How much influence does a teacher's playing have on your decision to become...

[opus10no2]

...a pupil of theirs.

Would you be more inclined to be taught by an inexperienced and less reputed teacher who's playing wows you or a teacher with all the experience and reputation but doesn't impress you with their own playing? Musically and/or technically.

[m19834]

Would you be more inclined to be taught by an inexperienced and less reputed teacher who's playing wows you or a teacher with all the experience and reputation but doesn't impress you with their own playing? Musically and/or technically.

If those were my only choices, I would choose neither ... or both .  Ultimately, whatever is productive about my meetings with my mentor, should be reflected in my playing.  Somehow my mentor pulls things out of me, whether it be through his playing, or through what he says, or whatever.  What keeps me coming back is the fact that I can feel something and hear something 'happening' to me and to my own playing (sometimes in quite surprising glimpses), and I simply want to keep following that.  However he does it, I am pretty convinced that my mentor must be the most brilliant teacher to ever trod the globe ... 

[keypeg]

It depends if I want a teacher to entertain me or to teach me.  Since it's the latter, then the ability to teach is what matters.  Similar to Karli.

KP

[Bob]

A good teaching record is a plus.  I would look at how the teacher's students were performing.

[mcdiddy1]

For me its hard to imagine a successful teacher who can not play or inspire others. If you cant not express yourself musically then how can you inspire me to do so. But demonstrative teaching is the most effective form of teaching and keeping that in mind I would learn towards a teacher that can show me how to execute a passage rather than a teacher who is all about words and that keeps going on and on but cant not play it themselves

[turayza]

Most of the time good teachers are also amazing performers. (:
My regular piano teacher isn't a professional performer (good, but doesn't do concerts), but she's a great teacher. On the other hand, if I hear a concert and I love the playing, I will try my best to get a masterclass with the performer.
Most concert pianists have their own studios, anyways. But the really good ones tend to have higher expectations from their students, and take on those who plan to become performers themselves.