Dame Fanny Waterman, a world-renowned British music teacher, has said that she fears for the future of piano playing and that Britain is failing to produce performers internationally. So is she right: Is the piano really dying?
Waterman, 94, spoke to the Guardian after announcing last week that she would stand down next year as chairwoman and artistic director of the Leeds International Piano Competition, one of the world’s most prestigious music competitions, which she co-founded in 1961.
During the interview, she spoke about the future of piano in Britain. Waterman blames the popularity of electric keyboards and children starting to learn the piano at a later age in the U.K. than in other parts of the world for the piano’s demise.
“The [future of the] piano is the cause of great worry for all us who love it,” she said. “First, lots of children are learning it from the electric piano. A waste of time, because you don’t get the speed of the key descent, you don’t get the different sounds.”
Electric keyboards are “big business,” she said.
She also claims many British children were not starting to learn the piano until 7 or 8, which she said was too late. She pointed to the Far East, where children are capable of “amazing” performances at 4.
Waterman, who played piano at a wartime prom in 1942 conducted by Sir Henry Wood and has introduced millions of children to the instrument through her instruction manuals, also thinks schools should do more.
A recent report, Making Music, described as the most comprehensive survey of music teaching ever undertaken in the U.K., found that longer-term musical education is often the preserve of those with wealthier backgrounds, with the cost of learning an instrument a “major barrier.”
So, what is your opinion? Is Waterman worried for nothing or is the age of the piano coming to an end? Comment below.
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