33: Father Sean Duggan, Supreme Bach Pianist, on How Studying with Edna Golandsky Enhanced His Pianism

05/03/24 • 38 min

Thank you for joining us on today's episode on Inside the Taubman Approach. I'm your host, Dr. Benjamin Harding.
Today we welcome Father Sean Duggan to the podcast. Pianist Sean Duggan is a monk of St. Joseph Abbey in Covington, Louisiana. He is also a professor of piano at SUNY Fredonia. Father Sean is a master pianist and a master teacher. His teaching and playing was and is enhanced in studying with Edna Golandsky.
His work in the playing of Bach and memorization is renowned. We cover so much in this episode. Also - bonus! A video of this interview is available on our YouTube channel. Check out the show notes of the podcast for the link and for more information on Father Sean Duggan.
YouTube Interview Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw5lYnjvjMQ
Father Sean Duggan at SUNY Fredonia:
https://www.fredonia.edu/academics/colleges-schools/school-music/music/faculty/Sean-Duggan
Pianist Sean Duggan is a monk of St. Joseph Abbey in Covington, Louisiana. He obtained his music degrees from Loyola University in New Orleans and Carnegie Mellon University. He received a Master’s degree in theology from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. From 1988 to 2001 he taught music, Latin, and religion at St. Joseph Seminary College in Louisiana and was director of music and organist at St. Joseph Abbey.

In September 1983 he won first prize in the Johann Sebastian Bach International Competition for Pianists in Washington, D.C., and again in August 1991. Having a special affinity for the music of Bach, in 2000 he performed the complete cycle of Bach’s keyboard works eight times in various American and European cities. For seven years he hosted a weekly program on the New Orleans NPR station entitled “Bach on Sunday.” He is presently in the midst of recording the complete cycle of Bach’s keyboard (piano) music, which will comprise 24 CDs.

Before he joined the Benedictine order he was pianist and assistant chorus master for the Pittsburgh Opera Company for three years. He has performed with many orchestras including the Louisiana Philharmonic, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Leipzig Baroque Soloists, the Prague Chamber Orchestra, the American Chamber Orchestra, and the Pennsylvania Sinfonia. From 2001 to 2004 he was a visiting professor of piano at the University of Michigan. Currently he is associate professor of piano at SUNY at Fredonia. During the fall semester of 2008 he was also a guest professor of piano at Eastman School of Music. He has been a guest artist and adjudicator at the Chautauqua Institution for several summers, and is also a faculty member of the Golandsky Institute at Princeton, New Jersey. He continues to study the Taubman approach with Edna Golandsky in New York City.

The Golandsky Institute's mission is to provide cutting-edge instruction to pianists based on the groundbreaking work of Dorothy Taubman. This knowledge can help them overcome technical and musical challenges, cure and prevent playing-related injuries, and lead them to achieve their highest level of artistic excellence.
Please visit our website at: www.golandskyinstitute.org.

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32: Yegor Shevtsov on the Taubman Approach Helping in Practical Applications

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Welcome to Inside the Taubman Approach sponsored by the Golandsky Institute.

I am your host Benjamin Harding. Today’s episode is fascinating.

Yegor Shevtsov is one of the most interesting people that I have ever met. He truly is a Renaissance man. He’s an intellectual: he speaks many, many languages; he devours repertoire, literature, poetry, and art. He grew up being a dancer, then studied economics in Amsterdam. He then came to the United States and pursued music at Manhattan school of Music all the way through the doctoral level. We were students together at Manhattan school of music in the studio of Nina Svetlanova. Yegor is one of the most kind and humble people I have ever met as well - a joy to talk to.

What surprised me today in this interview is how he came to the Taubman Approach for a very practical solution. You'll see what I mean. Let me read an excerpt found on our website from Yegor.

From Yegor Shevtsov:
I am a working pianist, and I owe that honor in no small measure to Edna’s precise, encouraging and constructive teaching. Both she and her wonderful colleagues at the Institute are an incredible resource to pianists of all levels, from beginner students to those wishing to recover from injury to those who simply look to be better pianists, better musicians. I came to Edna to get help with very practical and concrete problems: I needed to perform some pieces that I could not play well. Over the years, I have brought to her Chopin and Scriabin Etudes for gigs, Beethoven and Brahms Sonatas for competitions, Strauss and Stravinsky orchestral excerpts for auditions. From fingerings to articulation, from sound quality to rhythmic vitality – Edna leaves no stone unturned. What separates her from other teachers is of course the fact that she enables you to explore all those categories as rooted in the anatomical evidence of playing the instrument. Through studying with her, I have become not just a better performer, but a better musician and a better teacher myself. Edna is an embodiment of a Master Teacher. Thank you, Master.

Yegor Shevtsov

Pianist, Arctic Philharmonic, Bodø, Norway
Pianist, Ballet West, Salt Lake City, UT
Pianist, Mark Morris Dance Group Ensemble, Brooklyn, NY
Faculty, MSM Precollege, New York, NY
DMA, Manhattan School of Music

https://markmorrisdancegroup.org/profile/yegor-shevtsov/

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34: Norwegian Pianist, Dimitris Kostopoulos, on Studying the Taubman Work Online

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Today we welcome Dimitris Kostopoulos to Inside the Taubman Approach. I love this interview so much. Here's why: Dimitris came across the Taubman Technique tapes during a questioning period in his professional career. He studied these 10 DVD's for years. He understood the concepts and the language used to the point where he began to apply them to his playing. But - it was not until he met Edna Golandsky that he realized he that he needed to study this incredible work with an expert one on one.
Dimitris in his story shows how studying the Taubman Approach online with an expert really is effective.
https://kostopoulos.no/
Dimitris Kostopoulos was born in 1984, and grew up in Bodø, Norway. He is among the leading Norwegian pianists of his generation, and holds a Master’s degree in piano from the Barratt Due Institute of Music and the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. His main teacher was the recognized Czech professor Jiri Hlinka. In addition to this, he has participated in masterclasses with the Norwegian professor Einar Steen-Nøkleberg, the Dutch professor Marcel Baudet and the Swedish professor Hans Pålsson. He as also studied the work of Dorothy Taubman and Edna Golandsky through the Taubman Techniques.
Dimitris Kostopoulos has established himself as a professional concert pianist with performances at several of Norway’s most famous music festivals and concert halls. His performances as pianist includes the Bergen International Music Festival, ULTIMA Contemporary Music Festival, Oslo Grieg Festival, The Hemsing Festival, Nordland Music Festival, the Music Festival of Northern Norway, the Northern Light Festival and the Opera in Oslo, Oslo Concert Hall and many other venues. In addition to this, he has performed regularly abroad giving concerts in Sweden, Vietnam, Portugal, Lithuania, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, South Africa, Italy and Russia.
As a soloist, Kostopoulos has performed with many orchestras, including the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra, Lithuaninan State Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Camerata, Tromsø Symphony Orchestra, Barratt Due Symphony Orchestra, Banda Sinfonica da PSP, Bodø Sinfonietta, the MiNensemble, Narvik City Symphony Orchestra, Bodø City Symphony Orchestra and LVO. Kostopoulos has worked with conductors such as Bjarte Engeseth, Arvid Engegård, Stephan Barratt-Due, Pierre-André Valade, Jonathan Stockhammer, Torodd Wigum, Alf Richard Kraggerud, Terje Boye Hansen, Jan Ludvig Jacobsen and Nicolas Carthy.
Another important part of Kostopoulos’ career is his devotion to chamber music. His mother was a professional soprano, and already from the age of 13 he started to accompany her and perform concerts with her. Since then chamber music has been a natural part of his work as a pianist, resulting in collaborations with many of Norway’s leading musicians such as Catharina Chen, Guro Kleven Hagen, Audun Sandvik, Bjarne Magnus Jensen, Ragnhild Hemsing, Eldbjørg Hemsing, Cathrine Bullock, Ingebjørg Kosmo, Angelica Voje, Christian Mortensen and others.
Internationally recognized and rewarded
Since 2011 he has held the position as pianist in the MiNensemble. This is a chamber music ensemble based in northern Norway, touring throughout Norway as well as internationally.