World’s First Remote Master Classes Via Yamaha Disklavier

Piano professors from The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music conducted the first remote piano master classes ever to link an instructor in the U.S. with students in Latin America using Yamaha Remote Lesson technology.

The historic event was held as part of “Teachers del Norte-Pianists del Sur” (Teachers of the North-Pianists of the South), a festival created and directed by Yamaha Artist Mirian Conti in 2008 and designed to promote young Argentine pianists to the world and strong ties between nations.

On July 18 and 19, Yamaha Artist Lisa Yui (Associate Dean of Assessment and Academic Programs at Manhattan School of Music) and José García-León (Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at The Juilliard School) evaluated actual “live” performances of four Argentine young pianists, including Tamara Benitez, Matias Palou, Natalia Suriano and Mariano Manzanelli. Remarkable was the fact that the instructors were located at Yamaha Artist Services in Manhattan, while the four students were located in the Sala Fariña & Dvorak in Buenos Aires—5,300 miles away.

This historic master class was made possible thanks to the seamless integration of the Yamaha Disklavier and the company’s proprietary Remote Lesson technology.

Now in its seventh generation, the Disklavier is the most technologically advance piano in the world. It is capable of transmitting highly-nuanced performance data – i.e., the actual key strokes and subtle gradations of pedal movement captured in super-fine gradations – between similarly equipped instruments over the Internet instantaneously.

First introduced in 2007, Remote Lesson is the company’s pioneering, internet-based application for the Disklavier that virtually eliminates geographic barriers. Still the only distance learning technology of its kind integrated into a piano, Remote Lesson enables artists and teachers to conduct transcontinental piano lessons, master classes and even perform, while working remotely on pacing, dynamics, color control and other musical nuances. Students play for teachers who can listen, watch and respond by demonstrating on a Disklavier that is connected to the student instrument.

As each student performed on the Disklavier in Argentina, Ms. Yui and Mr. García-León were able to watch the keys of the other Disklavier at Yamaha Artist Services in New York City recreate the students’ performances in real time, while conversing with the students over video conference. Both teachers and students conversed freely about the pieces, performing back and forth to one another. Technology effectively disappeared, providing all participants with the illusion that they were all in the same room.

To date, Yamaha has conducted remote master classes between the United States and Russia, Japan and now Latin America. Additionally, many technology-forward colleges and universities in the U.S. have also conducted Remote Lesson sessions with Disklavier pianos on campus, successfully enabling top music professors located at other top music schools across the U.S. to instruct their students remotely.

“The fifth edition of Teachers del NortePianists del Sur is proud to have successfully launched and inaugurated the first-ever remote master classes in Latin America,” said Ms. Conti. “This marks the beginning of Latin America’s future, bridging the musical arts with technology of the 21st century, through the amazing Disklavier. We are grateful to Lisa Yui from Manhattan School of Music and Jose Garcia Leon from The Juilliard School for their contribution.”

To learn more about Yamaha Disklavier Remote Lesson technology, visit http://4wrd.it/YamahaRemoteLesson

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