Right, that's late What happens when I get nervous?

What can I rely on, what can't I rely on?

What can I trust?

That's a really important point, "What can I trust?"

Bravo, next one.

♪ One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

(cello playing) (metronome continuing) ♪ What's the best way to develop an artist?

♪ Creativity, imagination, inspiration.

How do you teach those things?

♪ I think all of my students come out sounding different.

♪ I want them to find their own voice and their own personality.

♪ Creativity is maybe the hardest thing to teach, but of course, that's what fascinates me, and that's what I love to teach.

When I see a young person whose eyes light up for the same drives and the same love that I've had in my life, you know, I get excited about helping kids like that.

(traffic whirring) From a very young age, probably as an infant, Lev just seemed very attracted to music.

He'd wanna hear music of any kind.

I guess I just liked the sound, but I was three, so I don't really remember much.

He wanted to play with my mother's cello.

She happened to have one in the house.

I remember sitting down on my grandmother's steps in her apartment, and just going like this, and it was really fun.

Shortly after he turned four it as if something clicked in his head.

He began wanting to play things that were very advanced, and seemingly able to do so.

By the time he was five, he gave his first solo concert.

This is your lesson on Dvorak, huh?

Great, okay.

I would say Lev is a prodigy.

He's a raw prodigy.

I'm going to be giving him his first lesson.

(piano playing) ♪ I asked him to prepare the Dvorak Concerto.

The reason that I did that is because he has the facility to play the Dvorak.

This might be a mistake.

Maybe I shouldn't have started with the Dvorak Concerto, and I might have to backtrack off of that repertoire.

Sometimes if a kid's too emotionally involved in what they wanna do, I can't get them to settle down, and just think about the physical basics.

♪ (cello playing) ♪ ♪ When you listen to him play Dvorak, which he's never had a lesson on, where does that sense of timing, and of changes of character, and rubato, and all of those things, where does that come from?

That's an innate talent.

♪ It's amazing that he can sound as good as he does with some of the problems that are so far unsolved.

♪ There's so much information that he needs in terms of organizing his hands... shifting habits, ...learning to listen, to play in tune.

♪ I'm gonna try and teach him the mechanics of being soft to be more powerful.

Bravo, that's a terrific job.

-That's darn good.

-Thank you.

Now, I know your cello's not as big as mine, but your cello will make more sound than it does.

Would you like to get more sound out of it?

-Yeah.

-Okay, so, you're gonna make the biggest sound on the cello you possibly can make.

How would you do that, what do you do?

Um, sort of pull more, and don't push on the string.

That's good, can you show me how you do that?

♪ Put your arm up, could you just pretend you are just a Raggedy Ann doll?

Just do a free fall right out of an airplane.

Take a great big breath and jump.

Good!

That's how you get a loud sound.

If I make a sound with-- here, I'll take your cello for a second, if I make a sound like this.

There's no bottom in the sound, that's kinda surfacey, right?

♪ Now we're getting bottom in the sound.

That's what people love about the cello.

That's why they wanna listen to the cello.

This is the way the art form is passed from generation to generation.

We don't have books, there's no way to, to do this in a book.

It's an art, and it's passed on as an oral tradition.

♪ The New England Conservatory is one of the great music schools in the United States.

I mean, being around NECU is definitely an intense environment.

It was very intimidating.

It's very inspiring.

♪ My mom always told me there was a cellist who came to my church when I was like two, and after that, I'd say, "I want that violin, I want that violin."

I didn't know what a cello was.

♪ ♪ Sebastian is a new student for me.

He just came in from high school into my conservatory class.

He was a soloist with the Dvorak Concerto on a tour all over China with the Boston Youth Orchestra, and he's got all kinds of notches to his belt, all kind of successes.

How's your bow arm feel?

Um, I didn't really think about it much.

But he talks rather openly to me about the fact that he has a motivational problem.

He is dealing with the question of, "Why doesn't he work harder?"

I'm dealing with the question of, "Why doesn't he work hard?"

This is where it is important to get to know your student.

This is second movement of the Brahms.

Uh, yeah, and I have no idea what I'm doing with it yet.

-The rhythms are all confusing.

-I know, first time.

Everybody's gotta start somewhere, so... ♪ ♪ I feel that he's been successful because of his talent, not because of his hard work.

♪ He would say the same thing.

♪ Sebastian will be my student for the next four years.

I take a long-range view with Sebastian.

I'm not in any hurry with him.

♪ Ya-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta.

Go into the coda.

(orchestra playing) ♪ I had a very tricky journey finding the cello.

I started on violin, and it was really loud.

So I switched to harp, and then the cello.

♪ I love the sound of the cello.

I live for the bass sound.

♪ I guess when I'm in first position I let my-- I wanna feel like the weight of my hands.

So my elbow isn't really high or anything.

Emileigh's a smart kid, and she's a sponge.

