033: Life as a Collaborative Pianist

In today's solo episode, I'm going to take you on a personal journey through my career as a collaborative pianist. From my beginnings as a piano performance major with uncertain career prospects to becoming an experienced accompanist and educator, I'm going to share the ups, downs, and everything in between. Tune in to hear some insights on the art of collaboration in music, the soft skills essential for success, and the various ways pianists can build fulfilling careers through accompanying.

• Rachel shares her excitement for discussing collaborative piano, one of her favorite topics in the piano world.
• What is collaborative piano?
• Her career journey, starting with uncertainty after completing her piano performance degree.
• Importance of "soft skills" like flexibility and ease of collaboration in successful accompanying.
• She shares about her education, career development & diverse experiences on collaborative piano.
• Benefits of coaching and teaching accompanying for both the teacher and students.
• Rachel's career shift and her current role as the director of a music school.
• Opportunities for pianists to earn money through accompanying.
• How collaborative piano can help students improve skills like rhythm, listening and sight-reading, while fostering a sense of community in music-making.
• Importance of collaboration, teaching collaboration skills & ideas for student collaboration.

Podcast Exclusive Freebie:

• Download your free PDF Guide: Empowering Students: A Piano Teacher's Guide to Collaboration
• Download TopMusic Magazine August 2024 - Issue 08: Making Music Together

About Rachel Ehring

Dr. Rachel Ehring is a pianist, teacher, music administrator, and lover of piano teaching gadgets. She holds a DMA in Collaborative Piano from the University of Colorado Boulder and a MM in Accompanying from the University of Kansas. She currently serves as Director at St. John’s Conservatory of the Arts in Orange County, CA. Previously, she held positions at Concordia University Irvine and Henderson State University. Rachel is passionate about empowering music teachers to create engaging and exciting lessons for students of all ages. When she isn’t playing the piano, you might find Rachel reading books with her son or walking her beagle Frieda.

• Visit her website at https://rachelehring.com/
• Visit her Instagram page: @rachelehring
• Visit her Etsy shop at Dream Lavender Music

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