What pianists/conducters/composers have you met?

[eddie92099]

Who have you met and what were they like?

I have met Vladimir Ashkenazy, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Pierre Laurent Aimard, Daniel Barenboim, Charles Dutoit and John Tavener (and HRH The Queen - does this count - is she a musician?  :-/) .

Ed

[ahmedito]

Argerich, Ashkenzhy. Zuckerman... and thats about it.

I met Barenboim and he is an absolute jackass!
He was insulting every single person that came for an autograph... after each one left, he would turn towards some woman he had with him and tell her horrible things about them in Spanish... that guy looks so poor, hes so lucky to be able to afford seeing me play, look at the fat girl.... stuff like that.

[eddie92099]

Yes, I got his autograph but he just sat there speaking to Fanny Waterman. The other people I met were much friendlier but they were backstage...
Ed

[thracozaag]

Lupu (fortunate enough to have an amazing 2 hour lesson on the Symphonic Etudes with him)
Rudolf Serkin
Claudio Arrau
Hamelin
Horzowski (fortunate enough to play the Ravel Sonatine for him, and during the lesson he kept referring to "Maurice" this and "Maurice" that...it finally dawned on me that he KNEW Ravel)
Ohlsson
Zimmerman
...and the biggest thrill of my life, meeting Scriabin's granddaughter (daugher of Vladimir Sofronitsky) this past summer.  

[ASBpiano]

Just Daniel Barenboim.  A family friend of ours organized this reception after his performance at Symphony Hall in Boston.  It was pretty cool to speak to him in spanish (he's from Argentina, so am i  ), my dad brought like 5 cd's and he signed them all.  Cool guy  

I went to an Argerich concert while i was living in Argentina, and we were supposed to meet her as my dads sister organized the concert, but unfortunately it didn't work out  

[thetiniestspark]

I met Lang Lang when he came to Omaha this year. It was *amazing*. I think he played 6 encores before the concert was over!

[xenon]

The only well-known pianist I've met was Angela Hewitt, and that was for a Baroque masterclass at the U of M.  She is very friendly, besides being a master of Bach interpretation.  She also autographed a CD for me.  It was amazing, she spelt my name correctly.  

[tph]

Being from Canada, I've met a fair number of Canadian performing pianists and musicians:

- Dang Thai Son (had lessons with him, a phenomenal pedagogue and artist)
- Anton Kuerti (nice guy, he once offered me free tickets to one of his concerts)
- Marc-Andre Hamelin
- Louis Lortie (I interviewed him when I was 11!)
- Angela Cheng
- Angela Hewitt (what a classy lady!)
- Andre Laplante
- Janina Fialkowska
- Richard Raymond
- Jon Kimura Parker (real charming guy)
- Georg Tintner (played under him before he passed away tragically in 1998; a consumate gentleman and a great human being)

And the only non-Canadian that I've met in recent memory is Alfred Brendel (a bit inept socially, if I remember well).

tph

[Laurationg]

I've played in a number of masterclasses conducted by great pianists and pedagogues (to name a few)- Menahem Pressler, Rebecca Penneys, Ann Schein,  Gyorgy Sebok (shortly before he passed away) - he was improvising on the second piano while I was playing my Schubert sonata in D major!.

I have heard these pianists' live performances: Helene Grimaud, Constance Keene (turned page for her and received a free CD!), Andras Schiff (later asked for his autograph on his Bartok concerti recording), Chick Corea, Emmanuel Ax, Hamelin (took photos with him afterwards!).

I remember meeting the cellist, Yo-yo Ma, after his concert and asking him to sign an autograph.  And he signed it upside down while standing face to face with me, but his writing appeared right side up to me!  Amazing!!

[Laurationg]

Helene Grimaud was truly unique.  She had her head shaved completely off, and she was wearing this pyjamas-like outfit when I saw her live for the first time.  Totally contrasting to what she appeared in the program!

Anyone know much about Helene??

[chromatickler]

She's hot even without the hair.

[eddie92099]

Quite,
Ed

[eddie92099]

I met Peter Donohoe after he gave a (very disappointing) recital at my school last night. We had a drink together though and he was a very nice man...
Ed

[la_carrenio2003]

Robert D. Levin in a Bach seminar in Leipzig, very nice guy
Dimitri Bashkiroff in the Kiew's Philarmonia after his recital
Joao Carlos Martins(very friendly), Angela Hewitt (these two were juries in a competition I participated. That Angela can be a lady, but she was very pedantic when I talked with her, didn't like at all...)

Listened live performances but didn't talk with them:
Ivo Pogorelich
Lazar Berman
Vladimir Krainev
Roger Muraro
Gidon Kremer
Didn't ask for autographs, I don't have that tradition...

[piglet]

Thracozaag, you met Scriabin's granddaughter? Great.
How did it happen? What was it like?

[thracozaag]

Thracozaag, you met Scriabin's granddaughter? Great.
How did it happen? What was it like?

 She lives in San Francisco, of all places.  I was playing out in Berkley and a friend of a friend knew her and since Scriabin was on the program, invited her out.  Needless to say, I was tongue-tied the entire time talking to her; very gracious, sweet person.  She was kind enough to give some very rare Sofronitsky performances that weren't ever released in the west.

[Chopins_Fantaisie]

This past September I had the opportunity to hear Olga Kern perfom Tchaikovsky's Piano concerto, no. 2. Afterwards I had gone up stage and she signed my program. Very impressive young pianist and quite kind.