She picks up on stuff.

Let's start from here and go into the trio.

♪ So when I see you doing... ♪ I always have the feeling--in fact, I think you may have even said this to me, but when I watch you play, I feel like your left hand is weak.

Just watching it was scary.

-I was like, "Oh no."

-So I mean, I was imitating you.

I was probably exaggerating it a little bit.

I hope so!

♪ Vibrato is so tied in with the personality of each individual musician.

I make the crescendo with the left hand as well, and my vibrato increases to go with what my bow is doing.

If we want something calm and peaceful we would use a slower oscillation.

If we want something dramatic or something with tension, we change the speed and we use it faster.

It's not off here, not wild, right, yeah.

♪ I like to say that vibrato is directly connected to the heart.

Now imagine yourself out on stage a little nervous-- I think the process of teaching and learning is what inspired me most to continue on this road, 'cause when I was young, I always loved going to my lesson, you know.

My teacher was just like another parent to me.

Thank you very much, okay, well done.

(indistinct conversations) Where are the triplets in the first movement?

A little, like, at least brushed.

(humming notes) There were too many recordings I heard, "Da-da-da-da-da-da," which is completely wrong.

Yeah.

(indistinct remarks) You didn't do it staccato.

-No, not like the real-- -Oh, okay, I was like-- Um, you know the triplets in the first movement?

We're doing those a little bit off now.

-The "da-ta-da-ta-da."

-Yeah.

Steve is right next to me, and every time we play he's like, -"da-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta."

-Oh, really?

Well, that's what everyone wants to do.

♪ Come from a family of musicians.

Both my parents were pianists at Juilliard.

♪ I wanted to play an instrument, but I didn't really know what, and actually, one day, Yo-Yo Ma was on Mr. Rogers, and I said, "That's what I wanna play."

I just fell in love with the sound.

I can't really explain it other than that.

You know, there's two ways to make a crescendo.

You can make a crescendo by putting weight down into the cello, but because this is Boccherini, and we want some more elegance, and maybe a lighter feeling, we can do it more-- Nick is getting a master's degree with me now.

He's poised, he's focused.

He's absolutely hungry.

♪ I kind of love this curious look, this kind of concern that he gets as I'm talking.

I almost feel like he's trying to figure me out as we go.

He's very blunt with me, which is great, which is exactly what I need.

You know, if he tells me, you know, that something really sounds bad, he's not gonna sugarcoat it.

So that's why when he says something sounds good I believe him.

That's getting there.

So you make people smile with it a little bit, all right?

Okay, let's go on from there.

♪ ♪ Now, here.

♪ Paul Katz is a great American cellist.

He was a longtime cellist of the legendary Cleveland Quartet.

♪ His quartet recorded the great works of the repertoire.

♪ Just as important, he has become one of the preeminent cello pedagogs of the United States.

♪ My entire life has been trying to find a balance between my performing career and my teaching career.

I'm just as passionate about the teaching side of my life as the performing side of my life.

Yes, I don't wanna push you outta the chair, that was great.

He's so personal with each student in different ways.

Now, move it.

When I walk out on stage, I imagine that my ears grow very, very large.

Those ears are like vacuum cleaners, and they get suction.

(laughing) (traffic buzzing) ♪ The master class has a long tradition in classical music... ...and I meet with my students every week.

♪ That's a vibrato that would've been impossible for Han Bin just, you know, a half a year ago.

(clapping) So, some comments.

I engage them in discussion because I want them to learn how to verbalize what they're feeling.

I really liked it a lot.

I liked the passion, the vibrato was really good, but I think you're crushing the bow a little bit.

I had a couple of issues with some musical choices that you made.

♪ Sebastian, when he auditioned for me, he told me, "I need you to know that I've had trouble working... but I wanna solve this."

So I told him, "I don't beat up on people, but I'm very demanding as a teacher."

(applause) I think what was strong about the performance was mood, and character, and kind of you've got great instincts for performance, and for the piece.

I wasn't actually that crazy about your cello playing.

It doesn't feel like-- doesn't really feel polished to me.

Um, I don't feel you've got control of the bow or the sound.

There's something about the student-teacher relationship that forms lifelong bonds.

Do you have a way of describing your evolution as an artist?

I studied with you in '85, so that's 23 years ago.

♪ I remember one day in the early '80s a wonderful tape arrived from Europe.

♪ It was from a young Dutch cellist, and his playing was exceptional.

♪ Pieter Wispelwey arrived the next fall.

Living, breathing, eating music.

♪ Pieter was provocative, he would challenge me, but I loved it.

I understood this was the imagination of a future artist at work.

♪ I was quite an ambitious student.

Oh, yes, that's an understatement.

I mean, discovering repertoire meant, always meant that I had to perform it as soon as I could play the notes.

You said to me, "Mr. Katz, I would like to play a recital in December."

This was now the end of September, and you said, "I'd like to do the six Bach Suites."

I said, "How many?"

and you said, "All of them."

So I really don't like telling people, "No, you can't do things," you know?

But in my mind, I was sure that was impossible.

So, but what I said was, "Well, let's start, let's work through them.

I'd like to have at least a little input on each movement, and give you my ideas, and we'll just see how far we get."

But of course, December came, and you took one Sunday afternoon, and you stood up, and you played three of them, and took a break, and played the other three.

And it was like one of the big moments in the history of the school.

Yeah, but that--but still, I remember passages with your comments.

I mean, I remember, I remember courante number six.

I can tell you which notes you wanted me to play better.

-Wow.

-I remember that.

(instruments tuning) The way you hit that also is maybe not elegant.

♪ Good, yeah, that's better.

Now, how do we chain those together?

Well, Nick is such a fine player.

I think he gets overly focused on technical issues.

Same thing, that sounds just slightly wooden, right?

The whole practice mentality becomes one of looking for elegance.

We have to be constantly aware of the technical standpoint.

♪ That sort of has to be on automatic pilot though, because what you really need to be concentrating on is the music, and the emotion.

♪ I wanna go artistically into more variety of sounds, ways to make color.

All of those things give the listener the feeling that it's imaginative, it's interesting, and it takes it away from this sense that, "Wow, this is a technical passage, and he's concerned."

You could be very concerned, but you give the illusion that you're making music.

The kind of student that only does what they're told is-- -that's a dead end.

-Being a student, it's--you're also entering... ...a relationship with your teacher, and it's just sort of some father relationship.

There almost should be an element of rebellion.

You have to add something, you have to improve on what -your master is telling you.

-Yeah, I love that.

♪ Right, right, that's right.

I think one of the beautiful things about this life that we're in is this lineage.

You might even go a little slower.

What we do is passed down from generation to generation.

Wow.

It's a mentoring system.

That was the fanciest fingering I ever saw in my life.

I had five teachers.

The joke is, you know, it took a lot of people to teach me how to play the cello, you know?

But I had five great teachers.

Gabor Rejto is probably the least known of the names, and then Janos Starker, Leonard Rose, Bernard Greenhouse, and Gregor Piatigorsky.

They're all immortal names.

I got to study with all of them.

What's very interesting is I look back on each of them, each of them in a sense was a father figure to me.

♪ Bernard Greenhouse, when I was in college, was the cellist of the Beaux Arts Trio, the most famous trio in the world.

Violin, piano, and cello.

I was extremely fortunate to be able to go to New York, and to study with him.

♪ He's a disciple of Pablo Casals.

♪ Casals was not teaching.

When he refused to teach me, I took the next troop transport to France, and knocked on his door.

Bernie, in a sense, he's still my teacher.

I'm not terribly happy in hearing anyone who can imitate me, and make the sound.

That's not the point of playing.

At the time that I studied with him, it was still a fairly authoritarian world out there in terms of teacher-student relationships.

And this went on-- Bernie didn't have that kind of relationship with his students.

You felt his warmth, you felt his support.

There are so many things that I--so many times I still hear your voice, exactly what you said to me in a particular lesson, or a I might hear that from Piatigorsky, or from one of my other teachers, you know?

But--and then it all kind of blends together as well, so-- Where it comes from, sometimes I don't always know anymore.

The wonderful thing is that the blend becomes Paul Katz.

♪ I've always had this phobia of playing the Bach Suites.

♪ The thing about the Bach Suites, makes 'em different from so many other pieces is that there are so many complicated little shifts happening throughout an entire movement.

Well, the Bach Suites were discovered by Pablo Casals.

They have immense technical challenges, and they have endless creative possibilities.

Both technically and creatively, they are perhaps the most important challenge that we have in music.

You probably paid more attention to the technical side of things than the musical side of things.

Well, I've definitely prioritized too.

Like to focus on the technique for right now.

The Bach Suites, of course, are the highest art form for us cellists, but at the same time, if you approach Bach with the sort of a holy attitude, you're missing the point, because Bach was just-- there's so much earth, and there should be this physical element always.

So let's just talk a little bit about what is a Bach prelude, what are you trying to say?

I always like to think of it as kind of the most crucial movement almost, because it sets up the entire Suite.

It's the most crucial this morning.

Next week it might be another one.

I like that this one is more emotional, darker, and-- Now we're getting some place.

It's often talked about in terms of being meditative.

Right, prayerful, very, very personal, very inside.

There's a crying aspect to it.

Okay, why don't you play the prelude for me?

Okay, see--okay, so, I can hear, I can actually hear your index finger just... ♪ You wanna create an atmosphere that-- because music conveys emotion and mood.

That's really what this is all about.

All the technical stuff we're gonna be talking about is how to do that.

Touch the instrument the way you want it to sound.

