Boris L
Instruments: Piano, Guitar
Styles: Classical, Jazz
Boris L
Instruments: Piano, Guitar
Styles:
Classical, Jazz
Where I Teach:
Ages Taught: 10-80
Doctoral Degree: University of Southern California
Master Degree: Mannes College of Music
Bachelor Degree: Moscow Conservatory
October, 1994 International Piano Competition "Franz Liszt", Weimar, Germany, Honorary mention
March, 1996 Kingsville International Piano Competition, Kingsville, Texas, USA Awarded Special Prize
In 1991 I entered the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, in the piano class of Professor Zinaida Ignatieva. During my studies at the Conservatory, I participated in several international piano competitions including the Franz Liszt International Piano Competition in October 1994 in Weimar, Germany, where I received an Honorable Mention for placing as a semi-finalist. I also competed in the Kingsville International Piano Competition in March 1996 in Texas where Ireceived a special prize. I graduated from Moscow Conservatory in 1996. That same year I traveled to the United States to study at Mannes College of Music with Professor Nina Svetlanova.
I graduated from the Mannes College of Music with a Master of Music degree in 1998 and continued my studies at the University of Southern California under the guidance of Dr. Stewart Gordon. While I was at USC, I also studied jazz improvisation with Shelly Berg, a world-famous jazz pianist and composer. Besides jazz, my minors also included music history and electro-acoustic media. My supervisor in the music history field was Jiulio Ongaro, a famous Italian American scholar and renowned specialist in Medieval and Renaissance music. After I graduated from USC with a Doctor of Musical Arts degree, I got a job as a piano instructor at the Orchepia School of Music, located in Irvine, California.
In 2009, I was offered a job as a piano teacher at Zaozhuang University in China and excitedly moved there. My work in China spanned over a ten-year period. I was a piano teacher and accompanist at Zaozhuang University and provided accompaniment to various teachers and students at Shandong Teachers and Students Music Competitions in Jinan and other cities as well. Some of them received prizes at these competitions after our joint performances. I also accompanied the university choir at various competitions. I also performed two piano recitals at Zaozhuang University Music Concert Hall in 2012 and 2013 and participated in Zaozhuang TV concerts several times.
My teaching experience dates back to my conservatory days, as I began teaching private lessons part time 33 years ago. I've been teaching at a university level for the past 10+ years. At the first lesson I ask my students about their music background, what kind of pieces and what kind of composers they liked to play, then I kind of create customized program specifically for this particular student, considering his/her weak and strong points, and considering his/her goals. Every student is unique, and while I maintain a general curriculum with traditional exercises and etudes and classical pieces, I also assign specific pieces to each student depending on his/her particularities.
I typically start with Czerny Etudes op. 599, op. 849, op. 299 and op. 740 and also Hanon Exercises and Scales for the technical part. I try to give students pieces from all four styles: baroque, classicism, romanticism and 20th century. From baroque I start with Bach Little Preludescanf Fugues and then move on to more complex stuff like Well-Tempered Clavier, from classical I give students Haydn and Mozart Sonatas, sometimes Beethoven Sonatas, for romantic period I give students Chopin Waltzes, Mazurkas, Nocturnes, Schubert Impromptus and other pieces, from the 20th century I give Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Debussy, Ravel and some jazz pieces. If a student is interested in jazz I can give him/her some jazz pieces, starting from simpler styles like ragtime and swing and moving to more complex styles like be-bop
I think that every student is unique. I tend to create a custom program for every student, based on his/her special talents. By special talents I mean student's psychological particularities and tendencies. Student can have a very good sense of rhyhm, for example, so I am going to give this student some pieces of Spanish composers, like Albenis or some rhythmical jazz pieces. Student might be very lyrical and romantic and emotional, so I am going to give him/her some Chopin or Schuber or Schumann pieces.
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