After seven o'clock on Sunday morning local time, Yang Jingxing said good night to his girlfriend on the phone. He Peiyuan hadn't finished dinner yet, and she was exhausted from shopping with her mother and aunt and cousin all day long and didn't want to talk to Yang Jingxing. Li Diya, on the other hand,

My brother-in-law calls me affectionately, but my aunt criticizes me, but my mother supports me.

Curtis's receptionist was smart today and wore a coat to pick up people at the hotel, otherwise the cold wind at eight o'clock in the morning would have been too much for him. The receptionist apologized and explained that the situation at Curtis had changed, and hoped that Mr. Yang would be more considerate.

Arranging a meeting was suggested by Hilary Cole's mentor, the famous violin professor Kushnir.

Kushnir is now seventy years old, and he once served as Curtis' dean for several years. Although famous teachers have trained many disciples, Hilary Cole should be the most popular so far. Kusnir is very

Maybe she heard that Yang Jingxing's comments about her beloved disciple required theory, but Director Yang was not afraid, just meet him when he saw it.

Both parties were on time, shaking hands and meeting at the front desk at 8:30, but Curtis was even more outrageous than yesterday. Only the dean came out without an assistant or secretary, and even the waiter turned around and disappeared. This made You

The teacher didn't know what to do.

Curtis's dean, Rousseau, had just been in office for two or three years and was probably under fifty years old. He had been the principal cellist in the Philadelphia Orchestra for nearly ten years, and then he had established his own business as a soloist for several years and was doing well, although

It cannot compare with big stars like Qin Mengli and Hilary Cole, but it can barely tie for the top of the group. Now it is even worse. The name of Dean Curtis is so bluffing that the level of the concert must not be doubted at the box office.

Not to mention. And Rousseau, as the dean, did not disappoint the board of directors. It can be said that he is very good at diplomacy, especially in the expansion of reputation and strength. Although the school has not expanded its enrollment, it will definitely be very helpful in attracting sponsorship.

Yang Jingxing and Rousseau talked cordially and friendly for an hour, more than a quarter of an hour longer than the scheduled time. However, the two did not discuss high art. They talked basically about education and business. Yang Jingxing clearly knew that since 20708

Major orchestras in the West, especially the United States, are living a tight life. In the past two years, Curtis has held master classes and other activities in various countries around the world. Although the business seems to be quite busy, his popularity and income are probably not very optimistic.

China's music education market has been growing rapidly in recent years, and this growth is only at the stage of the industry.

After all, Rousseau is a dean. Although he has never been to China, he can still say that what China needs most at present is not to train practitioners. This country has grown many amazing musicians. What China lacks most is audiences, and Chinese practitioners should

Focus on cultivating listeners. According to Rousseau, cultivating listeners is much more difficult than cultivating musicians. It will take at least fifty years of heavy investment to achieve initial results.

Yang Jingxing also bluntly pointed out that Mr. Rousseau obviously did not understand the Chinese people's yearning for a better life and the unimaginable hard work and perseverance of other nations who are willing to pay for it. This good life is by no means limited to money and material aspects, especially in terms of money and material things.

For people born in the 21st century.

Although Rousseau did not pay special attention to it, he also felt it. Even as far as Curtis is concerned, Chinese students are obviously more eager to succeed and become famous. They all have a very strong sense of competition, but it is precisely this kind of excessive and limited competition.

Consciousness makes these students suffer from limitations in the comprehensive development advocated by Curtis, such as the neglect of humanities courses.

Director Yang acknowledged some initial limitations that he currently faces, but also analyzed and predicted with Dean Lu that the future development of serious music culture in China will be different from the traditional model in Europe and the United States, because it is an extremely fertile and vast culture.

Although the soil has gone through a period of neglect, when the weather is good and the weather is good, with a little cultivation and irrigation, the deep and never broken foundations laid down for thousands of years will surely give the earth a new lease of life. Western music is here

The land will not only be imitated, transplanted or consumed.

Rousseau also became more and more straightforward: "I want to know what we need to do in Mr. Yang's good expectations? And what are the good reasons for doing so?"

Yang Jingxing almost crossed his legs: "As Mr. Rousseau said, we all have a responsibility for music. I think you have a much broader understanding of the content of this responsibility than I do. Of course, achievements and honors are inseparable from responsibility. It depends on

No matter how much responsibility we have fulfilled, many people, including me, will think that Mr. Rousseau is more worthy of respect. Because of your enlightenment and contribution, my respect for you will last for a long time, not just today."

