Spotlight on Jane Magrath: 2019 MTNA Achievement Award Recipient

Jane Magrath is well-known as an author, clinician, and pianist. Her book The Pianist's Guide to Standard Teaching and Performance Literature has become a classic reference work for pianists throughout the United States. Dr. Magrath's work in the area of the standard classical teaching literature has been central to the revival of interest in this music throughout the country.

This year, she is receiving the 2019 MTNA Achievement Award. This award is MTNA’s highest honor and is bestowed only on individuals who have made significant and lasting contributions to music and music teaching. We are so proud to have her as part of our Alfred Music family. We recently asked her a few questions about her teaching and inspiration.

What do you remember about your very first piano lesson?

I had been so excited all week in anticipation of my first lesson. It took place in the hut beside the playground in my elementary school, and my teacher, Mrs. McCown was the wife of Conway Elementary School’s principal and also was organist at our church. I excitedly slid out of my third class and walked into that music hut that had always fascinated me. She taught on an upright and always sat to my right, even as she did that first day. We started out with the Schaum piano method and I cherished my brand new music books. Previously I had learned a few things by ear, so could play those for Mrs. McCown in that lesson. She told me that she had two kinds of students—“pupils” and “pu-pills.” I was determined to be a “pupil!”

This intriguing new part of my life began to revolve around Mrs. McCown and my lessons and her knack for holding a pencil in her hand and somehow playing at the same time. I noted it then on that first day and always was fascinated with it. The best thing was the Wright-Way Note Finder (grand staff) where my teacher turned a knob and the quarter note moved to different lines and spaces for identification. Then, in that first lesson she played for me a piece she had played for the local Lion’s Club, and I was hooked.

I studied with Mrs. McCown from the third grade through the twelfth grade. We played duets, I played my solos, practiced there for competition performances, sight-read, and eventually perfected my college audition and senior recital auditions in my weekly lessons with her. We celebrated accomplishments, marveled over the amazing pieces I got to play, worked out the hard spots. Every new piece was my favorite.

What made you go into teaching?

I discovered my passion for teaching perhaps a bit late, and once it took hold it never has wavered. When I was working on my master’s degree in performance at the University of North Carolina I had the opportunity to have a Graduate Teaching Assistantship. In reality I wasn’t prepared, but quickly I realized what an amazing opportunity it was—the chance to share with another person my total love and passion for piano music. Quickly I realized this was the best of all worlds: in teaching, one could help the student know how to practice and both of us were experiencing something so great—this love of music—together. Or, at least that’s how I saw it! It’s still probably not a bad philosophy. What developed was a passion for helping people fulfill their goals and dreams and experiencing the greatest music imaginable, simultaneously.

Secondly, my applied piano teacher on my master’s degree was Marvin Blickenstaff, and he was so effusive with his dedication to teaching and working with children and adults. What a role model! You will know what I mean. He loves his students, and he eats and breathes “piano teaching.” Yes, I was hooked. He was and is so incredibly inspiring! How fortunate I have been.

Several more of my teachers were infinitely inspirational as musicians and teachers. Michael Zenge has been and still is quite encouraging as well as inspiring to me as a musician, mentor and as a teacher. He is a master musician/teacher, and fully brought out the best in me at an important time in my life and development—after I had completed a graduate degree and was really serious about study and growth as a musician and performer. He is another exceptional role model for me, along with Marvin Blickenstaff. Naegeli von Bergen Metcalf was my first college teacher until she left after one year to get married. One of the things that I owe to her from that one year of study was that she taught me to count aloud and also to sing the lines in all of my pieces—always. How very essential! Another of the amazing gifts to me from my wise and remarkable teachers.

Do you have any advice for a new teacher, or what is something you wish you knew when you started teaching?

New teachers can learn so much from area piano teachers and especially from a local piano teacher’s group. MTNA has done such a wonderful job of instilling the importance of professionalism and raising standards for us. The teachers in the Raleigh, NC Music Teachers Association took me under their wing during my first independent teaching years in Raleigh, immediately after completing my MM degree. These selfless teachers were so helpful, sharing information on such topics as their favorite teaching materials, the specific focus of various local and state festivals and competitions, and in identifying workshops that might be helpful to attend. They were fabulous mentors to have at just the right time in my life. I still remember so many of them, and always will be indebted to them. They were encouraging, supportive, and not afraid to suggest various materials and strategies to help me and others.

Tell us about a memorable teaching moment?

During those early teaching years in Raleigh, NC I worked with a high school senior who wanted to give a piano recital, and give it as a surprise gift to her parents, for all of the years of piano lessons they had given her. We had so much fun preparing the recital, securing the hall, creating the programs, proofing her invitations, and going through with the entire event. Ann was thoroughly prepared, and beaming when the evening came, she dressed in her gown and excited about the surprise, her gift, and the opportunity to play for them. It was a gift of a lifetime that she gave her parents—and they were overcome with appreciation and love for their generous and selfless daughter.

What is one of the biggest challenges you overcame as a teacher?

Probably it was the time that I tried to learn double-sixth scales on my own, hoping to help my technique grow even more. Double third scales, I realized, had strengthened my playing considerably and I became a devotee of double note studies. Unfortunately, I over-stretched my hand and something popped one day in my right hand fourth finger. It was a serious problem for over a year. At its worst, I couldn’t hold a coffee cup in my right hand or demonstrate well in lessons with my right hand. The hand surgeon whom I saw was puzzled. He was also fascinated, even though was unsure as to what was wrong. I almost fainted as he described what would happen in a proposed surgery on it—admitting that he really didn’t know what was wrong. I never returned to him, even though this was an acclaimed physician. What I did do is take very good care of my hand, self-imposing no movement or activity for that hand and finger, before the day of acquiring hand braces and such at a drugstore. It healed for a time. Then I would try to play too soon, and need to stop. It would start to heal again. I’d do the same thing—practice too much, or the wrong piece, whatever that meant. And I’d need to let it heal for a longer time. Patience, much more than I ever anticipated. Finally, it did heal.

I’ve always been grateful for the ability to play and the healing of my right hand. And, I’ve learned from that what not to do and also when to stop at the least bit of pain in playing. I’m sure that kept me from being even further injured in playing again later in life. This was one of the most difficult periods in my life.

Do you have a favorite piece or type of music to play for fun?

I still love sight-reading—actually, sight-reading Bach if you can believe that! To sit down and play Bach or Schubert and much more from our great repertoire, for me, are two of the greatest treats in life. Mrs. McCown really moved me through the repertoire. We probably moved on from most pieces much too soon to work them out well, but what I learned was to read music like a fiend. What a gift she gave me, in retrospect.

If you could have dinner with any musician, past or present, who would it be, and why?

How much fun! You know, Haydn was a happy and well-adjusted person. I would love to have met him, and experienced his love of composing, performing, conducting, and teaching. And of course, he would talk, I’m sure, about the nobility he worked for in the palaces in Eisenstadt and at Esterhaza, about his current composing, about his music staff in the orchestra, other instrumentalists and vocalists in the palace. He would tell us about his daily schedule and about what he was working on at the time we saw him.

I have had a few unusual opportunities interacting with well-known pianists. Once I had the “occasion” to carry Van Cliburn’s little dog through a nice hotel lobby for Van (I was doing someone’s dirty work, sneaking the dog in) up an elevator to Van’s hotel room for his later concert. Now, I wasn’t entirely comfortable doing this. And, this was after Van had practiced for several hours in my studio with the dog pacing and inspecting all four walls of the room.

On another occasion, I witnessed John Browning packing his own dog into a disguised music case, with mesh sides to let in air, and taking her into a nice restaurant while he had lunch with us. The dog remained quiet and still for the entire meal, miraculously, never to be discovered by a waiter. Eventually after our meal, John unassumingly picked up his bag and dog, and left the restaurant returning to his room to practice. It was par for the course for him.

Back to having a meal with a musician, past or present. Of today’s performing pianists, having a meal with Grigory Sokolov would be the ultimate! And, if that’s not possible, hearing him play live anytime would be just fine!