Ben Laude on Interviewing Today's Great Pianists

Chapters:

0:00  Tonebase and celebrity pianists

5:45 Seymour Bernstein

21:10 Thoughts on Glenn Gould

35:45 The classical music listener

Will we look back on the pandemic as the great age of YouTube?  Of all the online platforms, YouTube has delivered me the most value.  The promise of the internet was that it would connect us with our peeps, with those of like mind.  Whereas Facebook re-connected us with our high school crowd, YouTube puts us in touch with our current deep interests, and not just once or twice, but the algorithms deliver steady content that is tailored for us.

For me, this has included a channel devoted to classical piano called Tonebase.  Ben Laude is the host of the channel, and after watching his great shows for three years now, I’m thrilled to engage with him in conversation on some of my favorite topics, the piano and pianists.  An accomplished concert pianist himself, Ben’s interviews with today’s greatest pianists are as entertaining as they are informative.

“Music education is very private.  We practice by ourselves,” says Ben.   "Compare it to youth sports where we see everyone else doing it.  When you turn on the TV, everyone’s talking about the same game.  You see great athletes at the highest level.  A kid is going to want to play more piano if they see that others are playing.  They can now turn on YouTube and watch people who are really good at this, and they can enjoy it.  There is so much potential for cultivating a culture of participation in piano."