Often only expected to show up on time, keep pace with a musician or ensemble, and not play too loudly, an accompanist can nevertheless make or break a performance. As such, terminology has begun to shift to better reflect their contributions to the music created, reframing them more accurately as collaborators.
Teaching artist Martin Katz, who will be in residency at Concordia College from Oct. 9-12, with a recital set for Oct. 12, wrote the book on collaborative piano.
Published in 2009, “The Complete Collaborator: The Pianist as Partner” covers the technical aspects of piano accompaniment — such as breathing and balance — as well as the equally-critical elements of the craft, like creating a collaborative atmosphere of trust. It is considered the seminal work on collaborative piano.
Katz has been called “the most musically astute collaborator today” by the New York Times and “the gold standard of accompanying” by the Washington Post. His five-decade career has included performances with Marilyn Horne, José Carreras, and Kiri te Kanawa, among others.
His recital, with Concordia students selected from his master classes, will be at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 12, in Christiansen Recital Hall, in the Hvidsten Music Hall at Concordia. The performance is free and open to the public, as are Katz’s master classes in the same location.
- Concordia Potpourri, 7-9 p.m. Thursday, Oct.9: Concordia singers in a variety of repertoire
- French Art Song Styles, 7-9 p.m. Friday, Oct. 10: Concordia singers
- Emerging Artists, 10 a.m.-noon Saturday, Oct. 11: Fargo-Moorhead Opera artists
- Recitative Styles, 3-5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 11: Concordia singers
Katz began piano studies at age five. He attended the University of Southern California and studied collaborative piano with Gwendolyn Koldofsky.
Katz has conducted concerts and operas, partnering soloists from the podium for the BBC, San Francisco’s Merola program, and Tokyo’s NHK. His editions of baroque and bel canto operas have been performed in Houston, Ottawa, and at the Metropolitan Opera.
At the University of Michigan for more than three decades, he has chaired the program in collaborative piano and coached vocal repertoire for singers and pianists. He is also a frequent guest at Helsinki’s Sibelius Academy, the New National Theatre of Tokyo, Chicago College of Performing Arts, Songfest, and the Collaborative Piano Institute.
For more information, contact Dr. Anne Jennifer Nash at anash1@cord.edu.