Trailer for Season 4 Episode 9: Dr. Michael Coonrod -- Classical Pianist, Recording Artist,...

14 Jan 2024 · 3 min

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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 (title: "Trailer for Season 4 Episode 9: Dr. Michael Coonrod -- Classical Pianist, Recording Artist,...") created January 14, 2024, featuring an interview-style excerpt between Dr. Michael Coonrod (a longtime classical pianist, recording artist, and educator with a 46-year tenure at Interlochen) and the host The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song. The clip includes Dr. Coonrod’s teaching philosophy (applied technique, balancing person and talent), discussion of an arrangement of “Dinah Boy,” reflections on his concert/recording career and the loss of his right ring finger, plus promotional copy from The Piano Pod announcing the episode stream and subscription/social links. (Note: the transcript contains variant spellings of the guest’s name such as “Kunrath/Kunra.”)

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Everybody deserves good teaching, whether it's a beginner or extremely advanced. It's not like I teach the talent so much. I teach the person and the talent together. I always say that the person is just as important as the talent. It's important to have a balance in your life. It's so easy to totally evolve what you're doing, practice 6 hours a day and I teach my students to be supportive of one another. It's important to be aware of other people. Support one another. I believe strongly in technique, study of technique, not so separate from music, but exercises. I call it applied technique. So if you're going to do an exercise, there must be a purpose for it. I really love "Dinah Boy" because it's one of the most beautiful songs ever written, and so I arranged it for two hands. And then all of a sudden this finger thing happened, and I thought, oh, it's really— I bet I could do that for left hand alone. And it took me a long time to figure out how I was going to do it because I wanted to have counterpoint in it as well as the melody. So I arranged that, and it's been a nice encore to play. And I played it for the assembly at Interlochen when I was my last week there, and I finally recorded it.
I had the honor of sitting down with Dr. Michael Kunrath, a remarkable classical pianist, recording artist, and educator who recently retired after an illustrious 46-year tenure at the prestigious Interlochen Center for the Arts, where he not only taught piano but left a lasting legacy. This special episode is packed with Dr. Kunrath's unparalleled expertise and invaluable insights. Get ready to uncover an exclusive peek into the Interlochen Arts Academy, Dr. Kunra's heartfelt reflections on his extensive teaching journey spanning almost 5 decades, deep dives into his captivating concert and recording experiences, inspiring moments and challenges following the loss of his right ring finger 9 years ago, and Dr. Kunra's perspective on the role of classical musicians in society. So join us this Tuesday, January 9th at 8 PM Eastern for an uplifting and empowering discussion with Dr. Michael Coonradt, streaming on The Piano Pod's YouTube channel and available on your favorite podcasting platforms. Hit that subscribe button, spread the word, and don't forget to follow The Piano Pod on social media. The links are in the description. Catch you Tuesday!