The Maestro Online Podcast

Dr Bert Mooiman, pianist and Professor at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague, began by harmonising songs by ear at a home piano before formal lessons at nine. In conversation with Dr Robin Harrison FRSA he explains why musicians should speak music as a language rather than merely translate symbols into sound.

Along the way: playing church services from the age of 13, improvising for classes at the National Ballet in Amsterdam, the actor who cannot speak Shakespeare's English, two-chord melody exercises and pentatonic group improvisation, and a closing late-Romantic nocturne.

Explore Dr Mooiman's Historically Informed Romantic Preludes, 19th-century piano chords and piano cadenzas masterclasses on The Maestro Online: https://www.the-maestro-online.com/music-masterclass/online-piano-improvisation-course-historically-informed/

The Maestro Online is the world's only Ofqual-regulated historically informed Piano Improvisation Exam Board. Try the complete masterclass library free for 7 days: https://www.the-maestro-online.com/7-day-free-trial/

Giovanni Vannoni, the Italian pianist, composer and improviser who studied jazz piano at Siena Jazz University and composition at the R. Franci Conservatory in Siena, talks with Dr Robin Harrison FRSA about improvisation and composition as one continuous creative process at the piano. Born with a difficulty in his right hand, he began rewriting other composers' scores as a child, so that studying music itself became a creative act.

Along the way: why classical musicians lost the improvising habit Bach and Chopin took for granted, a three-note blues game that gets beginners improvising from the first lesson, teaching as a duet, Bartók's struggle to notate folk music, and Giovanni's own improvisation on Bach's Sinfonia No. 2 in C minor.

Giovanni's solo-piano album Il Circo (Workin' Label, 2024) is an eight-part suite inspired by circus disciplines. Watch Il Circo live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b4vdTmqGJM and the performance preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYypLGY6olY - more at https://giovannivannoni.com

Explore piano improvisation masterclasses with the world's finest musicians on The Maestro Online: https://www.the-maestro-online.com/piano-masterclasses/

The Maestro Online is the world's only Ofqual-regulated historically informed Piano Improvisation Exam Board. Try the complete masterclass library free for 7 days: https://www.the-maestro-online.com/7-day-free-trial/

Richard Michael BEM, Honorary Professor of Jazz Piano at the University of St Andrews, has spent a lifetime bringing jazz to everyone - from the classrooms of Stonehaven to broadcasts with the BBC. In this conversation with Dr Robin Harrison FRSA, he shares how improvisation can be taught, why every musician can swing, and the stories behind a remarkable career in jazz education.

Explore Richard's Get Ya Groove On jazz masterclasses on The Maestro Online: https://www.the-maestro-online.com/music-masterclass/jazz-piano-course-beginners/

The Maestro Online is the world's only Ofqual-regulated historically informed Piano Improvisation Exam Board. Try the complete masterclass library free for 7 days: https://www.the-maestro-online.com/7-day-free-trial/

Dr Ralph Allwood MBE is one of Britain's best-known choral directors - for 26 years Precentor and Director of Music at Eton College, and founder of the Eton Choral Courses through which generations of young singers found their voice. In this interview we discuss his musical upbringing, a career spent building choirs and confidence, and what he has learned about teaching singers of every level.

Explore Ralph's courses on The Maestro Online, including Conducting with Love and 10 Pro Strategies to Start Your Sight-Singing Journey: https://www.the-maestro-online.com/music-masterclass/choral-conducting-with-love-and-joy/

The Maestro Online is the world's only Ofqual-regulated historically informed Piano Improvisation Exam Board. Try the complete masterclass library free for 7 days: https://www.the-maestro-online.com/7-day-free-trial/

Douglas Finch is a pianist, composer and one of the most respected improvisation teachers in Britain. In this extended conversation with Dr Robin Harrison FRSA, we trace his whole improvising life: how he began, why improvisation became central to his teaching, and how any classically trained pianist can move from scary first attempts to real fluency - no chord progressions needed.

Explore Douglas's improvisation masterclasses on The Maestro Online, including From Scary to Fluent, Flow in Music, Variation Form, Sonata Form and Mozart Minuets: https://www.the-maestro-online.com/music-masterclass/piano-improvisation-without-memorised-chord-progressions/

The Maestro Online is the world's only Ofqual-regulated historically informed Piano Improvisation Exam Board. Try the complete masterclass library free for 7 days: https://www.the-maestro-online.com/7-day-free-trial/

Dr Jason Roberts, winner of the American Guild of Organists' national organ improvisation competition, is an organist and improviser based in New York City. We discuss his beginnings as a cathedral chorister in Perth, discovering improvisation through recordings of Gerre Hancock, William Porter's "improvisation as composition" method (from a week per fugue to a fugue on the spot), studying twentieth-century harmony and twelve-tone improvisation with McNeil Robinson, the St Albans and Haarlem competitions, and his three-layer practice method for the Cochereau style.

Explore Jason's Improvise Like Mozart masterclasses on The Maestro Online: https://www.the-maestro-online.com/music-masterclass/improvise-classical-music-sound-like-mozart-1-question-answer-form/

The Maestro Online is the world's only Ofqual-regulated historically informed Piano Improvisation Exam Board. Try the complete masterclass library free for 7 days: https://www.the-maestro-online.com/7-day-free-trial/