John Proft: Piano and Voice Instruction

05/23/2017

Happy to announce a beautiful new website designed by the inimitable Beth Beauchamp. Check it out!

www.johnproft.com

08/21/2015

Seriously heart melting! This is like watching a sustained miracle for 8 minutes. Turn off everything, get quiet and still, and enjoy the exquisite subtlety of ALL of these collaborative virtuosos on stage.

Mass in C Minor, Mozart. Filmed at the Palau de la Musica Catalana, Barcelona, in December 1991.

08/20/2015

A little nerdy notation humor!

04/23/2015

Apparently I said something like this in a lesson and a very talented, very observant student was inspired to create this! Thanks Ryan Lam!

04/20/2015

Wow. To live in this sound! Enjoy a moment of delicious stillness today...

03/19/2015

Plato wants you to take music lessons. 😬

03/16/2015

I'm glad other people make these claims so that I don't sound crazy when I get overly effusive!

"I believe that singing is the key to long life, a good figure, a stable temperament, increased intelligence, new friends, super self-confidence, heightened sexual attractiveness and a better sense of humor."



http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97320958

Every week, British musician Brian Eno and his friends gather in a London flat for a night of a capella singing. Eno believes group singing is more than just a good time — he says it renews mind, body, spirit and community.

03/09/2015

Photo by Amanda Weber

07/24/2014

Yes!
https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2014/07/19/what-playfulness-can-for-you/Cxd7Et4igTLkwpkUXSr3cO/story.html

Even the most responsible adults occasionally indulge in playfulness: pursuing delight, engaging in friendly competition, and trying to amuse others and ourselves. Scientists who specialize in the psychology of play have only recently started getting a grip on what makes otherwise self-possessed, ma…

05/20/2014

"Sing your Heart's desire,
Sigh your sorrows deep,
Tell your own true story each day."
- "All that a Heart has to hold" Craig Hella Johnson

05/19/2014

Happy Monday! My calendar has something to say to you:

05/18/2014

All waits, undream'd of, in that region, that inaccessible land.

Till when the ties loosen,
All but the ties eternal, Time and Space,
Nor darkness, gravitation, sense, nor any bounds, bound us.

Then we burst forth -- we float,
In Time and Space, O Soul, prepared for them;
Equal, equipt at last, -- (O joy! O fruit of all!) them to fulfil, O Soul.
--Walt Whitman

I'm so proud of my SCS students singing in this beautiful program tonight at 8pm. Carmina Burana coupled Vaughn-Williams' setting of the text above. Gorgeous, moving stuff! Come on out and hear 'em!


http://sacramentochoral.com/carmina-burana-may-17-2014/

Schicksalslied (Song of Fate) – Johannes BrahmsAngels’ Voices - John BurgeToward the Unknown Region - Ralph Vaughan Williams