Margaret Chaloff

[Gracou]

Je me demandais si certains connaissaient cette pianiste disparue, femme du compositeur Julius Chaloff et mère du saxophoniste Serge Chaloff. Elle a été professeur de piano à Boston et a eu comme élèves Keith Jarrett, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, etc, bref, une bonne partie des gens qui ont fait le piano depuis les années 1960, rien que ça

Je n'ai trouvé que ce lien parlant un peu d'elle, qui est le site d'un de ses élèves:
http://www.kitwalker.com/instruction/te ... chers.html

Ainsi que ce bout d'interview provenant du même site que je colle ici, malgré la place que ça prend:

M5: You spent time in Boston and studied with a renowned teacher, Mme Chaloff. Can you tell us anything about these years and in what respect were they of major influence to you? What did she teach you in particular?
KW: Madame Chaloff was a legend around Boston, for being not only an amazing pianist and teacher, but also a kind of spiritual teacher. She taught a method of piano technique that had been passed down through generations of pianists, many of whom were quite well known, including Mozart, Czerny, Beethoven, etc. The technique involves using the breath, with weightless arms, and reminds me very much of a kind of martial art, like a miniature karate/kung fu, for the piano. The object is to create a singing tone on the piano. Madame Chaloff had many illustrious students, including Keith Jarrett, Herbie Hancock, George Shearing, Kenny Werner, Steve Kuhn, and many others. Here is something I recently wrote to another one of her students about my experience with her. It was really quite serendipitous.
It was in 1976-1977 that I was studying with Madame Chaloff. I studied with her for about 7 or 8 months, and she died while i was studying with her. I got there just in time! It's funny, because she used to look at me with those piercing blue eyes and tell me I was killing her! With so much love, though, that I really didn't take it personally when she did pass on. But she was an extraordinary gift for me.
The circumstances of our meeting were quite powerful too. It was my birthday, October 4th 1976 (I was 25), and I showed up at her apartment unannounced. I had only just heard of her for the first time the night before from a friend, and when he told me Keith Jarrett had studied with her, that was all I needed to hear, because Jarrett was and still is one of my all time favorites. I lived in Northampton MA at the time, and the next day, my birthday, I rode into Boston with a friend who was going for a vocal lesson. She dropped me off, I went to a phone booth, and looked up Mme C's address, and just went to her place on Comm Ave and rang the buzzer. (I have never done this kind of thing before or since)... She buzzed me in, and started by telling me I would have to make an appointment for 2 weeks or so later. But then when she saw me, she told me to come in anyway. She felt the back of my neck, as she did with people, because she was deeply psychic, and said "oh, what a beautiful soul" and then told me, "this must be fate". When I told her it was my birthday, and that my name was Christopher (that's my full name), she was astonished, because, she said, she had a grandson named Christopher, and that it was his birthday that day. She also told me she had just kicked out a student for not practicing, which she had only done once or twice before in her life.
So she brought me in, and read my palm, and also read my playing card out of that book she used. I am 5 of diamonds. She told me we had worked together in a past life. I played a little for her, but was so nervous that I played terribly, but she didn't seem to care, she accepted me as her student on the spot. I was so blown away by this meeting, I will never forget it.
So then the next months I took on the task of trying to absorb the essence of the teaching. I felt like a Zen student with a koan from the Zen master to solve. It became my constant meditation. She told me to observe the birds, and I really took that to heart. Trying to get the weightless arms, the breathing, the whole thing. I worked and worked at it. Week after week I would come in, start my piece, get through a few bars, and she would say, no no, that's not it, and we would go back to playing one note, trying to get it to "sing". And then I would go back home, determined to get to the bottom of it.
Whenever I would come into her apartment I could feel a palpable energy field there. I do feel that she was a spiritually enlightened being. It was always with a mixture of excitement and awe that I would come to my lessons. She had this amazing way of making me shake in my boots, all the while however making me feel completely loved. And she would tell me how the tones can be directed to people for healing anywhere in the world, also something that has become a real priority for me with music.
Then a month or so before she passed on, I remember coming to a lesson, and as she was in her kitchen she told me to just play a little to warm up. I did, and she came out and said yes, that's it, now you are getting it. I felt so elated, because I really began to understand it. I had only a couple of lessons more, and I think it was at the second to last one I remember her saying, "well, I guess you won't be needing me any more". And then a few weeks later she was gone. I also will always remember going to see her lying in state, after her passing.
She also catalyzed a life-long spiritual search for me, that has run parallel to my musical life, because after her I began to feel that I needed a spiritual teacher more than a music teacher. That has been a long and winding road, but a very worthwhile adventure, and I really credit Mme Chaloff for starting me out on my journey. Being with her was really my first experience with direct spiritual transmission from a teacher, and since then I haven't been satisfied with anything less than that.