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Hi!

Sorry for this stupid question... but I am helping my friend with his english text about himself. He is a classically trained pianist who works both as a soloist and a chamber musician, accompanying other soloists, singers and working with trios, quartets and quintets.

We are wondering what would be a best choice to describe who he actually is.

We are thinking of:

1) classical pianist and chamber musician
2) pianist and chamber musician
3) classical and chamber pianist
4) "just" pianist

But as I am not native speaker by any means, we would really appreciate some insights and help How would you name such a person?

A versatile "pianist" works everywhere, but we would like to put a little emphasis on the chamber bit of it, mostly for Google searchability sake.

Thanks!


M.

I would say concert pianist + chamber musician

what about: all round pianist, solo, chamber and accomp.

How about "classical solo and collaborative pianist"

Regards,

Feebee_liszt, that sounds very clean to me! I like it! Thanks

Dolce - nice idea, thanks. I would prefer something a bit more official though - I am not sure that "all round pianist" would look good on an official website

Bruce - thanks! I will certainly think about it. Wouldn't "collaborative pianist" be to general? It seeems to me, that it could also imply a guy who is willing to play pop, reggae, or anything else. That's why I thought about chamber at first, as we are still covering mostly classical territory there.

It very much depends on what your friend wants to play.

It's a good question though.

He's working mostly with cellists, violinists and singers in classical repertoire, with appearances in piano trios, and quartets (Rachmaninoff, Schubert, et. al.), though he would like to play solo repertoire more often than he does now as well. His repertoire consists mostly of works by Schubert, Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Liszt, Debussy and Ravel, but actually is pretty vast.

I don't think he's into playing pop, jazz, or doing weddings or other playing during celebrations and parties at all. Solo or chamber recitals are his main concern.

That's why "concert pianist and chamber musician" sounds best from all for me now, but it might be my bias. It always bugs me how to call some musicians or people of other talents. I still clearly remember a fun thread in ABF forum, whether amateurs should call themselves "pianists" or is this going overboard - lots of interesting ideas came in ;-)


Thanks!
M.

Pianist.

"Collaborative pianist."

Tomasino

Collaborative artist.

I wouldn't think it implies playing those various styles you mentioned. You can get degrees in "Collaborative Piano", which focus solely on classical music. Collaborative pianist is now the generally accepted, politically-correct way of saying "accompanist".

I wonder though if chamber musician and collaborative pianist are different? I've never seen a bio of a high-calibre solo pianist mention "collaborative pianist", but I have seen "chamber musician" and this seems to usually only include lists of trios and quartets they play in.

One local conservatory with which I am involved has almost totally abandoned the term "piano accompanying" in its teaching of that art, replacing it with "course(s) in collaborative piano."

However, in his day, the great Gerald Moore was, as we all know, "The Unashamed Accompanist."

Regards,

wannabe soloist?

but yeah, i'm seeing the term "collaborative piano" quite a bit now. so... i'd say:

solo and collaborative pianist.

Outdated musician!

(Ok only kidding! :D:D:D)

I think that pianist says it all. You can't put a title for everything you do, it's simply impossible, so you gather the ones you mostly do, or crossover others... Pianist seems fine.

Thanks! I guess we will stick with a simple "pianist" and won't try to overdo things with naming everything I have also learned something new - I didn't know "collaborative pianist" is being used instead of "accompanist" commonly now.

Try again.



Are we going to have an e-war? Hahahahah

In case you want to reconsider...

I think there is another aspect to be taken into account. If the text is to be addressed to the international community rather than to native English speakers, you should avoid terms which are not immediately obvious, even if they are correct (or politically correct). Before reading this thread, I also didn't know the term "collaborative pianist" and my suspicion is that many of the potential readers of your text would not know it either and would not use it as a keyword.

On the other hand, "pianist" is too vague.

I would opt for "pianist (solo and chamber music)", or "pianist (solo and chamber music, accompaniment)", depending on how much stress you want to put on the latter skill.

(I pisz przymiotnik "ang." po ang. wielkÄ… literÄ… )

I think of chamber music as an ensemble of equals. If the ensemble includes a pianist I don't think of that role as that of an accompanist.

That can apply even to the genre known as the "violin sonata." Both Mozart and Beethoven titled their works in that genre as Sonaten für Klavier und Violine, not the other way around.


Many concert pianists with solo careers also appear in chamber music concerts.

How is it vague? Do they play the piano? Then they're a pianist, yes? Thank you. Carry on.

So then would you call a repetiteur just a "pianist"? They play the piano.. =P