So if this is very kind of deep, and crying, and you're in a very private mood, then just touch it that way.

Slow bow, slow bow, that's it.

Slow bow, and light.

♪ That's getting more personal.

♪ Just suspend everything.

♪ Good, now just a hint of a crescendo.

♪ Emileigh hopefully will go home from this lesson with an idea of what she would like this to sound like.

I spent time helping her to form something new here in her inner world of when she comes to the cello and sits down with the D minor Bach Suite, she wants to make a sound that creates this, and this, and this, and those three notes are very, very difficult.

The first time you touch the string to the bow, your audience feels something.

♪ Kids with very natural gifts for facility sometimes just start playing, having a good time, and the actual opening of the ears so that they're governing the hands, that's harder.

I'm pushing Lev to listen at a higher level, but I don't wanna push to the point where I sort of kill his enjoyment for what he's doing.

What I thought, when you start it, I though that you came great, it was like good drama and everything, but you kinda-- you weren't pulling the sound, you were sort of hitting the cello.

Right, each time you hit one of these chords, you wanna...there's your arm weight's gonna bang like that, but then, you're gonna feel resistance.

♪ Yeah, okay, good.

Okay, so just-- When you step on this, put your feet someplace where they feel solid.

I won't tell you where, but they feel solid.

Like, powerful.

(chuckling) Besides that, what about your legs?

They have to stay more on the ground?

They gotta stay on the ground, don't they?

Everybody is gonna go through some level of stage fright... ...and it's a matter of how you control it.

Ki, how do you deal with stress?

The long term dealing with stress when I'm stressed, I think I eat.

Right before a concert, I pace a lot, so I'll just walk in circles and that kind of, you know, kind of talking to myself, and that, for me, really releases my stress.

So, it's-- That sure stresses everybody else out.

Yeah, it does.

Anybody else have an approach?

I have to take a nap on the day of the concert.

What does that do for you?

It just clears my mind up and put me in a pretty good mood when I get up... ...and makes me wanna get going.

You know, when I get nervous...

I feel really tired.

You should see me before a concert, I'm always yawning, so I feel sleepy.

I mean, that's just what nerves do to me.

And then, when the concert comes, I get out there, I'm never tired when I've got a few hundred people in front of me.

Now it begins.

♪ Really together.

(demonstrates rhythm) Want it to be slow.

What does it feel like to get nervous?

What happens out on stage?

(demonstrates rhythm) There's so much thinking going on as you're following the notes and thinking about the phrasing.

(demonstrates rhythm) The stuff that we have to consider is endless.

It's coming at us all at the same time.

Sometimes, it's hard to find your own part, right?

Okay, when you're playing with piano, you know what the piano is playing, you've done that millions of times, so, what I want you to do is find the music that you hear the piano playing and say, "Oh, yeah, here it's in the clarinets."

For example, when you play... (demonstrates rhythm) ...what do you have to listen for?

Um, the strings.

Strings, sometimes.

See, okay, look.

Okay, so, it's also the clarinets.

All right, so, sometimes, the clarinets are going... (demonstrates rhythm) ...and then, it switches to the strings that are going... (demonstrates rhythm) ...right?

♪ The brain often can get in the way.

When you're on stage, the real poison is to be judgmental of yourself.

♪ If you reflect back on what just happened to say, "Oh, that was amazing," ...that's distracting.

♪ Weren't quite together.

Let's just try that very end.

A very classic problem is you get through a really difficult passage, you know, and then screw up the next phrase because there's this moment of psychological relief where you, "Phew, wow, glad that's over," and bingo, what just happened?

I guess the first movement was the shakiest for me.

But you expect that, you know?

Expect that.

When I was young, I was very nervous in performance.

I had real nerve problems that interfered.

And you're gonna be a little nervous, I would think you would be anyway.

The turnaround for me was Janos Starker.

It was pointing out just the simple fact that I was in this kind of cycle; I was getting nervous about getting nervous, you know?

And that created this kind of fear thing and this anxiety thing, so a big moment for me was just being able to say to myself, "You know you're going to be nervous, Paul, accept it and stop worrying about not being nervous."

When I was 16 and doing house concerts, I was throwing up before and afterwards.

Really?

But that was only the first concert.

The second concert, I only threw up before, and the third concert, I was only cursing afterwards.

If you were so nervous that you were vomiting before you had to play, what was the psychological understanding you came to, or how did you win the battle?

What was it that changed for you?

It was just doing-- doing it again.

In the beginning, I wanted it so badly that I was very critical, too.

Very self-critical, extremely.

So, I could only disappoint myself.

Well, I like to put it, perfection is not a goal.

There will be mistakes.

Just like you will get nervous, there will be mistakes.

What's important right here, this gliss here makes you late.

♪ If you can understand that, then, when the first little accident comes, you're not destroyed.

You're not with me.

Don't get behind.

