had a question. Well, let's get into the question. You know, I thought you would be like totally, well, you can't say anti because technology is there and everybody listens to music from Spotify, Apple, you know, and so on. So, but those giant companies, they provide literally unparalleled access to a vast array of music at your fingertips. And however, from a, yeah, from a musician's point of view, given that dominance of these streaming giants, it's nearly impossible to avoid them if you want to reach a wide, you know, want to reach a wide audience. But how do you see the trade-off between the accessibility and then the significant loss of revenue for artists?

I'm afraid I'm not really qualified to answer this question.

Oh no, thank you for being honest, but I'm so happy to hear actually you are really for it.

I feel that any way to get the music out there, either with a physical product or streaming, or really any format or any future format that we haven't even thought about, I think is valid. And of course, there's always the question of how one pays for this. In fact, the record producer John Colshaw, who was one of the most important classical producers ever, and he was the one who produced the George Scholti Ring Cycle The Piano Pod in the '60s. He predicted this kind of thing 50 years ago. He said that, I'm— I won't be surprised if some way somebody just puts a credit card in a machine and then they get their music whenever they want to. You know, it wasn't necessarily like streaming or computer, but he realized that the— you know, there were going to be future technologies and I use all of these technologies in a very fluid and fluent kind of way. A good example of this is with streaming services. If I'm writing a review of, let's say, a new recording of the Beethoven Waldstein Sonata, and I need to make a very quick comparison, but I don't want to go through all of my shelves, or maybe I'm writing this review where I'm out of town and on my computer and I don't have access to my physical files or physical CDs, I'll just go to Spotify and I'll do a search and I can check things. I can check how pianist X plays measure 25 versus piano Y, and that's a wonderful way to use that kind of technology. And for me, it's Often I will use this to look for music or look for performances. If I have to find a performance of a certain piece of music, but it can't exceed 4 minutes, let's say, then when I'm looking at Spotify or if I'm looking at iTunes or I'm looking through, you know, any of these digital sources, I see all the timings right before me. But I always use physical CDs or CD quality files for my broadcast because it's the best quality. And I like having the physical discs because you have the notes and, uh, you know, you have— and, and, and I think as a collectible product, they really have a lot of value. And there are some record companies that really put a lot of care and consideration into the physical product. So you're getting a collector's item that— where you can look at wonderful booklet notes and photos and sturdy binding, you know, where it's really done in a very intelligent and respectful way. Um, that's why I think a lot of these box sets coming out are so important, like these complete editions that you know, the big companies are putting out. For instance, I just got this. This is a collection of Paul Robeson's complete Columbia, RCA, HMV, and Victor recordings, and it's the first time his complete recorded output for these labels have been assembled and remastered all and One place, and he was such an important cultural figure in America who's been all but forgotten. But he was an incredible bass-baritone who sang spirituals and traditional songs. He had a— he had an extraordinary voice. He and Fyodor Shalyapin were the greatest basses of their generations, and This assembles all of the recordings, but also the documentation could not be more thorough. There are wonderful annotations by his granddaughter and by scholars, and you cannot imagine a more comprehensive, a more thorough, and more caring representation of Paul Robeson's artistry. And Sony BMG has done one— has done wonderful projects like this. They've, they've done some box sets containing the complete recorded rehearsals of Vladimir Horowitz leading up to his 1965 historic return and his 1966 follow-up concerts. And I wrote the notes to that box set. There's some other people who wrote notes too, but But that was done in such a thorough and caring way where not only do you have all of the music and the conversation, but you also have the conversation written out, you know, so you can follow it if you don't understand it. I think this represents the best of what physical products can offer. Of course, there's some box sets that are put together in a very slapdash, shoddy way too, you know.

Yeah, sure. Before continuing this episode, we'd like to take a moment to highlight our sponsor, Keys to Success, whose support helps us make this episode possible.

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So, so far we've talked about, uh, from you being the producer and host of the show, of VR Radio show, but now I'd like to focus on your career as a pianist and composer. So I began this episode by playing one of your works for two pianos. It's the second movement from Loose Changes, and I actually heard the whole thing on YouTube. Yes, there was the whole thing. Yeah, it was— it's— they are very fun pieces. Fun, like 10, 11 movements. 10, 10 movements.

