Sarah Lipman
Lerner Virtuosos
the secret life of public pianists
PrintThe atmosphere and acoustics of Lerner are reminiscent of a museum. Upon entering, one hears the ambient rumbling of people walking and talking, and the echoes that reflect off the glassy halls and inclined ramps—the impersonal noise of public space. Mixed into this is sometimes the unique, crystalline sound of a piano. From the lower level, and from the main lounge of the second floor, the sweet sounds of the keys blend and fuse throughout the building. The notes awaken subconscious images: a living room piano, dinner parties, dreaded recitals, or just that classy sound of an instrument that is universally familiar.
Most of the time, Lerner pianists remain an unnoticed or unacknowledged presence amidst students walking past bake sales and wandering in and out of Café 212 and the computer lab. But who are these Lerner virtuosos, gracing the student center with staggering technicality, poignant musicality, or classic tunes that everyone knows and loves?
A recently converted Lerner pianist, Nandan Bhat, has been playing for about 17 years. A latecomer to the piano who started when he was 22, he took a break from the instrument while at school in Boston due to the lack of pianos on campus. Now pursuing a masters degree in engineering at Columbia, he takes full advantage of the pianos in Lerner, seeing their accessibility as a way to start up piano again. His repertoire includes Chopin, ragtime pieces, Strauss waltzes and Beethoven—pieces that are popular among most pianists.
Even though Bhat appreciates the fact that pianos in Lerner are open to anyone, he still gets a little self-conscious when a lot of people are around. “I would prefer not to have too many people; I usually play at the lower piano, not the upper one, because there are so many people up there,” he says. Other pianists experience Bhat’s feeling of timidity to a greater extent, such as a Columbia College sophomore who prefers to remain anonymous, who says, “Unfortunately, I’m too shy to play in Lerner. Usually I just practice in Broadway.”
The question of why there are pianos situated randomly in Lerner, where people are constantly passing through and working, remains a mystery to most students, when they think about it at all. The waves of Chopin nocturnes or Liszt etudes are potentially distracting, and whether or not the pianist is actually succeeding in practicing is questionable. Some are of the opinion that only capable pianists should play in public: “It’s OK if the person is talented and plays soft jazz or a nice ditty but when it sounds like they’re banging their elbows on the piano it’s frustrating,” says Asad Syrkett-Muhammad, CC ’11.
But on the other hand, perhaps the presence of pianos in a student center, a place of recreation as well as work, can be seen as an unobtrusive initiative to bring music to the students, rather than students to the music. Many pianists have received comments, questions, and requests while playing at all hours of the day, and whether people realize it or not, the presence of the two pianos in Lerner has raised musical awareness, if only by a sliver, among the Lerner population.
A Lerner piano connoisseur, Mi-Eun Kim, CC ’11, is in the Barnard-Columbia-Juilliard Exchange Program and used to play in Lerner for up to an hour a day, four days a week. Now, her main motivation for playing in Lerner is the sheer lack of practice space on campus, which is an especially difficult issue for pianists seeking good quality pianos. When relegated to playing in Lerner, she says, “It makes me play softer than usual. Usually in the second floor lounge, there are people reading, so I take care not to play too loud or repeat things excessively.” At worst, she’s been asked to practice somewhere else, but most of the feedback has been positive, including inquiries regarding private lessons and compliments on her playing.
Much to the dismay of many pianists, the piano on the lower level is not nearly of the same quality as the one in the lounge, and has poor intonation and keys that don’t sound properly. This has been a regular complaint of musicians in the music department, as has the irregular maintenance of pianos all over campus, including those in Lerner, Dodge, and in practice rooms in Schapiro and Broadway.
Kim’s situation represents a constant struggle among student pianists: finding a place to rehearse that is both satisfying to the comfort standards of the individual and those of the audience, if there happens to be one. On that note, there’s always the problem of finding a balance between how much music should be shared publicly and how much need there is for more individual practice space. As Mi-Eun says, “Lerner is not an ideal space nor does it have ideal pianos.”
Although pianists seem to resort to Lerner as a last choice, it is hard not to appreciate the welcoming sound of glittering keys playing a Mozart sonata, or the heavy emotionalism of Tchaikovsky, even if listeners don’t know the exact origin or nature of what they’re hearing. Piano music is fundamental to the distinctive ambiance that defines Lerner
28 January 2010
vol. 8, issue 1
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