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 trailer titled "Trailer 2: Season 3 Episode 17: Hannah Reimann -- Stretto Pianos" (uploaded April 24, 2023). It contains an interview-style excerpt between a host (labeled here as SPEAKER A, the episode/promotional voice) and guest pianist Hannah Reimann, who describes discovering and using stretto (narrow-key) pianos to address painful tendinitis, her studies with Dr. Barbara Lister-Sink at Salem College, and her advocacy work (International Stretto Piano Festival and Stretto Piano Concerts). The clip also includes promotional details for the episode premiere (Tuesday, April 25, 8 PM ET) and instructions to subscribe/follow The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song. Content type: YOUTUBE; topic: stretto pianos, injury-preventive piano technique, and episode promotion.
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. Yeah, with stretto pianos. That's amazing. So tell me your journey as a pianist. How did you discover stretto piano?
I was in college and playing around 6 or 7 hours a day, and the overuse and the constant it's a piano performance degree, you're playing a lot. And by my junior year, I started getting some really bad tendinitis in my forearms. 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. 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 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 had 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? I had come from a pretty top-notch musical education.
More on this conversation with Hannah Reimann, pioneer and advocate of stretto pianos and creator of the International Stretto Piano Festival and Stretto Piano Concerts. Please join the chat during the premiere of this special episode this Tuesday, April 25th, 8 PM Eastern on my YouTube channel. The audio podcast will be split into two parts. Part 1 will be dropped on your favorite podcasting platform at the same time of the video premiere. Don't forget to subscribe or follow The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song with Yukimi Song with Yukimi Song. All the links are in the description.
