Marvin Blickenstaff is known among piano teachers throughout the country for his teaching, lecturing, performing, and publishing. He has presented workshops for piano teachers throughout the USA, and appears frequently as soloist and lecturer at state conventions of music teachers and at the national convention of the Music Teachers National Association. For the past eleven years he has been on the faculty of International Workshops where he has performed and lectured in Canada, Austria, Scotland, Norway, France, and Switzerland. In 1992 he was honored by the Indiana Music Teachers Association with the citation of "Teacher of the Year." In 1995 The Registered Piano Teachers of New Zealand sponsored him in concert and a 15-lecture tour of that country. He currently serves as Board President of the Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy. Music Pathways, a 36-book instructional series, was co-authored by Blickenstaff, Lynn Freeman Olson and Louise Bianchi. He serves as a piano editor for the Frederick Harris Music Company (Toronto) and has published Celebration Series: A Handbook for Teachers with co-authors Cathy Albergo and Reid Alexander. Blickenstaff has been on the editorial board of The American Music Teacher and is an associate editor of the periodical Keyboard Companion. Blickenstaff's teaching career is associated with the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill where he taught for nine years and served as Chairman of Instruction in Piano, and with Goshen College (IN) where he taught for over twenty years. He now resides in the greater Philadelphia area and is teaching at The College of New Jersey (Ewing), the Westminster Choir College and Conservatory of Rider University and The New School for Music Study (Princeton). Blickenstaff holds degrees from The Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Indiana University where he received both performing and academic honors. His teachers have included Fern Nolte Davidson, Emil Danenberg, and Bela Böszormenyi-Nagy, and he has coached with Leon Fleisher and György Sebök.
Marvin Blickenstaff
The Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy
P.O. Box 651
4543 Route 27
Kingston, NJ 08528
Phone: 609.921.0371
Fax 609.921.0479
marvinrb@enter.net
by Marvin Blickenstaff
Being honored by the Piano Pedagogy Forum in this way comes as a total surprise. Both hands are insufficient to count the number of equally deserving piano pedagogues who should be receiving this exceptional tribute. I am humbled, flattered, and feel undeserving.
But such is my luck. My life has been one of rich and undeserved rewards. I was born to wonderful parents who taught me, by example and word, life's important lessons. Why was it my good luck to become part of that family, when countless others are born into poverty, broken homes, war-torn political turmoil, etc? From my parents I learned the value of hard work and perseverance, that life is for giving and not for getting. An atmosphere of love and affirmation prevailed in our home. My piano study was encouraged, although it was uncertain that I would be permitted to major in music. Our family was "medical," and it was anticipated that I would follow the paths of my older brothers. I shall never forget the scene at the breakfast table when I was a senior in high school and recently returned from having won a state piano competition. My dentist father put down his fork, looked across the table and said "Mother, if Marvin wants to major in music, I think we'll let him." (That statement says much about who was in charge of our family!)
Good luck played a most decisive role in my pre-college piano training. As a seventh grader I suggested to my mother that it was time for me to stop piano lessons, for that was the age when my two older brothers became piano drop-outs. Mother countered with a plan to change teachers, and she contacted Fern Nolte Davidson, by far the most outstanding teacher in our area. Good luck was mine once again, for Fern accepted me as a student. After a few lessons I was convinced of my life's goal: I would be a pianist. What I learned from Fern Davidson in those six years remains my constant companion as I teach. Many of her ideas about technique and curriculum sequencing are evident in my studio. Occasionally I will suggest to a student "It's time for you to take a lesson from Mrs. Davidson," and we examine every bit of ink on the page as I learned to do under her watchful eye. Fern and I have been best friends for over five decades. This fall we will honor her 100th birthday, and scores of former students will be on hand to celebrate the extraordinary "good luck" of having studied with Fern Davidson.
I had the good luck of being accepted into the Oberlin Conservatory on scholarship. The environment was totally stimulating, most especially being part of the Oberlin College Choir under Robert Fountain. All senior piano majors were required to take the obligatory piano pedagogy course. We regretted the time spent in class when we could be practicing. I loathed the reading in music education and looking through files of outdated teaching materials. However, we were required to teach a child from the community, and that experience went far beyond "tolerable." I totally enjoyed the work with my first student.
The dislike I felt for my one undergraduate piano pedagogy course has returned in the form of a divine retribution. Life is filled with ironies: each college position I have held has required that I teach piano pedagogy courses and my professional reputation is inextricably linked with the field of piano pedagogy. I'm sure that Oberlin piano pedagogy teacher looks down from heaven, shakes her finger at me and says "I knew you would end up teaching!"
My first college positions were in Kansas, and after six years I took a leave-of-absence and moved to New York for advanced piano study. A most unfortunate loss of money to a scam concert manager in Canada sent me scrambling for a job in the Big Apple. Eventually I found employment at Carl Fischer, Inc. where I worked in their orchestral rental department and traveled around the country presenting promotional workshops on their piano catalogue. I was urged to solicit new composers for Carl Fischer publications, which resulted in Lynn Freeman Olson's being published by Fischer. Ultimately Lynn and I were asked to create a piano course for Carl Fischer. Lynn suggested that we add Louise Bianchi to the team. Those years working with Lynn and Louise were another stroke of good luck. The missing links in my piano pedagogy background were now being filled with the inspiring and stimulating collaboration with Lynn and Louise, both trained by Frances Clark and Louise Goss. The end product of our years of working together was the piano course Music Pathways.
Lynn Olson's untimely death left gaping holes in many lives and organizations. Nelita True took over Lynn's responsibilities as the director of piano activities for the International Workshops. Nelita invited me to join the faculty one summer, and that invitation extended through the ensuing fifteen years. How lucky can you get?! A paid trip to a different European city each summer, meaningful friendships, inspiring concerts and lectures, and contacts around the world.
My teaching career has been associated mainly with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Goshen College. Good luck followed me in both positions in the form of amicable and affirming collegial relationships, and many fine students who have become lifelong friends. I feel embraced by those friendships and the affection of former students. I'm very lucky.
Richard Chronister's premature death in 1999 left the Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy without a President of the Board. When Louise Goss and Sam Holland extended the invitation of the Board to join them as president, I was totally dumbfounded. No one could fill Richard's shoes. We all recognized that. The privilege of working closely with Sam and Louise as the executive committee of the Center has been the most meaningful professional relationship of my life. The planning of the three National Conferences on Keyboard Pedagogy has meant untold hours of work, but their success has been totally gratifying. Another example of my good luck.
The calendar suggests that I am well beyond legitimate retirement age. But I don't feel ready for "real" retirement. Furthermore, there are many students who need piano lessons, some teachers' groups and conferences who need workshops, and some audiences who need to hear live classical piano repertoire. Mine is the good luck of health, energy, and the desire to share. As I write these lines I realize once again that my road has been a smooth one, with few uncharted detours and no serious accidents. I tell my piano pedagogy students that, were I given the opportunity to live my life over, I would choose once again to be a piano teacher.
Seventy-plus years of good luck - mixed with discipline and work. What a wonderful life I have had. Many of you have contributed to make it so. How very fortunate and grateful I am to have such fine colleagues in the piano pedagogy community, and to have had such good luck!
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