Each of us has to get to know ourselves, that is the first step to performance.

Right, there's no room at all, okay?

So, I'm gonna put this-- Let's go through.

(metronome clicking) I'll give you lots of room, right?

'Cause the strings are going... (demonstrates rhythm) Let's try it a little bit faster.

(metronome speeds up) ♪ Right, that's late.

Right, so-- What happens when I get nervous?

What can I rely on, what can't I rely on?

What can I trust?

That's a really important point, "What can I trust?"

Bravo, next one.

♪ Once more, right.

♪ ♪ Ah!

(laughs) How are you?

It's quite an honor for me to be able to do this.

I enjoy having you in my house again.

Many, many times, starting in 1965 is when I came to study-- Just like yesterday.

In some ways, yes, that's what's so interesting.

A lot of things happened since '65.

♪ Janos Starker is a legend.

Probably the most recorded cellist in history.

♪ When I started studying with him, he was a terrifying, intimidating person in my life.

♪ But, somehow, we kept a relationship.

He used to be Mr. Starker; now, he's Janos.

We went out, drank till 3:00 in the morning, and he became a very, very good and close friend.

♪ You said to me once, you probably don't remember, but I remember when you tell me something.

You said to me once, I have to paraphrase it slightly, if you could best describe your life as a cellist, as the continual discovery of smaller and smaller points of tension to release.

Obviously, what I told you that time, it worked because you'd done a pretty damn good musical life-- Well.

He always has said his teaching is more important to him than his performance and we are talking about one of the greatest cellists that's ever lived.

I consider the teaching as a far more important... ...aspect of my life than the performing.

I always felt, after the standing ovation, people sit down, ...and teaching may affect generations.

When I give classes or when I teach, sometimes I say that my job here is to disturb you guys.

Yes, I say the same.

Sometimes, I even say that if the composer took time out to write those little black spots, something, we have to pay attention to it, and music is based on the letters, which are the notes.

Some letters make syllables and syllables make words and words make sentences and when you have the sentence, then you may be able to write poetry, but if the letters are missing, then the poetry will sound awry.

(chuckles) Hey, Lev, how are ya?

Oh, two cellos.

A big cello.

Yeah.

Have you played it yet?

I was fooling around with it a bit last night.

Okay, that's very exciting.

So, I'm really curious to take out the larger cello and see how we're doing.

High, yeah.

So, we have to think a little bit here about holding it.

You're gonna have to open your legs a little wider and put your feet out here.

Right, that's it.

♪ I think this is gonna be great.

Does it feel easier to play?

A bit, actually.

It's a little bit easier to play.

♪ Go home and have fun with your new cello.

Yay!

(laughs) ♪ ♪ Certainly one of my favorite cellists, a wonderful artist, and-- A master class from a visiting artist can be immensely stimulating for students.

Gave us a wonderful master class here.

Okay, so, welcome.

Let's go!

To have Pieter Wispelwey arrive with all of his energy, with his different technical perspectives, this can be a life-shaping experience for young people.

You prepared the first two movements, is that right?

I might stop you halfway, the first one, 'cause I definitely want to hear bits of the second.

Yeah?

Okay.

♪ ♪ Sorry, sorry, sorry, it's highly embarrassing.

Let's make sure that the separate could be a bit more juicy?

(demonstrates) ♪ Yeah, be drunk about it.

(demonstrates rhythm) Feel it, well, I don't know where.

In your hips or... (demonstrates rhythm) ♪ ♪ Just a few details and this is... ♪ I mean, it's difficult.

There's a forte on the fourth beat.

Half beat, two accent.

(demonstrates rhythm) ♪ (demonstrates rhythm) And then, the orchestra... (demonstrates rhythm) Breathe fire.

♪ Yeah?

Yeah, beautiful, beautiful.

Yeah.

♪ Perfect.

♪ ♪ There has to be a reason why I am a musician and why I'm being a cellist.

♪ If you do something since you're three years old, at some point, you have to think about what you're really doing.

♪ You know, I didn't work terribly hard on the cello this year.

It was more, I think, year of reflection.

♪ I dunno if it's just the fact that I have a promotional and a recital, and so, I'm stressed out about these things and I don't want to practice, but, I think now that the year is sort of ending, I'm sort of getting excited again.

This is what I'm good at, so I wanna do it.

♪ (orchestra tuning) ♪ ♪ Red Sox!

Oh, no!

Yankees!

♪ Red Sox.

♪ Hey, there you are.

Hi, just wanted-- I was afraid I wasn't gonna find you before the concert.

A few minutes before you go out on stage, why don't you take those funny little passages that go down on the G-string and just play them through in your head so that you can imagine yourself playing every note and hear it in your head, really clean and feel it in your fingers, really clean.

Think you can do that?

Mm-hmm.

Even though there's a show going on and people are playing and people are pulling you around all over the place?

Mmm.

