[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Lau_Elaine.jpg” caption=”Pianist Elaine Lau will perform at today’s Lunchtime Concert at 12:30 p.m. in Convocation Hall. Photo courtesy of Faculty of Humanities.”]Arriving 10 minutes early for my meeting with McMaster alumna Elaine Lau, I got a sneak preview of the concert she will be performing with Joseph Ferretti in Convocation Hall on Tuesday, Feb. 12. Two pianists playing together on two pianos? It's pretty amazing.

Lau began playing when she was four and a half years old, inspired by her mother who was taking lessons at the time. A decision to take piano more seriously in Grade 11 led her to the Music Program at McMaster.

“McMaster helped me to carve and create my own path,” says Lau. “That's what I found to be extremely beneficial being here — the sense of understanding and desire from the professors. It wasn't just about following the requirements of the program; there were opportunities both in and outside the program to help you make it your own.”

She made it her own in style, completing her B. Mus. with distinction, winning the Reginald Bedford Piano Competition and picking up a Diploma in Music Performance along the way.

A member of the piano faculty at Wilfred Laurier University since 2003, Lau also holds an Artist Diploma in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music, as well as a Master's in Piano Performance from the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati. It was in Cincinnati that she met her husband and piano duo partner, Joseph Ferretti.

Lau reflects on the way playing as part of a duo has changed her understanding of performance.

“It's a different experience,” she says. “You really learn to listen and cue, and somehow communicate from a greater distance. I've learned to make adjustments in terms of what kinds of decisions I'm making when playing. A good performance occurs when the music sounds genuine — when the performers are truly expressing what they feel in the music as well as honouring the style of the particular piece.”

In addition to her university teaching, Lau works as a coach and collaborative pianist with talented high school music students at the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts for five intensive weeks in the summer. As an educator, she loves the interaction with students.

“I like keeping my mind going with the younger set as well as with the university students because I feel ultimately connected,” she explains. “There's a certain kind of dynamic you get out of coaching students and I love it.”

Lau hopes to achieve a balance throughout her career in music between playing, especially collaborations with other composers and instrumentalists, and teaching.

She speaks warmly of the great teachers who have influenced her over the years, including Valerie Tryon at McMaster, who exposed her to the wide gamut of the standard repertoire; Eugene and Elizabeth Pridonoff at Cincinnati, who helped her find her individual voice as an artist; and Peter Longworth at Glenn Gould, who assisted her in developing her ensemble skills. He also emphasized a holistic approach to the physical aspects of playing, something Lau was first exposed to by an earlier teacher, June Caskey, who was a member of McMaster's graduating music class.

Does she have any advice for aspiring young pianists or piano duos?

“Be open to new sounds,” says Lau. “Creativity never stops. You want to have the experience of playing something new and exploring something new. Never shut the door on that!”

Lau and Ferretti will perform a piano duet concert on Tuesday, Feb. 12 from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in Convocation Hall (UH 213) as part of SOTA's Lunchtime Concert Series. The program will include: