Lucie Shores 249 Water Street, First Floor, Excelsior MN, 55331
Instruments:Piano
Styles:Classical, Jazz, Folk – Country – Bluegrass, Blues, Kids, World, Electronic, Other
Levels:Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced
Experience:30+ years
Rate:$45 / hrShare
Personal Statement
Personal Statement
While no one can promise to bring a student to the concert stage, I guarantee each one will fulfill his or her potential. It has been an honor to work with great teachers, perfomers and students over the last 30 years. I have served on the coaching and piano faculty of the Vienna Conservatory of Music, the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, the First International Course for the Interpretation of Spanish Music, in Madrid, the Wustman Vocal Institute, at Valpariaso, and the Semer Vocal Institute, in Coesfeld, among others.
Here are a few of the things I consider to be important in teaching piano students:
Each student’s needs and talents are different requiring methods and practice tailored “to the end user”.
All students need to be competent to deal with the instrument without the distraction of looking at notes. This does not mean I don’t teach students to read; on the contrary, my own expertise and career has depended on an ability to sight-read. Once the touch and function of the piano has been embedded in the technique and ear of the pianist, musical scores are approached with that advantage.
My teaching includes methods that provide the following – Technic – Theory – Repertoire from all styles and periods – Sight-reading – Improvisation & Jazz – Rythmn and ear-training – anything else that illustrates and provide practice for a complete rapport with the piano and its literature.
The most important ideas when beginning to learn are:
Playing and practicing are different.
Three consecutive, perfect passes, means you’ve got it.
88 is the best “universal” practice tempo.
Good fingering is key.
For more advanced students, all these things are still important, becoming second nature. This allows students to perform and express themselves while also learning to collaborate with other musicians. Ensemble work is one of the most satisfying ways of making music. The piano is well-suited for chamber music of all kinds. To learn to collaborate well is to add a complete dimension to one’s musicianship. Good collaborators are hard to find, and I emphasize that a career can be made in accompanying, coaching and collaborating.
Singers seeking coaching or a collaboration as well as serious piano students are invited to arrange a meeting.
Education / Training
Education / Training
Lucie Shores graduated from Minnesota State University Moorhead, where she studied piano pedagogy and performance with Ernie and Nancy Harris. As a student, she was accompanist and musical director for university opera productions as well as accompanist for the Fargo-Moorhead Civic Opera Company. She spent a year in Austria studying accompanying and coaching at the Conservatory of Vienna with Hans Peter Schilly and Kurt Richter. That year, as a student of Professor Hammer (principal percussionist in the Vienna Symphony) she became the first female percussionist to perform publicly with an orchestra in the city of Vienna.
From 1974-1977 she taught piano at Fergus Falls Community College, worked with the MSUM opera and the Fargo Moorhead Civic Opera company, joining the faculty of the International Music Camp in Bottineau, ND for one season. In 1977 she returned to Europe as accompanist and participant in the First International Course for the Interpretation of Spanish Music, established by Ricardo Visus. That year she was hired by the main house of the Conservatory of Music in Vienna as a vocal coach and piano instructor. She performed concerts for Vienna Festivals, coached voice, composed and performed incidental music for Austrian theater and cinema, taught choir at the American International School, developed a creative music summer course at the International School in Geneva, Switzerland and served on the faculty of the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz as a German Lied coach. Among others, she has coached on faculties with Geoffrey Parsons and Martin Katz, John Wustman at Valparaiso. Among others she has worked with singers and teachers, Elizabeth Holleque, Julie Prohaska, Glenn Winslade, Ricardo Visus, Elio Battaglia, Georg Tichy, Waldemar Kmennt, and Christa Ludwig.
Shores toured on and off over the past thirty years, performing concerts in Austria, Spain, Switzerland and the United States under the auspices of various arts organizations, universities, and the Spanish Ministry of Culture. Since her return to the Midwest to raise three sons, she has directed musicals, produced opera and in 1996 established the Creativity Tank, a publicly funded, non-profit organization whose mission is to provide access to creative processes for change. The Shores Studio is in Excelsior, MN.