Piano Accompaniment to Friendship

 

Early in her piano performance career – and continuing later -- Tomoko served as a keyboard accompanist. She first accompanied her secondary school’s singers, and played the organ for Catholic masses when in college. As a student at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, she also played for special community concerts. A few years after she started teaching at the Conservatory, the Peninsula Symphony told her about a violinist, Ernestine Riedel at the time, who needed an accompanist, and Tomoko performed with her at the DeYoung Museum. They continued to perform together for 30 years, and considered themselves as a duo rather than a performer-accompanist relationship.  Their repertoire included sonatas and duos by Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy, Ravel, Prokoviev, Copland, etc. Even in recent recitals, Tomoko has accompanied her musical friends on the piano.

As part of their training, Tomoko’s students learned how to accompany as well. This kind of performance requires additional skills. First, the accompanist has to learn both her own accompanying score and the other musician’s score thoroughly. The accompanying piece has to become so natural that it is memorized and internalized as memory muscle. This deep knowledge is needed because the accompanist must listen to the other performer very carefully and adjust the piano playing tempo and tone to the spotlighted performer.

Accomplished accompanists may be called upon to perform with little notice ahead of time. If the piece is familiar, then the event is not so stressful, although it is harder if the accompanist does not know the lead performers and style. Sometimes accompanists can listen to recordings of the anticipated piece to jumpstart the interpretation. In any event, accompanists need to keep their sight-reading skills sharp, know how to play harmonic and chord patterns, and be able to modulate from one key to another for singers in particular.

Accompanying can be challenging but also joyful. Tomoko explains how music brings people together. “It gives me friendship.” As an accompanist, Tomoko has made good musical friends, and continues to keep in touch with them. 

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Bravo for Beethoven

In comparing piano composers, Tomoko asserts: “Some composers are harder because they are more complex, such as Beethoven.” In that vein, Tomoko says that choosing pieces by composers should consider the performer’s age; “Beethoven is good for pianists in their 40s because of Beethoven’s depth and mystery.” Tomoko continues: “Beethoven’s music conveys his emotion, which was so strong inside.”

As one would suspect, Tomoko enjoys playing Beethoven compositions. When she performed with violinist Ernestine Riedel Chihuaria, their repertoire included sonatas and duos by Bach, Handel, Mozart, and Beethoven. In her CD “Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann,” Tomoko performed Beethoven’s “Fantasia in g minor B flat major, Opus 77.” (1809).

German composer Ludwig van Beethoven was born in 1770 and died in 1827. He was largely influenced by the Viennese classical tradition of Mozart and Haydn, but developed his own individual style that presaged the Romantic era – and has influenced musicians ever since.


At the time that Beethoven composed the above fantasia, he was in his middle heroic period, as his deafness began. More specifically, the year 1809 was sorrowful for Beethoven. France occupied Vienna, where Beethoven was living. His patron Archduke Rudolph and many of the Viennese fled the city. The piece was first published in 1810 in Leipzig and London, and was dedicated to Count Franz von Brunsvik. Beethoven had been enamored with the count’s sister, Josephine, who was a widow with children. While Beethoven wanted to be even closer to Josephine, in 1810 she married a baron instead. During that summer Beethoven wrote this composition, and spent much time with Franz.

As for the style of the composition, it followed in the tradition of the fantasy genre, which started centuries earlier. By the 19th century, this genre implied a sense of freedom and even chaos hiding an underlying structural framework. Thus this piece is sometimes considered a studied improvisation, going through several tempos and meters, never developing a unified theme, but rather using fermatas to indicate different sections. Nevertheless, Beethoven’s composition reveals a coherent if capricious structure.

Surprisingly, this work is not well known nor frequently played. So listeners especially appreciate Tomoko’s performance of this unique composition.

Friends for Life

Friends are important, as Tomoko well knows. She has made good musical friends, and continues to keep in touch with them throughout her life.

A case in point? Tomoko still connects with her high school friends, including at reunions that they hold to this day. “We were all in the same situation,” Tomoko recalls. “It was after the war, and materials were not available. We all made do.”

Tomoko didn’t know anyone in San Francisco when she arrived to study at the Conservatory, but she soon made friends through her classes. She was invited to their homes to celebrate holidays, and even flew one time with a couple of her classmates to Arizona State University to see Pablo Casals in person. “My friend was particularly inspired by him,”Tomoko notes. “We even met him at the airport, and shared a meal with him.”

Tomoko herself idolized Lili Kraus, an internationally famous pianist. In 1962 Tomoko and Lili were both practicing at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and started a professional conversation that bloomed into a long-time friendship. 

Several of Tomoko’s friends began as performance partners. For instance, Tomoko met violinist Ernestine Chihuaria in 1968 through the Peninsula Symphony. Ernestine needed an accompanist at the last minute, and Tomoko performed with her at the DeYoung Museum. They continued to perform together as a duet for thirty years, and Tomoko kept in touch with Ernestine until she passed in 2014. 