Rousseau nodded: "Yes, responsibility..."

Yang Jingxing was a few minutes late for his meeting with the Curtis Piano Department. Fortunately, Rousseau sent him to Grafman and helped explain it, although Rousseau was not qualified to ask Grafman for face.

The piano department didn't give Director Yang any face. Besides Grafman, there was also a Taiwanese-born teacher. The Taiwanese was nearly forty years old and was once Grafman's genius student. If fate hadn't been a joke, he would have suffered a serious illness and caused muscle damage.

If there was a problem, he might be a figure like Chen Qunguan now. Fortunately, he stayed in the school to teach and was well received. He was also very strong and could give some small concerts and was praised for his unique style.

Although it was their first meeting, Yang Jingxing and Grafman already had some connections. Grafman's talented students performed Yang Jingxing's piano sonatas commercially, and his Israeli pianist friend also went to Puyin and got married to Yang Jingxing.

They made some friendships. However, Grafman, an amiable-looking old man, did not have any connections with young people. He eagerly entered the state of old acquaintances and pulled out the score of "Friendship Variations" and began to gossip without scruple, pointing at those things.

The notes are so dense that it is almost difficult to print. I think here is strange and there is abnormal, here is confusing and there is unclear, and it is almost used as a derogatory term.

Jiang was so old that Grafman did not give Director Yang a chance to have a cordial and friendly conversation. He directly pointed to the piano: "Sit down, please sit down!" The tone was more polite than Li Yingzhen's, but there are not many people in classical orchestras nowadays.

You can instruct Director Yang like this.

Yang Jingxing said slowly: "This piano must have a glorious history."

"Thirty years." Grafman said and sat down in front of the piano opposite: "Do you need another sheet music?"

Yang Jingxing shook his head: "I'm very familiar with it."

The Taiwanese laughed, and Teacher You also laughed.

Grafmanzi completely suppressed Yang Jingxing in terms of momentum: "Twelve to sixteen measures."

In a clip of more than ten seconds, Yang Jingxing raised his hand and the sound of the piano was really good.

The Taiwanese's smile completely disappeared and even looked a little solemn, but Grafman looked very ordinary. The white-haired old man was like teaching a student. He tasted it for a while and said: "No, no, it's not exactly like this..."

Yang Jingxing smiled: "I want to hear the details, Professor."

The advantage of being a teacher is that you can just talk, or you can simply demonstrate an arpeggio and then ask the students to play the four parts accurately. This is what Grafman did, putting forward his requirements concisely and skillfully, as if there were no fundamentals.

Little did he know that the person sitting opposite him was the composer himself.

Yang Jingxing still had to flatter him: "It's very interesting, I think I can keep this as a repertoire." After saying that, he played it again.

After listening, Grafman remained normal and asked the spectators: "What do you think? Which one do you like?"

Of course Teacher You will not express his opinion, and Taiwanese people are also very embarrassed and hesitate to speak.

Grafman doesn't waste any time: "Twenty-two bars..."

Director Yang was given a thumbs up. Not only did Grafman not marvel at the genius's skills, he also unabashedly showed that he had explored the super-technical work "Friendship Variations" in more detail and uniquely than the creator himself. This old man had a nose and an eye for what he said.

, and confidently point out things that have no reference to past experience or theory.

Yang Jingxing was under the roof and facing a great master. He couldn't say that the other party was wrong, so he had no choice but to let others dictate. Grafman played whatever he wanted and did not dare to compromise.

I have to admit that Grafman’s technical requirements for the piece are coherent and self-contained, and he is not deliberately making things difficult by talking nonsense. Faced with a piece that most skilled pianists would only consider whether it is possible to successfully complete it, Graf

Man can still put forward so many detailed and original requirements, he must be an extremely master, even if it is just on paper.

Fortunately, Yang Jingxing was not stumped by his own creation. When faced with various requests, he did not give the old man opposite him a chance to say, "No, please try again." He looked quite relaxed.

Of course, a master like Grafman would not give step-by-step instructions step by step. He only took out seventy or eighty measures of a six-minute piece to make points. However, the old man's selection of more than a dozen places was indeed very accurate. If

If these obstacles in the work are slightly modified, even if the difficulty is reduced by only 10%, the performers' desire to try this virtuoso composition will be greatly increased.

Yang Jingxing seemed to have entered the role of a student. After passing the last difficulty, he realized: "Professor, do I want to play it again?"

Grafman was still kind: "Yes, please."