Yeah. Well, you know what happened? I had this commission to write a piece for Quattro Mani, who are one of the best two-piano teams around. They're extraordinary musicians. And I was so excited by the commission that I couldn't make up my mind what kind of piece I wanted to write. And I was just coming up with all kinds of ideas, and I thought, oh, screw it, I'm just going to write 10 or 11, however many little pieces, and just throw all those ideas together. And I wrote the piece fairly quickly, but what's interesting about how I wrote the piece— I still have a very vivid memory of how one or two of the pieces came together, which is that I actually wrote on a bus going from New York to Washington, D.C., because I was going to a big massive protest against the Iraq War. I think this was in 2005, and I remember taking— right, taking the bus back and forth to Washington. And I always carry these Moleskine music notebooks to sketch in because I write a lot of music away from the piano, believe it or not, because I was really trained to do that. I always check things at the piano, and it's interesting that when I'm writing solo piano, I do tend to sit at the piano, but if I'm writing for two pianos, I get distracted and I get confused, and I find it so much easier to write away from the piano because then and each piano has its own voice and its own duties, so it's a little easier for me to do that without being burdened by two hands trying to play what four hands are going to do. Of course, when I get home, I check everything and I make revisions, you know, I always do, because I don't totally trust my hearing. But a lot of loose changes happened on those bus rides. It's kind of funny. But, but I had so much fun with it, and they and Quattro Mani just played the living daylights out of this piece. Their recording is just phenomenal. That's one reason why I've been reluctant to perform the piece myself, because I don't think I could do it better than that.

Yeah, it's a fantastic recording. The, um, album is called Kindred Spirits, right?

Yes, yes, yes. It's, it's compilation with different composers. Yeah, that's true.

That's, that's right. So when I research your life, and you started as a jazz pianist, correct?

Oh yeah, I thought I was gonna go into jazz. That was my— I often say that, that it's a first language that I seldom speak, but when I speak it, when I have the opportunities, I have so much fun and I love it so much. But I didn't really pursue a jazz career. I probably could have, but, you know, I think there's an episode of The Simpsons where Bart Simpson is placed in a special class and he says, "Oh no, I'm supposed to be in this other class," and the teacher says, "Oh, it looks like you have a case of the 's'posed to's.'" And I kept thinking, "Oh, I'm supposed to study classical piano, I'm supposed to be composing," and I was so interested in it and I wanted to compose, but I think I was going into it a lot out of out of guilt, out of a feeling I should be— why am I playing jazz? I should be learning the Chopin études. I should be learning the Beethoven sonatas. It's the should-haves and the supposed-to's. And I thought that would make me a little bit more legitimate, maybe. I don't know. It's not that I, I have no regret, because contemporary classical music and classical music has been very good to me, and I've gotten so much out of it. And I have a pretty diverse body of composed work. I haven't written as much music as I've wanted to. I go through very prolific spout, uh, period. But, uh, I suppose I really should be composing full-time and not doing any of these activities. If I was given all the money in the world, that's probably what I would do. But I love the radio show, and I love playing the piano. I, I've played classical recitals, and I've done collaborations, but there's certain things I just don't want to play in public. Like, you're never going to hear me play a Mozart concerto in public ever, because there are too many people who do it really well. About maybe 10, 12 years ago, I had to play the Mozart Kegelstadt Trio. I worked my butt off on the piano part because it's really like playing a piano concerto. It's a wonderful piece, but I worked like crazy on it because the flow of the phrasing maybe didn't come as natural to me as I would have liked. And I was just preparing it and sweating buckets, and the performance went well, but I have to say I did not enjoy it at all. And I do not enjoy recording classical music because the pressure is just too much. And I made a decision that I would never record classical music again unless I'm recording my own works, because if I mess something up, nobody's gonna know, right?

But thank you for telling me all this, because I think lately especially I'm sure you noticed this as a radio show host too, but you can really find your own identity through music. So it doesn't— there's no like, oh, you have to play this piece and then you have to go through this specific program or route to become—

look, don't get me wrong, I am so happy that I learned Chopin etudes at a young age.

Yeah.

I mean, not that I can, you know, it would take me a while to get them back in my fingers, but if I'm teaching master classes, because I know this repertoire, I can demonstrate things. I mean, I can't play any of these pieces as well as the students who bring things in to me, but I can look at them and I can give them suggestions about how to make something technically easier, or ways of getting around things, or ways to you know, communicate what's in the score in a better and clearer way. So I'm— and so I have no regrets at all. I don't think it was— certainly not time wasted. But are you going to see me playing the Chopin Études in front of people?

No.

Of course not. No, you know, who needs it? You know, on the other hand, there are, there are some contemporary pieces that I'm very happy to play in public, which I feel very comfortable doing, and I think that I can bring something to them. I actually have some recital programs planned for next year, which I'm very excited about the program. So tell me what Well, uh, one piece is a set of variations called We Sing for the Future by Cornelius Cardew, and he was a close friend and colleague of Frederick Szewski, who was a very close friend and kind of a mentor to me, the great composer-pianist. And Frederick turned me on to this piece, and it was the last piece that Cardew wrote before he was murdered in a hit-and-run accident. And, uh, and it's a very tonal piece, but it also uses the piano in very ingenious ways. And it's part of a concert of music that has to do with heroism, has to do with peace, has to do with, you know, some kind of political import, I suppose. But, um, and then after the Cardu, I play the Funeral March from Beethoven's Eroica Symphony in the Liszt transcription. What a juxtaposition. Then the second half of the concert, I'll probably write a new set of variations, I guess, based on the Ukrainian national anthem. Then I play Frederick Zewski's fantasy based on John Lennon's Give Peace a Chance, which I've played many times, and there's also room for improvisation. Also, you know, in these pieces one can improvise, and, you know, I, I love to improvise in classical contexts. That's why I love playing a lot of Szyewski's pieces, because he also gives room for one to play optional cadenzas. And then I finished the concert with a piece by Alvin Curran, who's a wonderful composer and pianist and he and Frederick and the late Richard Teitelbaum formed Musica Elettronica Viva in Rome in the late 1960s, which is a great collective improvisation group that had really tremendous impact on their time. Alvin wrote a piece in memory of Cornelius because he was a friend of Cornelius also. It's called For Cornelius, and it's a piece that opens with a kind of lament that wouldn't be out of place in an Erik Satie Gymnopédie, and then it goes into this relentless section of these building tremolos in both hands that builds to an extraordinary climax. And this is a piece that's been in my repertoire for ages. It's an extraordinary piece. So I think the trajectory is kind of interesting, starting with Cornelius's last piece, and then a piece written in memory. Then you have Give Peace a Chance, and then the funeral march, and then Give Something of Mine to reflect the state of the world. So, so, you know, you have the subtext that I'm talking about, but also musically it all is very unified and makes sense, and it's very diverse and Programming is very important to me. I think, as you've gathered, as a piano player as well as a radio host, I think programming and order and contrast— this has all been very, very important to me. And it's interesting how a lot of really wonderful pianists really are not very good programmers, you know.

Yes, yes, it's, um, I guess one must keep researching these pieces and getting to know contemporary composers?

Oh well, there's so much out there. I mean, there's just such a vast amount of music. Another thing that I've been doing in my piano playing life over the last 2 or 3 years, after the pandemic finished and concerts opened up, I started playing symphonic repertoire. In piano four-hand arrangements with different friends in the U.S. and in— yeah, I've been doing Mahler. My first experience was playing the Mahler Ninth Symphony with my dear, dear friend Jerry Kuderina, who's a pianist who's based in Berkeley. He's a great teacher, a wonderful artist, and he's probably my closest friend among pianists in the United States. And we had the opportunity to play the Mahler Ninth Symphony at the catacombs in the Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn at a series that Andrew Owsley produces during the summer. It was really extraordinary to play the Mahler Ninth four hands in this small catacomb and with a very small audience. And this is the cemetery where Leonard Bernstein is buried. So I'm sure he was listening to the Mahler and probably cringing. I could have imagined his spirit saying, 'Get off that piano bench and let me show you how it's done.' And, and then Jerry and I played the Mahler several more times. In fact, we will be playing it on the Salon Concerts at Klavierhaus series, for which I became artistic director. I've also— I also played the Mahler Second last year in a benefit for Ukraine in London with the pianist Gabriele Baldocci. I played Mahler Fifth in Milano with Massimo Giuseppe Bianchi. What a wonderful pianist. I've played the Mahler First in New York with Drew Peterson, who won the American Pianists Association Award in 2017. He's one of the most gifted pianists of his generation. And, and, uh, it's not official yet, but there looks like there's going to be a Mahler 6th in Helsinki in 2025, I hope, but I don't really know. I also played Shostakovich 9th with Peter Jablonski last year in Karlskrona, Sweden, and that was such a wonderful collaboration., and that is Shostakovich's own arrangement, and it works so well for the piano. Some of his other symphonies I don't think would be as effective on the piano, even though he did the arrangements. Like Symphony No. 11, I think, relies so much on the orchestration and also the ambient atmosphere in a concert hall that it might be a little fatiguing to hear that. I don't know, it's kind of strange. You have to really, you know, be selective. You know, some of these transcriptions really lend themselves to public performance. You know, certainly Shostakovich 9 does. Mahler 9 really works very well on piano. The Mahler 1st does, although you have endless tremolos, and, you know, I think this probably is served better by an Orchestra, maybe.

Um, are these transcribed by different people?

Uh, Bruno Walter did the Mahler First and Second, and he was, uh, Mahler's disciple, so that has a lot of, uh, you know, validity to that. Uh, a lot of the others were done by like house arrangers because a lot of these music publishing companies had arrangers who were not really well-known musicians, but they made a living making transcriptions because this is what you had before you had radio and recordings. You know, if you wanted to hear the new Brahms symphony, either you had to take a horse and buggy to Vienna, you know, for 3 days, or otherwise you'd buy the forehand arrangement. Actually, Brahms either did his own arrangements or supervised other people doing them, or you would play it yourself at home. And The Piano Pod, as you know, was the home entertainment center, you know, from about 1840-something up until, you know, the early 1930s. And I have a big collection of four-hand music. I love, I love playing these things. When I have my pianist friends over, I rope them into sight reading through Haydn quartets or Debussy La Mer, or, you know, whatever. And what I like about that is that it's fun and there's no professional pressure attached to that, although ironically it's becoming a profession for me, so I do have the professional pressure. But at the same time, because they're transcriptions, like if you have some passages of ridiculously hard octaves, I'll usually leave stuff out because hey, it's a transcription of a transcription or something.

And you've done so many, you know, interesting gigs. And, uh, but one thing I realized was, what is this 175 electronic keyboards, the Guinness record?

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is a fun project. What happened was I was involved for quite a few years with Make Music New York. Which is an organization that produces free concerts, mostly in outdoor venues all over the city, on June 21st. I was involved with the first one done in New York in 2007, where I led a performance of Terry Riley's minimalist manifesto, or minimalist masterpiece, In C, with 100+ musicians on Cornelia Street in Greenwich Village, because the Cornelia Street Cafe was a place where I hosted a monthly contemporary music series for years, and I was very, very involved with musical activities at the cafe. And the owner of the cafe, Robin Hirsch, who's an actor and writer, was very supportive of my musical activities. So when this opportunity came up with Make Music New York, I 'Robin, do you think we could do a big thing on the street?' So we got permission from the city, and the other businesses, you know, knew about this. So it was very, very successful. It was a lot of fun. And so for the next several years, my music nonprofit organization, Composers Collaborative, produced or either co-produced big events on the street for— on June 21st. So what happened is on June 21st, 2013, Make Music New York was interested in doing a multi-keyboard project where Yamaha would donate 175 or so keyboards, however many keyboards it would take to break the Guinness Book record of number of keyboards playing simultaneously. So they asked if I was interested in participating. So I thought, well, why don't I write a piece of music for this? So I wrote a piece called Broken Record, which was a piece that was more of an installation and a kind of environmental piece where there were written notes, but there were also gestures. Like, like, I would have blocks of time saying, like, from 2 minutes and 30 seconds to 4 minutes and 40 seconds, you just play arpeggios. And so I had all of these keyboards, and my wife Maria Scarpini, who is a visual artist, arranged the look of the keyboards on the street. She did the scenography where she made an outline of where to place the keyboards and also where to place the 5 conductors that I had. And she did this in a way where pedestrians could walk up and down the street and hear the piece from different perspectives because things sounded very different from wherever you were on the street. Now, the thing was, is that we wouldn't have been able to qualify for the Guinness Record unless we played a familiar composition. And who the hell knows Jed Dissler's composition, Broken Record? But everybody knows the Pachelbel Canon. Right?

