The Piano Pod Meets Chantal Balestri: Differences in studying music in Europe versus America

10 Nov 2020 · 3 min

Watch on YouTube

2:58

This content was created by The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song. This content was uploaded by The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song. This is a YouTube interview titled "The Piano Pod Meets Chantal Balestri: Differences in studying music in Europe versus America" (posted 2020-11-10). The excerpt is an English spoken segment by pianist Chantal Balestri describing differences between European conservatory training—its strong traditions, rigorous repertoire requirements, and limited focus on practical career paths—and her experience in the United States (New York), which she found more open to experimentation, interdisciplinary projects, and offering different job opportunities for pianists. The clip focuses on education, career realities for pianists, and cross-cultural contrasts in classical-music training.

Chapters

Surely I can say that you can tell that Europe is where classical music comes from. And there is a deep attention to traditions, maybe too much. This is probably the limit sometimes in the sense that, as I said, I grew up in a— in an environment in which I was a pianist, I was a soloist, and this was the only way. And this is unrealistic because most of the pianists, they cannot reach the big career as Martha Argerich or Kristian Zimmermann. Of course, they are— you can do concert like I'm doing, solo concerts, but thinking to just play in the most beautiful theaters, it's not realistic because This is the way it is. So it can be, like, it can be good because they prepare you really strongly. And actually, the requirements when I did the conservatory were really high. Like, when I graduated when I was 18, I had to prepare 2 hours and a half of repertoire, divide in 2 days, 24 hours, and had to do 2 piano concertos. And so, of course, when I ended this, I felt like already, you know, that I studied a lot, that I had already a lot of repertoire. So this was good. But on the other side, they don't really look at the practical life, what to do later on in your life. Things are changing, I'm not saying, but still I can say that this is kind of a limit in which they are trying to work on. And the United States, what I felt, I mean, in New York, because I need to speak about New York, of course I had concerts all around the United States, but I live just in New York, so this is my experience, is I had the feeling that I could experiment, that I could meet people with great idea and trying to do so many interdisciplinary— can I say that? Interdisciplinary, yeah. Yeah, sorry, sometimes I'm losing my English a little bit, but— Oh, it's okay. It's okay. Yeah. And so it's a good place to think bigger, to do some very beautiful projects. And so I felt really inspired. And actually, it's also easier then also to find some jobs. It's true. It's something to say, to acknowledge, especially for us pianists. In which it's very hard to find a job like pianist in orchestra. So, for example, if you're a string player, probably it's easier for you in Europe to find a job in orchestra, but if you're a pianist, it's not as easy.