I’ve been working in Germany over the weekend, tutoring a bilingual piano workshop near Düsseldorf, so I thought it appropriate to highlight a master class today.

Gelsenkirchen is a city in the North Rhine-Westphalia state of Germany. I’ve been visiting a couple of times a year since 2014. I provide piano classes (which are free of charge for participants) to those who would not normally have such an opportunity. I love this concept. I am very grateful to Kery Felske, director of IKM Gelsenkirchen, and our sponsors for their unwavering support. Their support enables the possibility to continue this important work.

The class always consists of a variety of levels and abilities (and age ranges!) from complete beginners to advanced players, and this weekend focused on those who hadn’t played much before, although there was one intermediate to advanced level pianist. Classes are held in English. For the younger participants, this can seem somewhat daunting. However, it hasn’t proved problematic as yet.

The value of an ‘open piano lesson’ cannot be underestimated. It presents a chance to observe a variety of musical and technical issues. Solving such challenges can be of benefit to everyone and therein lies its beauty. Hopefully, those who attended our two-day event found it useful, and will be encouraged to further develop their playing.

Leading American pianist Garrick Ohlsson gave the following master class. It features Chopin’s Etude in A minor (‘Winter Wind’) Op. 25 No. 11 played by Netanel Grinshtein and was recorded at the Jerusalem Music Centre last year.

As always, there’s much to enjoy in this class and I hope you find it of interest: