Pianists face an ongoing challenge: to make the piano sound like a singer. As the piano is a percussion instrument, whereby a hammer hits a string to make sound, the tone created by a pianist each time a finger strikes a key begins to...  

Editors Note: One of my great friends and colleagues Kristofer Johnson (conductor for the Concord Chorale in New Hampshire) turned me on to Rebecca's video for TEDx a few months back. We immediately contacted Rebecca to see if she would do an interview, since the video was so moving. The interview questions and answers definitely work better if you have seen the video, so we are also embedding it for you here. Enjoy!

The Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative pairs extraordinarily accomplished artists with emerging artists in a mentoring/protégé relationship. There are six disciplines in this program: Art, Theatre, Music, Writing, Film and Dance. In 2003, I was invited by Rolex to submit an application for

For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by the power of words.  Books have enriched my life in many ways; they allow me to experience different times and places, to participate vicariously in other people’s lives, and through the empathy I feel for characters in the books, to gain insight into my own experience as a human.  So it is natural that...  

In this age of instant information, answers to questions seem immediate. It is not uncommon for me, when I am faced with the occasional memory lapse during class, to hear a student say, ‘Just a minute’, whip out her smart phone, and track down the answer in a matter of seconds. It’s enough to make the most ...