Piano and Music Videos

Imagine a career as a performing pianist that spanned nearly one hundred years. Not as a hobbyist and not occasionally, but as a concert artist on stage, in front of audiences, performing at the highest level. Ruth Slenczynska began concertizing at the age of four and was still performing and recording in her late nineties. On April 22, 2026, at the age of 101, we lost her.

Who She Was

As a child, she studied with Sergei Rachmaninoff as well as a who’s who of monumental pianists of the early twentieth century. She was the last living pupil of Rachmaninoff, a direct, breathing connection to one of the greatest composers and pianists who ever lived. She carried that connection with joy, with generosity, and with an absolute standard of musical beauty that never wavered, not in her twenties, not in her eighties, not at ninety-seven when she released a new album on Decca Classics.

She was born on January 15, 1925, in Sacramento. Her father was a Polish violinist, and he recognized something in his young daughter almost immediately. By age three, she was already practicing piano. By four, she was studying in Europe. By six, she had her debut in Berlin. And by seven, she was performing with a full orchestra in Paris.

She studied with Artur Schnabel, Egon Petri, Alfred Cortot, Nadia Boulanger, and Josef Hofmann, in addition to Sergei Rachmaninoff. She was the last living pupil of Rachmaninoff. A direct, living link to one of the most beloved composers and pianists of the twentieth century.

Her Story

Her life was not without tremendous pain, and she never hid from that. She wrote about it openly in her memoir Forbidden Childhood, published in 1957. Her father forced her to practice for hours and hours as a young child, sometimes even before breakfast. The pressure of being a prodigy, being pushed beyond what any child should endure, eventually became too much. At fifteen years old, she walked away. She left home, stepped away from performing entirely, and enrolled at University of California, Berkeley.

What is remarkable is that despite all of that, she was not a bitter woman. Not even close. The joyful spirit she exuded was particularly remarkable considering what she had been through. She chose to take everything that was hard about her life and channel it into something beautiful. She returned to performing in 1951, after more than a decade away, and she never stopped.

My Personal Connection

She held master classes at her home, in a wonderful room with vaulted ceilings and two magnificent grand pianos, including a Steinway concert grand piano. Watching her teach was a revelation. She was a fraction of my father’s size, and yet she could produce a massive, overwhelming sound by using her entire arms, her entire body, in a way that was completely natural to her.

One of the things she drilled into her students is how to shape a musical phrase to sound like the human voice. As the musical line rises, gradually get louder. As it descends, get softer. It imitates the natural ebb and flow of singing. It sounds simple, but when you truly internalize it, it transforms the way you play. She also had an absolute standard of purity. She would never allow herself to play any note on the piano that was not pure and refined. Not in a lesson, not in conversation, not even informally. She simply refused to plant bad habits, because she knew how difficult they are to undo.

The G Minor Ballade — An Unforgettable Moment

Let me share one specific memory that I think captures her perfectly. During a master class at her home, one of her students, Gerry Miley, kept asking her to play the Ballade No. 1 in G minor by Frédéric Chopin. She dismissed him at first, saying she had not been practicing it and would have to play it slowly, which she did not consider acceptable. But he kept asking. Finally, at the very end of the class, she relented. She sat down and played the entire piece under tempo, deliberately and beautifully, with complete control and refinement in every note. It was not a performance. It was a statement. She never compromised on beauty, not even for a moment.

Her Legacy

My father, Morton Estrin, had deep respect for her playing. One of the things that drew me to study with her was her Decca recording of the Liszt Études.

She taught at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville for decades, shaping generations of pianists.

In 2022, at ninety-seven years old, she released a new album on Decca Classics titled My Life in Music, featuring works by Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Barber, and others. Her first album in nearly sixty years. She turned 100 on January 15, 2025, and remained that same joyful, giving, passionate spirit until the end.

We have lost something irreplaceable. Not just a great pianist. Not just a great teacher. We have lost a living connection to music history that can never be restored. But what Ruth Slenczynska leaves behind does not disappear. The students she shaped, the recordings she made, the principles she lived by, these live on in every pianist who heard her play or studied with her.
I am grateful for everything I learned from Ruth Slenczynska, and most of all for having known such a kind, joyful person with such a giving spirit.

Welcome to LivingPianos.com. I’m Robert Estrin. When I was in high school, I practiced so intensely one summer that my fingernails actually began to detach slightly from my fingers. There was even some blood on the keys. It may sound extreme, but it taught me an important lesson about developing real strength at the piano, and the truth might surprise you.