That's great.

So, go have a good time.

Today, from New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall in Boston, it's NPR's From the Top.

Please welcome cellist, Lev Mamuya.

♪ ♪ (applause) ♪ I'm really happy with what's happening artistically.

It's just a matter of increasing subtlety and sophistication.

I like the way you prepared yourself before there was a sound, right?

Because, in a way, you prepare your audience also.

You need to set that stage and you just did that nicely.

I really want to teach.

I love the relationships that I have with teachers and I would love to have that with students.

You have to feel that note.

I love the fact that you are looking for that before you play, and then, you come and just coax the first note.

You study with this person because they've been schooled by this teacher and that teacher.

You know their history and there's this legacy involved and I want to be a part of that legacy so badly.

♪ ♪ The final exam in all music schools and conservatories is something that we call their jury or their promotional.

So, here's what we're going to do.

As you know, tomorrow is your promotional jury and we'll have a mock jury this morning just so you get used to the feeling of stopping and starting and four nasty looking people sitting in front of you taking notes.

We'll have the four of you that aren't playing sitting up here.

I have pad of paper and pencil.

I really do want you to take notes.

♪ Preparing students for competitions, it's a bit of a challenge for me because, by instinct, I hate competitions.

I don't really think that's what art is about.

Go to the second movement, please?

♪ Nevertheless, they've become much more important now than when I was growing up.

♪ It's important to know that it's subjective, that it depends so much on what the jury had for breakfast.

♪ So, Sebastian.

♪ Well, you know, when I was a kid, the Kodály Sonata recorded by Janos Starker was one of the first pieces that my parents gave me and I just couldn't believe that the cello could sound that way.

♪ Besides the fact that it's just the most wonderful dramatic gypsy passionate kind of a work.

♪ To cellists, it extended what was, technically, imagined as possible.

♪ ♪ Sebastian's more interested in the creative side.

He wants to make the colors and do the bravados and set the mood and does that wonderfully well.

♪ But the technical demands are so extreme.

♪ ♪ Can we hear some Brahms?

♪ The jury is a great motivator.

This 15 minutes is the time which you demonstrate the progress that you've made in the last year.

People get nervous and people practice.

♪ ♪ ♪ When we're on stage and there's a kind of connection between ear and hand and cello, which is so amazing.

♪ The ear heard it and it guided the hand and the hand adjusted.

♪ You really are not always aware of an audience or the physical surroundings.

Can we go to Shulman now, please?

♪ ♪ I'm really excited about my promotional.

It's very intimate, you know?

♪ You're on stage at Jordan Hall and everyone's there.

♪ And you're dressed up and you have a pianist.

It's lovely playing for the other cello teachers and getting their feedback.

♪ It's like your final exam, but for a performance major.

It's great.

♪ Emileigh.

Bach, please.

Thank you.

♪ I'm done!

(screaming) ♪ Par-tay!

♪ -Great job.

-Thanks!

I'm done!

I'm done.

You're done.

You did amazing.

Tony, so did you.

Bravo.

-Amazing.

-Thank you.

Why don't we step out of here so you can practice?

We're gonna eat lunch, we got a lot of time.

Have fun.

♪ I don't think I'm gonna fail my promotional.

I'm not really worried about failing it.

People have failed in the past.

My guess is you really have to bomb it to fail.

The jury awaits.

And we're coming.

(laughing) The thing I'm most worried about is I didn't prepare soon enough.

I didn't realize how hard it was going to be, actually, to prepare the Kodály.

♪ Don't have my Kodály memorized yet in a way where I feel completely comfortable without the music.

♪ Sebastian.

-Hey, Sebastian.

-Hey.

Okay.

So I'd love to hear first how you felt.

-Um-- -Then we'll see what other people say.

Uh, I mean, I guess some things could've been worse, but it didn't really feel like one of my strong performances today.

I mean, I guess that's an overall feeling.

And then with--in terms of details, I feel like the Kodály was mostly just too out of tune.

It was just distracting.

I think you're a little hard on yourself, but I mean, I guess I have to agree with a lot of that.

Um, you know, I mean it wasn't your best performance, and, I mean, there's kinda good news/bad news in that.

I mean, it's, I think-- I think for you, I'm hoping that there's tremendous value in that just in the sense that... ...maybe more and more you're realizing what it really takes to kind of master the beast?

You know?

So I just--I suspect a year ago that you could've gotten up and played a concert like that and probably gone away relatively happy, you know, whereas today maybe it starts to drive you crazy a little bit.

-So-- -Yeah, it definitely has been getting to me more.

I remember you talking about trying to increase my standard and my hearing, and the other day I was just thinking about how I feel like I sound like all the time.

-I see.

-And I guess I tried to tell myself that's a good thing.

Yeah.

It's really interesting how you can only get so far up the mountain on talent.

You know?

And then we all hit the wall someplace where we gotta practice.

