Klarinet Archive - Posting 000511.txt from 1995/03

From: Christopher G Zello <czello@-----.EDU>
Subj: Accompanists
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 1995 17:34:12 -0500

I am curious to read about other people's business approach to working
with pianists. As is common, most pianists charge a fee for their
services. Sometimes hourly, other times a flat fee.

I guess I am addressing these questions to those people who are no longer
students.

Do you still pay your pianists? And why?

I just feel like there are times when I have something to offer in a
session which doesn't warrant the pianist receiving money. For example,
when we are working on a new piece which neither of us knows. We would
both be starting from "the beginning." Or, if we both have played a piece
before, then we both have a different interpretation and some type of
middle ground or single choice will have to be made on both player's
previous experiences? Then it become a collaboration.

I also realize that you are basically paying a pianist for their
expertise, years of study, and so forth. But is there a time when money
will quit being a factor and it will become a collabortion between two
players? Are these decisions based on where you are in your career and
where the pianist is?

Maybe I'm totally off base on all this.

The clarinet is just as hard to learn as the piano, in similiar and
different ways. Payment for services seems to say "I am paying you to do
as I ask while playing it the best you know how within _my_ framework."
This is a little harsh.

Any sense at all??

Christopher Zello
czello@-----.edu