A Summer at the Mozarteum

I was seventeen years old when I was accepted to study for a summer at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. This is one of the world’s great music conservatories, located in Mozart’s birthplace. Walking through Salzburg, you feel the weight of musical history and the sense that music is not just an activity, but a way of life.

I arrived with enormous ambition and chose to take on the music of Franz Liszt. This is not music you approach casually. Liszt demands everything from a pianist, including technique, stamina, and physical power. I was determined to rise to the challenge and practiced for hours every day.

When Practice Goes Too Far

What I did not understand at seventeen was how the hands respond when pushed beyond their limits. The practice rooms were small, each with a Bösendorfer grand piano, and I spent long hours working through demanding passages. The music required tremendous finger strength to project melodies over thick textures. Over time, the repeated pressure and friction caused slight separation of the fingernails from the nail beds on several fingers. It was not dramatic, but there was pain and some bleeding. I remember wondering if this was simply part of the process. Did building strength at the piano require that kind of physical sacrifice?

The Truth About Building Strength

The honest answer is no. You do not have to go through that kind of pain. My experience was the result of overwork and practicing far beyond what my hands could handle at the time. That part was avoidable.

However, there is an important truth here. As pianists develop proper technique, there is a natural adjustment that takes place in the fingertips. Proper playing requires rounded fingers, not flat ones. The fingertips, not the nails, must contact the keys. If your nails are too long, or if your fingertips are not yet resilient, the nails can hit the keys, creating a clicking sound and reducing control. Over time, pianists develop small pads at the tips of their fingers, almost like calluses, which allow for better contact and control. As these pads develop, it is not uncommon for the nail to separate slightly from the nail bed. It is part of the body adapting to the demands of proper technique. This is not something to fear. It is a sign of progress when it happens gradually and naturally. What I did wrong was forcing the process too quickly.

Building Strength the Right Way

Strength at the piano is not built through sheer force or endless repetition. It comes from intelligent practice combined with proper recovery. Just like athletes, pianists must balance effort with rest. A sprinter does not run at full speed for hours, and a weightlifter does not push maximum effort continuously. The body needs time to recover and adapt. The same principle applies to piano practice. Instead of playing for long, exhausting stretches, focus on shorter, highly concentrated sessions. Take a difficult passage and work on it with full attention for a few minutes. Then step away. Rest your hands. Return later and repeat the process. This cycle of effort and recovery builds real, lasting strength.

Strength Versus Control

That summer in Salzburg also taught me something deeper. Being surrounded by dedicated musicians showed me that physical strength is only part of the equation. The pianists who stood out were not the ones who played the loudest. They were the ones who played with control. Their powerful moments felt natural and inevitable, not forced.

Strength without control is simply noise.

True power at the piano comes from using the entire mechanism of the body. The arms must be engaged, and the weight of the arms should support the fingers. When you rely only on finger strength, you work against yourself and risk injury. This was exactly my mistake. When arm weight is properly supported by a relaxed wrist, the tone becomes fuller and more resonant, and the hands remain healthy.

A Better Path Forward

So, do you have to bleed to develop strength at the piano? Absolutely not. But the experience taught me a lesson I have never forgotten. The path to power at the piano is through intelligence, not punishment. Practice with focus and intention, and allow time for recovery. That is how you develop both strength and control.

If you have questions about piano technique or practice, I encourage you to explore further and continue refining your approach. You can also visit LivingPianos.com to discover more resources and insights into the world of pianos.

Welcome to LivingPianos.com. I’m Robert Estrin. This story might sound a little dramatic at first, that my students forced me into selling pianos. But there’s a real story behind that idea, and it all began with my early days as a piano teacher.

Getting Started as a Teacher

I started teaching piano when I was still in high school, assisting my father with his teaching as my sister did before me. He would give me his beginner students, and throughout my conservatory years, teaching and accompanying became my part-time work. After graduation, things took an interesting turn. I was making my living primarily teaching piano, along with accompanying and doing some recording work.

The Question That Changed Everything

People would call me for lessons, and the first question I asked was: “Do you have a piano?” About half the time, people would say no. I would tell them honestly that they were better off having a piano and no lessons than having lessons without a piano. I wouldn’t take on students who didn’t have an instrument to practice on. Even if they had access to a piano somewhere else, it just wouldn’t work. You really need to live with a piano to make meaningful progress. So I came up with an idea. I found an old upright piano at a reasonable price and had my technician fix it up. The next time someone called for lessons and didn’t have a piano, I told them I had one available. They came over, tried it, liked it, and bought it. That’s when a light bulb went on.

