Lisa Yui

Working with Edna Golandsky has been one of the most transformative events of my musical life. I was introduced to Edna following years of hand injuries that reached a point of cancelling concerts. At our first lesson, she said two things that blew my mind: “You should be able to practice for as long as you like without pain,” and “If you fail more than twice to play a passage the way you want, you’re doing something wrong.” These statements went against what I had been taught until then — that piano technique was related to strength and stamina, and that success could not be achieved without repetition and at times, pain. I worked with Edna many times since that first meeting, often on passages where I couldn’t achieve the desired effect, or simply seemed impossible to play. It would be no exaggeration to say that she always, always, found a solution, at times so elegantly simple that I would wonder how the passage ever troubled me to begin with. What Edna taught me was that pain is never good, and that there is a solution to every technical challenge. This should give hope to every pianist.