Jingyi Tian, Hong Kong

Seminar A

Before I “walked into” Prof. Rosar’s webinar, I had two major concerns that make me hesitate: 1) Will I be able to follow the seminar? I am not a professional in music. I did not receive any formal training in music schools. My experience in piano and music is far from being “thick” enough; 2) Is this remote teaching be possible if we need to work on musical instruments? I could definitely foresee that there would be a lot of obstacles in teaching and comprehension.

The first trial class cleared off my first concern. Prof. Rosar’s teaching comes with clarity, friendliness, and properly designed guidance. I can see her points very clearly. And the next couple of classes cleared off my second concern. Even if this is remote teaching, which is infeasible for you to learn physically through dancing, practicing rhythm like what I read in the earlier testimonial, we still have rich information to learn Bach and step-by-step analysis of text we read. Her virtuosity in piano supports the instruction really well. When she played it, I can feel the difference more clearly and see Bach’s hidden “code” much better.

I didn’t think I have a “music brain” before I came across this seminar. I approached music just as I approached science. Music was quite elusive to me, especially when it comes to understanding Bach. I signed up with the motivation to know “the methodology and the science” of Bach. I just want to know why I am playing the pieces in certain ways.

I would say this seminar gave much more than I expected. Prof. Rosar showed me that music is just as fathomable as social science, science, or any other discipline, plus more freedom to interpret it. The teaching helps you sit down and think for a while – what he was trying to say in the way he wrote the text. Only after pondering the text, the music, and the overall architecture, listening to Bach’s voice and our own thoughts, can we know what to do.

Please don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that you will be a super master in piano or an expert in Bach pieces right after this seminar. Rather, I want to say that you will have a starting point to understand Bach and music better. If the webinar during the pandemic can be so helpful and inspiring, then I believe that Prof. Rosar can show you much more in her teaching in the future. She would show you how you can develop and nurture your own voice in music. To me, this is one of the best forms of music education that I could imagine. Without seeing and understanding the works properly, it is merely “music training,” of skills, of memories, of dexterity, you name it. But here, you will have a chance to develop your own “music mind.”