Sunday, September 22nd 2024 at 2:00 pm ET
Live from Paris
CelloChat: Anssi Karttunen
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International Soloist and Chamber Musician; faculty at École Normale de Musique
Discussing Life as a Cellist feat. Cameron Crozman and Hannah Collins
cellosophy
Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music.
Cello playing is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration.
Music is one of the essentials in human existence, almost identical with eating, sleeping, making love, the basic functions that keep a human being alive. Music simply, is one of the blessings and joys of civilized human existence.
Many people are too small to be teachers, but no one is too big.
Intelligence is everywhere in the body, nature and the universe.
My involvement in the political arena is to make sure there’s a place for culture.
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
Improper body use is like a pebble in your shoe. A nagging discomfort, it can cause severe damage over time.
Practicing is the art of making your ears happy.
On artistic conception: “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free”.
Just a little progress every day makes big progress over time.
Living in question is the most creative and stimulating state of being. Doors are always opening in the mind, one is motivated to explore, to observe and to take note.
The fingers have no brains, and they have no ears!
Music is powered by ideas. If you don’t have clarity of ideas, you’re just communicating sheer sound.
Like love, performance is not about me, it’s about the other person – giving to the audience.
Creativity takes courage.
Teaching moves through generations. If you believe in the principles that represent the truth in the masterpieces, then you try to preserve those principals. They can be preserved only through teaching.
The greatest mistake you can make is to be continually fearing you will make one.
Listening awareness is primary in the zone of creative transcendence.
As a teacher, my first task is to teach students how to practice. Once they understand this, they begin to make progress.
Play the fear out and then tone it down.
Real art is one of the most powerful forces in the rise of mankind, and he who renders it accessible is a benefactor of humanity.
Progress is impossible without change.
Tension is our biggest enemy. We must spend our life undoing it.
Everyone knows what they can’t do – our weaknesses scream at us every day. To perform, you must know what you can do and bring the attention of your audience to those strengths.
There is a performance nirvana, a miraculous interaction of ears, hands, and emotions. Listening awareness is primary in this zone of creative transcendence.
With every year of playing, you want to relax one more muscle. Why? Because the more tense you are, the less you can hear.
The art of interpretation is not to play what is written.
Even the smallest motion involves your entire body. Your body functions as a unified whole rather than as a collection of isolated parts. Those who focus too much on small motor movements can easily lose this vital connection with the rest of the body.
Through discipline comes freedom.
Vibrato is like lipstick – too much is ugly – the right amount and color is beautiful.
The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.
When we have a good balance between thinking and feeling… our actions and lives are always the richer for it.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
Thinking is the biggest mistake a dancer can make. You have to feel, to “become”.
Listening is the conduit through which all physical actions creating expressive results are filtered.
I still have not found anything more permanent or more beautiful than music.
My goal is to convey a true masterpiece in whatever I play.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Practice like it means everything in the world to you. Perform like you don’t give a damn.
Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.
Teaching should support, inspire, motivate, impart high ideals, and help each to discover and trust their unique talent and strengths.
Creative talent has an irrepressible hunger, and for the musician, music is the food it cannot live without.
Criticism does not disturb me, for I am my own severest critic. Always in my playing I strive to surpass myself, and it is this constant struggle that makes music fascinating to me.
I’ll stop teaching when I stop learning.
Variety, variety – no two snowflakes are alike, no two notes are alike.
Artistry is in the details.
If you aren’t making mistakes, you aren’t trying.
Cello playing begins in the back, before the sound.
Art is an activity in which one human heart communicates with another human heart.
Compassionate people are geniuses in the art of living, more necessary to the dignity, security, and joy of humanity than the discoverers of knowledge.
I was born with an ability, with music in me, that is all. No special credit was due me. The only credit we can claim is for the use we make of the talent we are given.
Don’t perform – just be yourself.
Our bodies continually provide us with information, yet we too often ignore or do not understand their messages. Awareness is the first step.
There is no top – there are always further heights to reach.
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