Explore popular quotes and sayings by William Westney.
Last updated on December 21, 2024.
William Frank Westney is an American classical pianist and professor of music. Westney was the top piano prize-winner of the Geneva International Music Competition, and he appeared thereafter as soloist with such major orchestras as l'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Houston, San Antonio and New Haven Symphonies. Westney holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Queens College in New York and a Masters and Doctorate in performance from Yale University, all with highest honors. During his study in Italy under a Fulbright grant he was the only American winner in auditions held by Radiotelevisione Italiana. Solo recital appearances included New York's Lincoln Center, the National Gallery and Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., St. John's, Smith Square in London, National Public Radio, and a U.S. State Department tour of Italy. His pianism has been described as “formidable”, “rich and distinctive” and “glorious”. Critics have praised his recordings of solo and chamber works for CRI and Musical Heritage Society, and Newsweek.
If you have played "six times wrong, one time right" the problem is not quite corrected.
The reason so many of us lose our bearings about practising early in life is that we practice in living rooms with other family members in earshot - and healthy practice would simply sound too obnoxious, intrusive, repetitious and unmusical for others to hear without annoyance.
Music study presents a natural, here-and-now route to selfknowledge and self-integration.
When the good student chooses the honest path, free of perfectionism and faking, music study becomes something refreshingly new: a calm oasis of self-acceptance for those who are so used to driving themselves and trying to please others.
Don't attribute mishaps to a lapse in concentration - if you missed the note you don't know it.
Robotic correctness is the last thing judges want to see or hear
Much music teaching seems more concerned with controlling the student than with encouraging the student's own impulses.
. .the most crucial ingredient by far for success in music is . . .what happens in the practice room.
If we're not actively making things better, chances are we're making them worse.
[perfectionism leads to] a tendency to apologize preemptively for one's efforts, knowing from experience that there's sure to be something wrong with them.
Music, the most abstract and uncanny art, is an eternal river of sound moving through time. We can free ourselves from whatever may be holding us back, and join that flowing river.
Learning itself is a fulfilling adventure at all points in the process. In fact, psychologists have listed learning as one of the basic, universal joys of human experience.
Mistakes are . . . immensely useful. . . they show us . . . where we are right now and what we need to do next