Yeah.

(laughing) I don't know if I ever told you I got a similar speech from Leonard Rose when I was, I think, 22 and I was studying with him.

And he said, "Paul, you've got... ...you've got wonderful hands for the instrument, you've got wonderful musical response."

He says, "Nobody masters the instrument... ...without a good five years of day in, day out, ...you know, practicing.

You gotta get up four, five, six hours a day every day for the next five years and put in your time.

That's what I'm asking you to do, and I think, if you can do that, ...you're gonna be a much happier guy, you know?

If you can't do that, then that's when things stay-- The level of frustration probably increases, you know?

I mean, talent has hunger, and your talent needs to be satisfied.

And right now your talent is pissed off, you know?

(laughing) Oh, it's brutal.

It's much more competitive than it ever has been.

The more talented young players that are trying to, you know, make careers.

There's a million more string quartets than there ever were, young, you know, hot new strong quartets or soloists or there's hundreds more people auditioning for the top orchestra jobs, and it's just extremely competitive.

The year I graduated, I won two auditions.

One was for a Carnegie Hall program called The Academy, which was a two-year residency where you perform and you teach, and I also won the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's CMS Two auditions.

That was a good year.

♪ As a New York cellist, ...to win those two auditions was more important for a life in chamber music than winning some international competition.

♪ ♪ I found that there's just no way to live without music.

I realized that need is still there.

I still feel like I need to play the cello.

I still feel like I need to practice.

♪ I came to Banff because Mr. Katz told me that it would be a really nurturing place.

It's been really good for me to be at a summer festival.

It's almost like a vacation-- a vacation designed for the cello.

♪ Okay, so bravo, much better.

I like it much better already, yes?

Doesn't it make you feel like you wanna climb a mountain and forget the cello?

(laughing) Going to summer camp is the best thing a teacher can do.

You're filled with ideas from multiple people, and we have master class five, six times a week.

♪ I don't know what I would do if I was going months without performances.

Hold up your hand for me.

I would be so frustrated.

Look how short your fourth finger is compared to your third.

Whether it's a good performance or a bad performance, you really learn a lot about yourself every time you play.

♪ Sebastian has made an amazing turn around where he just decided this is something I want, and he started practicing and working in a way that he never did before.

♪ I never worked harder for anything in my life than I worked for the Concert Artist Guild Competition.

Um, I spent that whole summer practicing four to six hours a day.

♪ He won the Concert Artist Guild Competition, which basically gave him solo management as a junior in college.

This is a highly competitive New York competition.

(indistinct talking) I was thinking while we were rehearsing today that this concert at Merkin Hall is just such an opportunity for me.

(applause) Nothing is more important than New York, ...but it's a very exciting time in his life.

♪ ♪ With Mr. Katz, there's been a lot of discovering for both of us, I think.

♪ It's always sort of this balance between I'm a student and I'm listening to my teacher, ...and I'm a performer and I'm trying to find my own route.

♪ It's just the very beginning of a potential career.

I try to find what route is the right route for me and see where that takes me.

♪ I think that's the only way to go from here.

I'm trying to keep my career well-rounded.

I don't want to just focus on one thing.

Emileigh is one of those irrepressible personalities.

She came into the school always talking of her love of children and her love of teaching, and she's a very giving person.

Start from nothing.

Create a magical atmosphere right away.

So I see her as a natural-born teacher.

I currently am the cello professor at the University of New Hampshire, and I teach at the New England Conservatory's prep school.

Slow, slow, slow, slow.

And I am on faculty at Project Step.

At Project Step, we aim to put more minorities into major orchestras.

One thing that I do every time I play-- it's a habit that my teacher has created for me-- he imagines that his ears are growing really big, and they can just suck in all the sound, so let your ears become huge, and then start.

♪ Save.

So, slow here.

♪ I think to be a really wonderful teacher, you also need to be a fine player.

♪ She's turned into an excellent cellist.

If you're a wonderful player, and Emileigh has achieved so much on the instrument... ♪ ...I think it informs your teaching.

♪ (applause) I remember the first time I ever played for Mr. Katz.

It was very intimidating.

When I was ten, eleven, I played very instinctually, but I had a lot of kind of technical problems, and I was very stubborn.

I felt such a responsibility as Lev's teacher to make sure that he was working and maximizing his talent.

High school kids are busy, and I kinda put it to his mother, and she said, "We're doing the best we can," and I thought, "No, I don't really want this to go on this way."

I didn't feel like I was really getting through to him.

I actually suggested that he study with somebody closer to his home.

But as soon as the college admissions process was rolling, I chose a dual degree program between the University and Music Conservatory.

I knew that I still wanted music to be a part of my education.

♪ And I was drawn very clearly back to Mr. Katz.

♪ ♪ And now here we are.

He got into Harvard, and he's in the joint Harvard NEC program, and I get to work with him for the next four years.