The scheduled half-hour meeting time passed for another six or seven minutes, and there was not much left. The room was heated very well, and Yang Jingxing danced with his hands until his forehead became sweaty. After he finished playing, he looked at the professor and waited for instructions.

Grafman, who had listened to the whole song solemnly, stared at the students as if he was preparing to teach sternly, and then suddenly laughed: "I don't need to see your passport, you are Yang Jingxing, I'm very sure!"

Yang Jingxing haha, Taiwanese people and Teacher You also haha.

Grafman almost sighed: "I have to agree with what they said...it would be an exciting and anticipated regret not to be able to hear your concert."

Yang Jingxing was a little surprised: "This is the first time I heard this."

Grafman also explained: "When you give up something there must be a better choice, and I wonder what can give more value to music than your own recitals, compositions?"

Yang Jingxing shook his head: "As for the realization of the value of music, this is why I am so honored to meet you..."

Curtis was in a constant battle, and Grafman's time limit was nearly doubled, leaving Yang Jingxing with no time to rest. Grafman also personally monitored and sent Yang Jingxing to the composition department.

In terms of history teaching achievements, Curtis's composition department is really inferior to the performance department. Grafman has a dozen students who are much more famous than the performer Yang Jingxing and are active in the international piano world, but they have to compare with the composer Yang Jingxing.

, especially after last night, the Curtis Composition Department really has nothing to show for it, so the professor representatives of the Composition Department were far less aggressive than Grafman when facing Director Yang, at least they were on equal footing. Things went smoothly.

It didn't time out much at all.

According to the plan, Yang Jingxing and Teacher You would leave Curtis at eleven o'clock to rest and prepare for afternoon activities, but it was already past eleven when they met with violin professor Kushnir.

There is not much age difference between the two, but Kushnir's status in the industry is actually lower than Grafman's, but he is more imposing than Grafman. Grafman will at least act amiable, while Kushnir will not

Vice Principal Xiang He has the same style, and his curly hair and beard look even more scary than He Hongchui's.

However, art and scholarship cannot rely solely on momentum. Yang Jingxing did not apologize for what he said yesterday. He also acted as if he was not taking the matter personally and discussed it carefully with Kushnir, and later took action.

Perhaps there were no rumors in the industry before that Yang Jingxing had any in-depth knowledge of the violin, and there was no agreement on how long the negotiation would last. Kushnir was endless, but he still could not stump Yang Jingxing. The funny thing is that Kushnir

I also brought in Ding Sangpeng, maybe because I thought this composer’s violin suites were even less popular.

Facts have proved that Curtis's famous professors are not all invincible in their profession. If he did not deliberately hide his strength during the competition, Kushnir's academic coverage and proficiency would not be much better than Puyin's Xu Linxi.

On the contrary, both of them have a wide circle of friends.

After going back and forth for nearly an hour, Kushnir didn't get any advantage. Did he want to take advantage of the students? He actually asked Yang Jingxing if he could tell Hillary about the relevant conversation between the two.

Yang Jingxing said it was no problem, since he didn’t know each other anyway, and he didn’t say anything particularly bad.

At 12:30 noon, Curtis finally showed some sincerity when he sent Yang Jingxing away, probably because he felt that he was wasting the guest's time. Several professors and administrators sent him outside the school gate. It would be more considerate if he could say something about arranging lunch.

.

In fact, Yang Jingxing and Teacher You didn't plan to have a big meal at noon. Yesterday they spotted a fast food restaurant and went to buy some sandwiches and wraps to fill their stomachs. The store was so busy that they had to queue up. It felt like the Yankees were there.

Lunch in the middle of winter was so cold, and Teacher You couldn't help but imagine that he would make a fortune by opening a ramen restaurant or rice bowl.

Let’s talk about work. It seems that the predetermined goal can be achieved. We need to write a report when we get back. Director Yang communicated with Teacher You and the report should be written more conservatively and economically. The two of them are just here to stand up. Really

The work still needs to be done by the principal and the communication office.

After all, after working together for so long, Teacher You became more and more aware of the director's intention, which was that Director Yang only conducted a simple inspection this time, and other things such as academic exchanges that could not be mentioned in the report were not mentioned.

After finishing the cold bread slices with the cold wind blowing, I had to make do with coffee as there was no hot tea. It was better to go back to the hotel and take a rest. Teacher You also imagined that if the hotel here saw a Chinese guest and provided a kettle in the room, it would be almost the same.

Li: "...just like when I mention the piano, I think of you first."
Chapter completed!