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Practice Room Breaks
Practice Room Breaks is a new podcast from IMSLP, the largest online resource for public domain music scores. On each episode, host and classical pianist Natalie Vargas-Nedvetsky invites internationally acclaimed musicians to share stories, philosophies, and insights into the world of classical music through their eyes.
Practice Room Breaks
Conrad Tao on Musical Archaeology and the Living Score
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Pianist and composer Conrad Tao joins us for a wide-ranging conversation about the creative process, autograph manuscripts, and inhabiting multiple musical identities.
We explore how Debussy's notation reveals compositional logic, what Beethoven's crossed-out passages tell us about artistic decision-making, and where the line between composer authorship and performer interpretation really lies. Tao shares insights from examining holographic manuscripts, discusses his favorite piece (Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23), and weighs in on which classical composer would be most viral on social media today.
From the historical weight of original scores to the democratizing power of IMSLP's open-access library, this episode bridges centuries of musical practice with today's digital landscape—and asks what it means to be both creator and interpreter in classical music.