Paul Sheftel, a renowned piano performer, pedagogue, composer, and leading figure in the creation of MIDI technology learning materials, visited BYU (via Zoom) earlier this month. He called in from New York City to meet with BYU’s piano pedagogy class (MUSIC 364), taught by Professor Jihea Hong-Park.
Mr. Sheftel studied piano performance, music theory, and composition early on, receiving his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Juilliard. He has performed solo and in a piano duo across legendary concert spaces like Carnegie Hall, and with world renowned orchestras like the Berlin Philharmonic. He’s spent time teaching piano pedagogy at Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music, and Westminster Choir College of Rider University, in addition to teaching piano privately from his studio in New York City.
In addition to this, he has contributed extensively to the music world through the music he’s written (both individually and collaboratively), and through introducing new ways to learn music in the age of technology and online learning, for instance through Cyber Conservatory, of which he’s a co-creator.
In his visit with the piano pedagogy class, Paul Sheftel’s warmth and passion for teaching was immediately apparent, glowing past the cameras, screens, and miles between him and the students. He had a nurturing, Zen-like, Mr. Rogers kind of energy- so very with them, so eager to explore every question extended, and so able to truly see, connect with, and encourage each student. His deep source of experience and knowledge was unmistakable.
He wanted to meet each student before diving in, so he took time with every person in the room to meet them, to hear about their experience with discovering music, and to see how they felt about teaching piano- which, within the small class, ranged from having a running studio and years of positive experiences teaching, to the complete opposite: lacking interest and positive experiences with teaching, even if they were hoping to change that.
Among several other things in their discussion, Paul Sheftel and the pedagogy class explored how to validate and help students nervous about performing (“You’re right! You understand that performing in front of people is hard.”), how to confront different sorts of challenges in teaching, how teachers can find their own way of teaching utilizing the strengths of their personalities, whether they’re more introverted or extroverted, and how to effectively teach and create relationships with students when only remote lessons are an option.
One student expressed about his visit, “The class yesterday with Paul Sheftel was really awesome. I feel an even greater desire than I felt last week to explore teaching piano again. And that’s saying something, because I wasn’t considering it at all a few weeks ago.”