I always knew there was plenty of time.

Okay, I think we should just go on with the cadenza.

Yeah, I know me writing my own is something that we had talked about, so I thought I'd take a stab at it.

Good, okay, yeah.

♪ So you're the composer, right?

What's interesting about this area?

I guess shifting through different harmonies.

-Unexpected harmonies, huh?

-Yeah.

You've gotta show them to us.

My relationship with Mr. Katz is definitely different.

What inspired me about the classical style, kind of the cadenzas is this-- I mean, obviously there's a lot of use of thematic material from earlier.

Show me the--what's it?

The nervousness of it, right?

Now that I'm older, I enjoy the way that I can approach him with problems from an intellectual perspective, and we'll talk about them, and we'll work through them.

Some of them may be dramatic... -Right.

-...right?

So whatever you feel, you're the boss.

♪ It's difficult to try to do whatever you wanna do in music because people have an idea of what you should do in music.

Sebastian is, you know, he's one of my favorite people.

He's a wonderful guy, and he always marches to his own drummer.

In my performances, I felt strange flying to somewhere, playing for these people, and then just going to the next place.

It's sort of an empty experience.

I think he doesn't really like the classical music business.

I think he's on a search right now.

I don't know where it's going to lead.

♪ He told me once he feels a little bit like a commodity being sold.

I get the feeling that the people in the audience enjoy judging and criticizing the performer.

And you feel that when you walk out on stage, and that's not a fun feeling.

♪ You know, it takes so much to be an artist.

It's not only talent, which he has in abundance, but there's also what is fulfilling.

♪ I learned an unbelievable amount from Mr. Katz.

Responsibility of the student is to take everything that you learn and try to sort of translate it into a way that makes sense to you.

♪ Sebastian is looking for different ways to communicate with audiences.

Relaxed ways, living room concerts.

♪ It's a casual setting.

♪ What's really interesting is to try to play for people who have never heard classical music before.

♪ In a sort of pop culture approach, capture them the first time.

♪ (cheering) ♪ Having a life in music is complicated.

Music is its own thing.

It's--it's not really definable.

♪ And yet it touches intense emotions, so there's something mysterious about it and magical.

Nick is sailing because he's so focused, and he knows what he wants, and he's such a fine player.

He's made a life for himself in New York.

♪ Playing concertos with orchestra is part of my career.

♪ Okay, we're in business.

We're in business--what?

But I think that many musicians could live a long, successful life playing concertos and never play one in Carnegie Hall.

♪ Carnegie Hall, what else is there to say?

It's a great, venerated hall of the world.

♪ This is definitely the most important concert of my career.

♪ Just to be featured there as a soloist feels like something to be proud of.

♪ It's both incredibly exciting and terrifying.

♪ (applause) The human race seems hardwired for music.

There's never been a civilization without it.

I think of music as a necessity in life that helps keep humankind balanced and sane.

Why do we spend our lives doing this?

How do you make that decision, are you gonna be a musician or not?

I would definitely choose to be a musician if it was completely in my control just because I don't think I could go back... ...to any sort of feeling where there wasn't music.

Where there wasn't this ability to express or hear what other people have to express.

You know, I always say talent has hunger, and for a musician, music is the food that we need.

It's hard to live without it.

My future with music is not super clear to me.

I can't predict where Lev is gonna wind up.

He's just a freshman in college.

If he wants to be a cellist, he'll be a fine cellist.

I just want the best for my students, whatever path turns out to be the right path.

I could never say that music won't be a part of my life if I end up being an amateur musician, it will still be a huge influence on who I am and how my development will have gone.

'Cause once you start to play and have played for a long time and have played seriously, it's not something that you can just turn off.

♪ Even in rehearsal, just the sense of connectedness with one person, when you look over and you're playing into someone else's heart, it's such a feeling of--I guess something like flying.

♪ Once you've discovered the outlet of music and the release of music, it's hard to step away from it.

All right, do you wanna try that from the beginning.

Yeah.

♪ Try it again?

One, two, three, four.

♪ Re, mi, major second ♪ ♪ Re, fa ♪ I teach because I have a real addiction to music and to sharing it.

I love music, genuinely, pure love, and I want--I want as many people to know that kind of love.

Okay, you guys ready?

-Yes.

-Yes.

Re, sol, perfect fourth.

Ahh!

Do it again, I want more energy!

Okay, don't be nervous!

Go for it!

Make a huge mistake!

I think the passion that Emileigh has for music is the reason that she can be so inspiring to young people.

Okay, if you make a mistake, it's okay.

I love you, don't worry.

I think she will shape lives.

I think she will do that.

♪ Do, re, major second ♪ ♪ Do, mi ♪ As a teacher, my job is to help each person find themselves so they can cope with life, cope with pressures, and continue to grow long after they have left my studio.

♪ ♪