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For immediate release:
Piano Lessons in Vienna
Limited Openings Available for Aspiring Students at Vienna Piano Studio
Contact: Albert Frantz, Vienna Piano Studio: +43 (699) 81 31 26 57
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"Three competitions and three prizes... Many, many thanks!"
"Since returning to Japan I've participated in three competitions and won top prizes in each... These are all works I studied with you. Many, many thanks!!""Enjoyable and engaging... learning is a genuine pleasure"
"Relatively few pianists nowadays truly understand that to play the piano ear training and analysis demand every bit as much attention as does technique."Equally important is the body's posture, particularly that of the hands, arms and shoulders. Ingrained postural problems can often be repaired only with difficulty, if at all. Albert thus gives painstaking attention to the necessity of thinking each and every note before transferring it to the instrument.
"His lessons are as enjoyable as they are engaging, and learning is a genuine pleasure.
"I consider myself fortunate to have the privilege of studying with Albert Frantz."
Harald Voglreiter
Pianist Albert Frantz's Vienna piano studio currently has limited positions available for ambitious students, from children and adult beginners to professionals, to receive comprehensive musical instruction. The assistant to legendary Viennese pianist and scholar Paul Badura-Skoda, Frantz's teaching is grounded in tradition and authenticity. The studio is located just outside the center of Vienna, within convenient access of public transportation.
An energetic and outspoken personality, lessons with Mr. Frantz are invariably engaging, even entertaining, yet he insists that his method is not a "fun and games" approach. "I seek to develop authentic musicians. That demands exactitude, rigor, and focused concentration," he says. Even adult beginners, who seek only to learn music as a hobby, benefit from the same approach, he explains. "Whether one is playing his first five-finger melody or the Liszt Sonata, the musical foundation is identical. The essential elements of musicianship are absolutely the same in both cases; it's just that the one is that much more intricate.
"I absolutely love teaching -- every bit as much as performing," says Frantz. Asked about what's driving that passion, he replies, "First and foremost, it's the love for the music itself. We're so fortunate, as a culture, to have had many of the greatest minds and artistic souls who ever lived communicate, through music, emotions and even ideas which really belong to humanity as a whole, to all of us. That's the essential reason why classical music is still celebrated by millions of people all over the world, even centuries after a composer's death. The music resonates with us in part because we feel that it expresses an essential part of ourselves.
"It also awakens a part of ourselves, and it's the duty of the teacher to pass that along to his students. I've been incredibly fortunate to have worked with genuinely outstanding teachers, and it's such a critical part of what we musicians do to pass the torch of tradition."
After winning local, state and national piano competitions and graduating from the Pennsylvania State University, where he abandoned science and math studies to pursue music (under the tutelage of Prof. Steven H. Smith) and philosophy, Frantz became the first pianist in nearly a decade to win a Fulbright Fellowship to Vienna, among the United States' highest academic honors. There he became the student and assistant to legendary pianist Paul Badura-Skoda, among the few remaining masters of "old school" Viennese piano playing.
"He has unparalleled authority in interpreting Viennese music � Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, with dozens of articles and books, hundreds of recordings, and a world-famous historical piano collection that even includes Beethoven's last piano. He's been a genuine mentor for me."
In addition, Frantz has worked extensively with the renowned pedagogue Sally Sargent, whose comprehensive studies with Busoni pupil Rio Nardi (1899-1984), Marcel Ciampi (1891-1980) and Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979), as well as her ongoing research into historical keyboard playing, has made her an authentic link to the great nineteenth century performing tradition and one of the world's foremost authorities on historical keyboard interpretation.
It is both that collective knowledge that is Viennese tradition and concern for his students' artistic development that Frantz seeks to give back through his own teaching.
Interested students are advised to contact Mr. Frantz's Vienna piano studio at: +43 (699) 81 31 26 57.