Taking a Risk with More Pianos

Encouraged by that success, I decided to get a couple more upright pianos. These were large, old uprights, and I even moved some of them myself, which is a story in itself. But then I ran into a problem. I had checked the soundboards, tuning, and hammers, but I made a critical mistake. I didn’t remove the kickboard to inspect underneath. As it turned out, both pianos had cracked bass bridges! I was devastated. I had invested money into these instruments and didn’t have extra funds to fix them. So I contacted another technician and proposed a deal. He would do the repairs, and once the pianos sold, we would split any profit. If there was no profit, he would take all the proceeds.

A Turning Point

He repaired the bass bridges and refined the pianos, and remarkably, both instruments sold very quickly. That’s when I realized this approach could actually work on a larger scale.

At the time, we were living in an 1,100-square-foot house with a walkout basement where I had my recording studio. Before long, we had 27 pianos in that house, including six grands! What started as a way to help my students had turned into something much bigger.

A Shared Passion for Pianos

What I love most about this journey is working with people who share a passion for pianos. It’s incredibly rewarding. Pianos have been in decline for over a century, so building a community of people who care about them is deeply meaningful. This is what makes me excited to get up in the morning. Creating videos, practicing, working with technicians, writing articles, and helping preserve these instruments all contribute to keeping piano alive, and preventing pianos from ending up in landfills.

Rescuing and Restoring Instruments

We receive offers for pianos every single day. In fact, just recently, someone offered 35 pianos from a company that was no longer in the business. These included instruments from well-known makers like Steinway, Baldwin, Yamaha, and Kawai. Of course, we can’t take them all, but we do what we can. It truly is a labor of love.

The Reality of Moving Pianos

As I mentioned before, I got into moving pianos myself early on, which, looking back, was quite an experience. My technician had built a trailer that allowed an upright piano to be strapped onto a platform and winched into a flat position for transport. I would deliver pianos myself, often relying on someone at the destination to help unload. These were usually heavy old uprights, and I sold them at very modest prices. They weren’t concert-level instruments, but they were perfectly serviceable for beginning students. This was decades before digital pianos offered an inexpensive option. Eventually, I realized that moving pianos long-term takes a physical toll. Many professional movers develop back or knee problems, so I made the decision to stop doing that work myself. And I have never had any back pain!

Sharing the Love of Pianos

This journey into selling pianos grew naturally out of teaching. It combines everything I love: performing, teaching, creating content, and connecting with others who appreciate the piano. It’s incredibly fulfilling to build relationships with people who share this passion and to play a role in keeping these beautiful instruments in use for future generations.

Thanks again for joining me. I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com Your Online Piano Resource.

Welcome to LivingPianos.com. I’m Robert Estrin. Today I have something a little different and a lot of fun for you. In this video, I put your ears to the test with a musical guessing game. I play short excerpts from some of the most famous classical piano works ever written, and your challenge is to identify each piece as quickly as possible. Some may be instantly recognizable from just a handful of notes, while others might take a few more seconds before everything clicks into place.

This is more than just a trivia game. It is a wonderful way to sharpen your listening skills and discover how deeply these great works are etched into your musical memory. You might surprise yourself by recognizing a piece from its harmony, rhythm, or even just its texture before the main theme appears. See how many you can name within ten seconds, keep score if you like, and share your results in the comments. I would love to hear which ones you knew right away and which ones kept you guessing.

Let us know how you did on this listening test!

Leave comments about pieces you would like full tutorials on.

Here are the pieces heard in the recording:

Welcome to LivingPianos.com. I’m Robert Estrin. If you are considering putting a piano into storage, this is something you absolutely need to think through carefully. I have seen this scenario play out time and time again, and it can end in a way most people never expect.

Climate Control Is Not Optional

People are downsizing, they cannot sell their piano, or they think they may be moving. So what do you do? You find a place to store your piano. If you ever have to do this, make absolutely certain that it is climate controlled storage. I remember having pianos at a storage facility and only later being told that winter was coming and we had better get the pianos out of there. So double check. Make sure the facility is truly climate controlled. This is critical for the health and longevity of your instrument.