Tomoko also became a friend to many of her students and their families. George Duke, who become a jazz musician, was an early student of hers. She was very impressed with his dedication and his kindness. She performed Brahms and Prokofiev with him, and continued to keep in touch with him.

Tomoko’s friendships were certainly reflected in a recent recital that she arranged, and in which she performed with her current and former students. The audience was filled with her friends, who love her artistry – and her personality. It’s music to her heart.

Duets for Life

Duets

"I ask people to do duets," remarks Tomoko. Tomoko has played duets with her students, both as part of their lesson as well as for recitals. There are many fascinating four-hand piano compositions, which enrichen the students' musical background. And technically, duets help musicians listen more closely to the music, and sharpen their ability to coordinate with the other player.

As a performer, Tomoko has played in concerts with other professionals. Tomoko fondly remembers violinist Ernestine Riedel Chihuaria in that regard. They met in 1969 through the Peninsula Symphony. Ernestine needed an accompanist at the last minute, and Tomoko performed with her at the DeYoung Museum. They continued to perform together for thirty years. "I considered ourselves as a duo rather than having a performer-accompanist relationship," Tomoko asserts.



Duets were an early part of Tomoko's own playing. She first learned piano playing from her brother, and the two of them would practice on the family’s one piano. “Sometimes we played four-hand music,” Tomoko remembers. “We would switch parts when doing duets, which helped me understand symphonies with their many parts.” Tomoko’s brother later became a professional composer.

Keeping it in the family, at her tribute concert in 2013, Tomoko and her daughter Beata performed a piano duet, which was very touching. While Beata started playing the piano as a preschooler, her passion lay in ice skating. Tomoko was just as glad; "It's good not to have two professional pianists in the family," contends Tomoko.

However, Beata enjoyed doing duets on the ice.  By age 14, Beata was known for her affinity for ice dancing, even though she practiced without a partner. It took four years for her to find a right male ice dancing partner: Charles Sinek. The next year they married. "Our competitions were like a wedding; we were presented as a couple, we dance together, we had beautiful costumes, our guests were the audience, and there was a lot of planning just for one event," remembers Beata. 

Tomoko too has had a long duet with her husband: Desy. They met at a Hungarian ball, and married in 1975. He also is not a musician, like their daughter; Tomoko ways, "I never have to worry about him giving me his opinion about how I should practice or perform." But they complement each other well, as good duos do. It's the same skill: of listening and coordination.

Thankful for partner performers

Tomoko is very thankful for the wonderful musicians with whom she performed. They are each special and unique. Here are three of her outstanding ones.

George Duke was a famous jazz musician who passed away in 2013. Tomoko remembered him from 1967. "George lived in Marin City, and attended the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.  At the school's recital I performed Brahms and Prokofiev with him." Tomoko recalls his personality. "Some of the students didn't have cars, but he did -- and he gave rides. He was very humble and sweet."

One of Tomoko's favorite musical friends is violinist Ernestine Riedel Chihuaria, whom she met in 1968 through the Peninsula Symphony south of San Francisco. Tomoko was her last-minute accompanist at the De Young Museum, and continued to perform together for thirty years.

And then there is Tomoko's daughter Beata, who is a professional skater. Beata learned how to play the piano from an early age, but her passion was ice dancing. "It's good not to have two professional pianists in the family," remarks Tomoko. Nevertheless, at Tomoko's tribute concert in May 2013 she and Beata performed a piano duet, which was very touching.

Violinist Friend Ernestine Riedel Chihuaria

Recently in London, a couple from France bought an original Guarnerius violin, and wanted to know its provenance. “You know those violins, they carry a part of humanity, a part of heart and soul of the maker and the previous players,” stated the husband of the new owner, who is a violin teacher and performer.

They contacted Tomoko, who performed with its prior owner: Ernestine Riedel Chihuaria.

Ernestine was born in 1930, and became a member of the San Francisco Symphony in 1964. Tomoko met Ernestine in 1968 through the Peninsula Symphony. Ernestine needed an accompanist at the last minute, and Tomoko performed with her at the DeYoung Museum. Ernestine met her husband Victor in 1968 through a dating service; Tomoko performed at her wedding. Ernestine and Tomoko continued to perform together for 30 years, and considered themselves as a duo rather than a performer-accompanist relationship. Their repertoire included sonatas and duos by Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy, Ravel, Prokoviev, Copland, etc.

In the early 1990s, Ernestine traveled to Washington D.C., and came across a lost piano and violin concerto by Hummel in the National Archives microfiche collection. Ernestine obtained permission to access this previously undiscovered concerto, and with an orchestra, Ernestine and Tomoko performed this rare Hummel Violin and Piano Concerto in its official U.S. debut in 1994.

As Tomoko’s daughter Beata said, “I have very fond memories of Ernestine and her husband Victor Chihuaria throughout my childhood. Ernestine was like an aunt to me and a most gracious, loving, generous person and beautiful performer.”