Scroll down for radio interviews, podcasts, videos and links to resources mentioned during conversations.
Politics and Prose, Tuesday, August 11, 6:00 pm EST pub date! Watch on YouTube
For this first virtual bookstore event on publication date I was joined by the wonderful Michael Kimmelman, architecture critic at the New York Times and a superbly talented and acclaimed pianist. Archived here on YouTube. And use this direct link to purchase the book from the Politics & Prose website.
Harvard Bookstore & Frederick Collection of Historic Pianos, Friday, August 14, 7pm EST Watch on YouTube
For this talk I was joined by New York Times best-selling novelist Marisa Silver. Archived here on YouTube. I am donating full royalties on every copy sold before, during and after this event to the extraordinary Frederick Collection of Historic Pianos in Ashburnham, MA. Use this direct link to purchase the book on the Harvard Bookstore site. Thanks to the Fryderyk Chopin Institute for permission to use a video recording from the inaugural International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments.
Collected Works Bookstore, Friday, August 28, 8pm EST / 6pm MT
For this talk with the great Santa Fe independent store I was joined by Desirée Mays, international lecturer on opera and music. Use this direct link to purchase the book from the Collected Works website. If anyone wants a personally inscribed bookplate, just let the store know and we will mail one.
RJ Julia Booksellers, Monday, September 14, 7 pm EST
For this talk I was joined by the peerless bookselling innovator Roxanne Coady, founder of RJ Julia and “Just the Right Book,” a personalized book subscription site and weekly podcast. Check back here for a link to our episide.
SELECTED RADIO INTERVIEWS & PODCASTS
Joshua Weilerstein, “Sticky Notes,” August 10, 2020
Timmy Fisher, “That Classical Music Pod,” August 12, 202o
Jacqueline Gerber, WCLV-Radio, August 12, 2020
Sandra Bernhard, “Sandyland” on SiriusXM Radio Andy, Ch. 102, September 2, 2020
Perri Peltz, Sirius XM Radio, September 24, 2020
Adriani Trigiani, Facebook Live, September 29, 2020
Fred Plotkin, “Fred Plotkin on Fridays,” October 16, 2020. Fred always asks guests for a playlist of works that inspire them; mine is here, along with a few sentences about each work.
Kirk McElhearn and Doug Adams, “The Next Track,” January 5th, 2022.
Kirk McElhearn, “Write Now with Scrivener,” August 25, 2021
LINKS
Links to music, articles and videos on subjects that came up in conversation during interviews and bookstore events. See also the Resources section for photos and links to many other resources about key figures and subjects in Chasing Chopin.
Eric Clark performing Chopin’s op. 35 sonata during the First International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments in Warsaw, September 2018.
Links to videos of all the recitals during the First International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments in Warsaw, September 2018. A link to the period pianos used during the competition is here.
Yuan Sheng’s album “Chopin,” with the 4 Ballades, 4 Impromptus, 24 Preludes op. 28, 20 Nocturnes, on YouTube. Here are direct links to works played during Zoom conversations: Nocturne op. 48 no. 1 in C minor, and Nocturne op. 9, no. 2 in E flat major, with the rarely played variations discovered in the scores of Chopin’s students. Thanks to Brilliant Classics for permission to plays these works in bookstore talks.
Michael Kimmelman’s fascinating article in the New York Times Magazine about his participation in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs. And here, a link to his journalism at the Times.
Marisa Silver’s beautiful short story “The Memory Wing,” published in The Atlantic in July 2020. And “Night Train to Frankfurt,” published in the New Yorker in November 2013, which has become one of my favorites and includes a character who’s a pianist.
The pianos in the Frederick Collection of Historic Pianos in Ashburnham, Massachusetts
Vladimir Horowitz’s performance of the funeral march from Chopin’s op. 35 sonata in Jimmy Carter’s White House in February 1978.
Officer Craig Bull plays Chopin’s Nocturne op. 9, no. 2 in E flat major in the home of an elderly pensioner in Nottingham, England.
A brief conversation about the connection between historic pianos and the human voice, with a fascinating example from Patricia Frederick of the Frederick Collection of Historic Pianos.