Yeah, right, right. Yeah.

So what did I do? I made an arrangement of the Pachelbel Canon for 175 keyboards, and we opened with that.

Wow, wow. I can't imagine.

Oh, well, well, there's— there's— if you go on YouTube, you'll find a video of this. It's really kind of amusing. I'll send you a link to it. It was a lot of fun, but it was also a lot of hard work. But it's a project that I would love to do again, but to do it on a larger scale in another outdoor venue, but also to have an infrastructure that would include a sound engineer and the kind— and, you know, really, you know, good financial support, because I think it's something that that can involve communities. And, you know, a lot of the people who participated were not professional performers. Like, there were a lot of school kids. In fact, um, one of the school kids was Cameron Glass, whose father is Philip Glass. And of course, Philip showed up, and then we roped him into playing. So I can say that Philip Glass performed my compositions. But there are a lot of other composers there. The late Noah Kraszewski, who who was one of the great electronic composers of his generation and who was a dear, dear friend. He played, and he never showed his face in public, you know, because he wrote his electronic music kind of in isolation. And that he showed up to this and participated meant so much to me. But just this kind of a community spirit was so much fun. And this is the kind of thing that we need more and more of, because it just shows that people can participate in live music and be a part of something that is, you know, bigger, you know, than the— that's what, what's the cliché? More than the sum of its parts, or it adds up to more than the sum of its parts. But I would love to And anyway, I don't want to talk too much because, you know, somebody else might steal the idea.

That's—

but I do have some ideas for venues and sites where I think this could really work, and I would love to do it again. Um, we're doing two things. Uh, I wrote a piece for 175 electronic keyboards and grand piano, which is called Broken Record, and it's a piece that really uses the entire length of the street as kind of a soundscape where waves of sound are going from one place to another, and there's some sections where people can play what they want within certain parameters.

Another project you are working on, which is the 1827 Bagatelles.

Oh yeah, I'm composing 1827 piano bagatelles for the Beethoven death anniversary. And each bagatelle is dedicated to a different pianist, musician, friend, or somebody involved in this. You are in my database of people, by the way. Oh yeah, oh yeah, of course, you're, you're one of the recent entries.

Oh my goodness, that's an honor.

So some of these have been performed. I'm up to about— I'm about a third way through. But the thing is, is like some of the bagatelles are only like 5 seconds, 6 seconds long, and they're all very stylistically diverse. Also, because, you know, I'm constantly sketching things and tossing the sketches away, but I keep everything, although they're all filed. You know, again, it's that hoarder tendency, or tendency not to hoard. I can go back to a lot of these pieces that I forgot about from years ago, like something I started, never finished, and then I just say, okay, I'll do this. I'll just keep it intact. It's a bagatelle. So I spend, you know, several hours a day just copying the damn music out. And then when I'm copying, I do little revisions. And, and one can play any amount of these, as many or as few as one wishes, in any order. You know, there's no rules or regulations about it. It's really just like a big big gift to the piano community. And then I retire. I don't think so. I don't think so.

But do you plan to do this, like, um, maybe some sort of, I don't know, event, or like putting—

yeah, yeah, yeah, there's already talk about doing the entire cycle in a couple of European cities. I can't really talk about details, but I don't know whether I would play the whole thing or somebody else would. I mean, I, I imagine the whole thing would total, you know, maybe 8 hours of music altogether. It wouldn't be all that long, honestly. There is one Bagatelle that's actually 1 hour long, but that's because you have hundreds of repetitions. And that was actually written for a friend of mine, Nikola Orvat, a really fantastic pianist who plays Sati's Vexations by himself. I don't know how he does that, you know. He does 24 hours or so playing straight through. I don't know how he does that. But so that's kind of dedicated to him. But, you know, we'll, we'll see what happens. I mean, they're— I'm, I'm open to suggestions. I'm open to funding. I'm open to— oh, and oh, we should talk about my podcast, shouldn't we?

Oh sure, let's, let's talk about it. So you just gave birth to a podcast show.

Yes, and I have to thank you for helping me set it up and for all of your support and your ideas and feedback, because I wouldn't have been able to do this without you. But it's called The Piano Pod with Jed Distler, and it's a very simple premise where I talk about piano recordings. There isn't any music because because you have to deal with getting rights if you have music in a podcast format, whereas on my radio show with webcasts, you can't download those, although I'm sure people can find ways to do that illegally. But, but that's— the radio is a very different thing. So, but what I do is I discuss recordings. However, I provide links to how you can access the recordings, purchase them, or hear them in authorized YouTube YouTube site. In fact, I've been getting a lot of feedback from listeners who've discovered the podcast through YouTube, and they send comments and they're very supportive and interesting. And, and what's been wonderful is that my podcast has opened up a lot of dialogues about recordings and repertoire. And I'll talk about new releases, or I'll talk about unusual things. It's kind of like Between the Keys in the sense that I'm trying give a lot of variety and not just to have only new releases or only dead pianists. I try to mix it up. I also have episodes about jazz pianists that will be coming up, and not your usual suspects among jazz pianists. There'll be some surprises, pianists who you probably haven't even thought about. And also, the listeners who are writing in are drawing my attention to pianists who I didn't even know about. So, so it's this back and forth that I think is just so wonderful, and it just shows what a community we have in the piano world internationally and how we have to keep the community cultivated and alive and nurtured. It's so important, and you've been doing this to such a wonderful extent with The Piano Pod, and I hope that I've been doing this with my work too.

Oh, you are my inspiration, but thank you so much for such encouraging words. It means so much. And, but this is the reason why we do, you know, radio show to podcast, because we love piano so much. And it's not this compositions by the usual suspects, but it's just so much more, right?

And I think the important thing is— another thing I should have said about my radio show before is, and when we talk about community, we're not just talking about people who've been a part of the community for a long time, because we don't want to always preach to the choir. We want to be inviting new people. There are always going to be people tuning into your podcast, my podcast, and my radio show who may be just discovering a Beethoven piece or learning about the piano for the first time, and you have to present something in a way that will make it attractive for them to come back for more. One thing that I never liked about reading sports columnists is that they always presume a kind of prior knowledge among readers, and they use jargon that I never understand. And I'm often turned off by that because they assume you know so much, and there's all this insider information that kind of alienates me. I feel the same way often about reading opera critics because they're talking a lot in technical terms, or in very arcane language that I think would turn off people who just want to listen to opera and enjoy the singers. And I know that when I write record reviews, sometimes I can get a little technical, or I can get involved in this kind of jargon, but I try not to do that. And I try not to do this when I'm putting a radio show together. Even sometimes I— it it, it's unavoidable. But you want to invite somebody who may not know about this and to give them information but make them want to learn more, you know. And then, you know, they can discover, you know, all this on their own.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But where does that big heart come from?

My parents. I had very loving, supportive parents, and I had 3 younger brothers, and we were raised to be kind and to be civil. We didn't always have to like one another all the time in the house, but respect and civility were always important, and there was always a sense of support and generosity from my parents, even if we didn't always share the same loves. I Like, my father was not artistic at all. He was really into sports. I wasn't into sports. But his sense of right and wrong, his feeling of being protective of those he loved, and his authenticity and how he related so naturally with people is something that I've tried to emulate. I don't know if I do it successfully, but my mother was a teacher and a poet and somebody who was just very open and curious about all of the arts. And living in a house with an artist who had all kinds of things going on— and, you know, when I was a kid, she bought records for me all the time. She bought secondhand records of all styles, and it didn't really matter what it was. And, and and just being non-judgmental, but also setting limits, of course. But, but I think it's their kindness and their ethical blueprint. I think that this is— and, and having mentors who are generous, and also knowing how not to be, because there's some teachers I had who were just very small-minded and not very generous. Who, you know, so I knew who not to be like, you know. So I really, I really think it was my upbringing, honestly. So I, I just, I'm just very lucky. Not everyone is lucky to have, you know, close family ties. I was just in Colorado recently because one of my younger brothers' daughter had a wedding It was just a wonderful occasion to be with my brothers and their kids, you know, who are all grown. And they all have that very sweet and generous nature. They're all doing interesting work. You know, there are no musicians among them, although I do have a nephew who studied French horn very seriously. And he's a sports fanatic, and he works works, you know, in broadcasting, and he just loves it. But we're going to do a Between the Keys episode together where we talk about the introduction of the Brahms Second Concerto because there's that horn solo. So he's going to comment on the horn solos without knowing who's playing, and then I'm going to comment on the piano without knowing who's playing. We're going to see what we come up with.

And oh, how lovely!

It'll be so much fun to collaborate with him on this. And as I get older, I feel that friends and family are the really the most important thing. And when I'm with my wife's friends in Italy, you know, because she's from Milan and we spent a lot of time, there is this loyalty among friends that you don't always find in the United States. I think in New York City, even though it's such a big city and there's so many people, it can often seem so isolated because we're all so obsessed by our work and we're all alone in our studios working. And you don't always have that sense of community that you can have. I mean, I will see friends and colleagues at concerts, but it's not that we always go out of our way to make time to go have coffee or have dinner. That's but you have to really make the effort to do that. Whereas, you know, when I'm in Milan or even when I'm in the Bay Area, it's a little different because my pianist friends are always going to one another's concerts and listening to run-throughs and, and helping each other out. And it's, it's something that's really quite wonderful. It's very Italian for me. And the best example of this is I remember I think it was a couple of years ago, we were in Milan and my wife was staying a few more days beyond me. I had to leave a little earlier, so these friends of ours drive all the way across the city the morning I'm gonna leave. You know, I have an afternoon flight. They drive over in the morning just to have coffee with us, just to say hi and goodbye. Does that ever happen in New York City? I don't think so. Rarely. I mean, you know, this will happen in a small town somewhere, and, you know, these are people who I'm very fond with, but they're, you know, these are, you know, old friends of Mima's, of my wife's, and, you know, I've, you know, come to know them and I'm very fond of them. But, you know, and— but they're busy people, you know, they don't have to do this. But, but this is what happens all the time. And this is what I value really more than anything, you know. I think, I think friends and family are really— that, that's the top priority for me. I can always make music, I— and I can always do my musical projects, but you know, you can't get another family.

Jed, you mentioned in the guest form you filled out for me that you've always pursued your dreams and obsessions to their final goal, seeking out like-minded individuals for support and feedback. We mentioned about community and so on today. So in the often solitary pursuit of artistic excellence, especially being a pianist and composer as well, how do you balance the drive for personal achievement with the need to create community and build steadfast relationships? Maybe you answer a question.

You already talked about family and friends, and I think that the pursuit of artistic excellence and the pursuit of community can be one and the same. I think that these work within one another, they feed in and out of each other. It's a very natural kind of thing because so much of what is done artistically is community-oriented in terms of having a team working together. I mean, otherwise you wouldn't have orchestras, and in writing pieces for many people or bringing a lot of people together to perform something, you're, you know, this, this is, this is, I think it's a very organic kind of thing. If you think about what Bach did in composing his passions and his cantatas, These were pieces that were written not just for performers but for the members of the congregation because they would sing the chorales. They were very much a part of this. So this is, this is something that is not a new idea.

And the last question would be, what is your thought on our gift, or maybe duty, as classical musicians to society?

Oh, that's a tough question. We have to remember that in classical music, we are in a service industry. We are serving the composers. We are bringing the music to the public, and we do this through performing, through hosting radio shows, through presenting, through curating, through artistic directing. However we do it, the important thing is just getting the music to the people and sharing it with them, not preaching it to them, but sharing it and just giving people an opportunity to hear this music and to get to know it and to create contexts in which they can get to know it better, should they want, through discussions or lectures lectures or books or reviews or whatever.

So, oh, totally beautiful. Thank you. Beautifully said. So for our listeners, please check out Jed's website for all the work he, he has done in the past, but also maybe to keep you posted on his new project. So his website is jeddisler.com, J-E-D-D-I-S-L-E-R.com. Jett Dissler.com, correct?

Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's it.

Mm-hmm. And then be sure to check out his radio show, uh, on WWFM.org, Between the Keys, and his newly launched podcast, The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song, by Jett Dissler.

And I also should mention that I am the new artistic director of the Salon Concerts at Klavierhaus, which is a weekly recital series that takes place for the most part on Sunday afternoons at 2 o'clock. And these concerts are live streamed, but you can attend in person. Concerts are free, but there's a suggested donation, and the series presents a very broad range of emerging and established pianists alike. And this series was founded 2 years ago by Joseph Patrick, who was a fantastic recording engineer and a mentor to pianists and somebody who had an extraordinary presence in the piano world. And he was a very close friend of mine, and we collaborated on many projects together. And after his death, I was brought in to keep the series going, and we are continuing it into this season. So, so you can find this online, and, uh, there are all— all the concerts are booked through June 2025, and I'm going to be performing on a bunch of these, which will be a lot of fun.

So you can go to event.claviahouse.com to purchase tickets. Oh no, no, you don't have to purchase tickets, but, uh, get them.

Yeah, well, well, you should donate. Okay, you have a moral obligation to donate even though you don't have to, but you should.

Absolutely.

Could have, should have, would have, supposed to.

Yeah, yes, that's right. Well, Jed, it has been a wonderful, inspiring conversation. It was a master class.

Us.

Thank you. So thank you, thank you, thank you. So, but before I let you go, we have one more thing to do. It's called One More Thing to Do. Okay, rapid-fire questions, and this is the part of the show where I get to ask fun questions to each guest. Here's a little twist: as silly as these questions may sound, your answers may reveal who you truly are. So ready or not, please answer each question with the shortest response as possible and know as quickly as possible, uh, as short as possible. The quick— you can, you can take your time to think a little bit, but like, like 3 or 4 words. Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. One word. Yeah, it depends on the question. But question 1, question number 1: What is your comfort food?

My homemade meatballs. From chicken.

How do you like your coffee in the morning?

Black, strong.

Cats or dogs?

Cats.

Yes, I met your— one of your cats.

You met Shubi. Pablo, I don't think you met, but you met Shubi.

So sweet. And next question is sunrise or sunset?

Sunrise.

Summer or winter?

It's hard to say. It depends on which country. I would say summer.

Next question is a little bit more difficult. What skill have you always wanted to learn but haven't had a chance to?

Diving.

Oh, what is your word or words to live by?

Be yourself.

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

Authenticity and kindness.

Name 3 people Who inspire you, living or dead?

My wife, Maria Scarpini. Oh God, this is so hard. So many people inspire me. I, I don't know how to answer this, but certainly my wife would come first.

That's, that's good enough. Thank you. And then two more. Name one title in your current playlist. I'm so curious to know this.

Oh, Little Brother Montgomery's album called Farrow Street Jive. He was a blues pianist based in Chicago, and this is a 1968 album on Folkways. He's just a wonderful blues boogie-woogie player and singer, and, and just such inviting music. Lovely stuff.

Oh, I need to listen to that. Well, sounds lovely. The last question: fill in the blank, please. Music is blank? Fun.

Yay!

Why not?

Why not? Absolutely.

Because I, I just want to have fun, and I have fun doing everything that I'm doing.

That's great. Wonderful answer. So this concludes this episode of The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song with Jed Macosko. Thank you, Jed, for joining my show today and sharing your stories, insights, and expertise.

It was my pleasure. I just enjoyed our time together so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Thank you so much. You can learn more about Jed and his amazing work through his website at JedLister.com, and you can listen to his new podcast show, The Piano Maven, wherever you listen to your podcasts. All the links are listed in the show notes. And thank you to my wonderful audience and fans for tuning in today. If you If you enjoyed today's episode, please rate and review it on your favorite podcasting platform. Remember to hit the thumbs up button and subscribe to my YouTube channel. Follow The Piano Pod on— that's right— social media to get the latest piano news via Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and then LinkedIn. I will see you for the next episode of The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song with Yukimi Song with Yukimi Song.

Thank you, Jed, and thank you, everybody.