The Hidden Costs of Storage

Here is what often happens. You pay month after month to store the piano. Eventually, you have paid so much that you start to wonder what to do next. If you decide to try to sell the piano, good luck. In many storage facilities, pianos are stored on their sides to maximize space. Just to have someone come and look at the piano, you may have to pay hundreds of dollars to have it set up properly. And of course, it will not be tuned because it has been sitting in storage. It can become a nightmare situation for so many people.

What Happens When Payments Stop

Now here is the part that may really shock you. After paying month after month, sometimes for years, people reach a point where they simply stop paying. They do not know what to do with the piano. Often they have already moved, which is why the piano went into storage in the first place. Storage companies will make a good faith effort to contact the owner. But if they cannot reach them, they sell the piano. So after spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars in storage fees, the piano may ultimately be sold by the storage company. I know this for a fact from at least two companies I am intimately familiar with, and this is something that happens on a regular basis.

Think Long Term Before You Store

The lesson for today is simple. Before putting a piano into storage, think long term about your end goal. You do not want to be stuck spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on a piano you may never get out of storage again.

If I can be of any help to you, please reach out to me at Robert@LivingPianos.com. We have many resources available for you here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

Working My Way Up to Something Special

Over the years, I gradually worked my way up through different pianos. At one point I had a Young Chang 6’1″, and from there I upgraded to a Baldwin L. Each instrument was a step forward, both musically and personally.

Then something unexpected happened. My top piano technician, who was a concert technician, owned an older Mason & Hamlin BB. For those of you who may not know, the BB is a 7-foot grand known for its massive construction and rich tone. Mason & Hamlin pianos have a distinctive depth of sound, and this one was particularly special.

What made it extraordinary was not just the design, but the care it had received. It belonged to a master technician. The regulation and voicing were superb. Everything about the instrument felt refined and responsive. When he decided to move away, he asked me to sell the piano for him. The moment I played it, I knew I wanted it myself. So I sold my piano and bought the Mason & Hamlin. I truly believed I had found the ultimate instrument.

An Offer I Did Not Expect

Not long after that, a concert pianist came in looking for a piano for a friend. At the time, I had a Baldwin L for sale. He tried it and liked it. Then he sat down at my Mason & Hamlin. I told him it was not for sale. He understood, but he kept playing it anyway.

A few days later, he returned and played both pianos again. This time, he made me an offer to purchase both instruments. It was not an easy decision. The Mason & Hamlin was supposed to be my piano. But the offer was significant, and I reluctantly agreed.

Almost immediately, I felt what you might call “seller’s remorse.” I realized that if I ever wanted something equal or better, I would have to look for a 9-foot concert grand. So that is exactly what I did.

Searching for the Ultimate Concert Grand

I brought my technician with me as we searched far and wide for the right instrument. At one point, I even purchased a 9-foot Baldwin in San Francisco. We brought it back and worked on it extensively. It was a fine piano, but it was not quite the extraordinary instrument I was hoping to find.

Then we discovered a Baldwin SD-10 concert grand in the San Fernando Valley. This is a 9-foot concert grand and one of the great American pianos. From the first notes, it was clear this was something very special. My technician told me it was one of the two or three finest pianos he had ever encountered, and he had worked on countless concert instruments. I absolutely loved that piano.

A Piano That Inspired Pianists

We used that Baldwin SD-10 for a concert series, and pianists who performed on it consistently praised it. Many told me it was the best piano they had ever played. It had power, warmth, and remarkable control across the entire range of the keyboard. It was everything I had hoped to find.

A Change of Circumstances

At the time, we were in a loft with 19-foot ceilings, and the piano filled the space beautifully. However, when we moved to a smaller location, it became clear that the instrument was simply too powerful for the room. It was more piano than the space could comfortably handle.

After much thought, I decided to put it up for sale. There was strong interest from around the country. Two different concert organizations were seriously considering purchasing it, and we even discussed the possibility of my performing a dedication recital when the piano was installed. It seemed like the perfect way to pass along such a remarkable instrument.

An Unexpected Buyer

Because those organizations needed board approvals, the process took time. Meanwhile, one Sunday afternoon, an elderly couple came in from the desert. They had seen the piano listed online and wanted to see it in person.

The gentleman sat down at the piano and played just one thing. He stood up and said, “I’ll take it.”

The one piece he played on that piano was Chopsticks!

Where It Ended Up

After all the performances, all the praise from accomplished pianists, and all the discussion of concert halls and dedication recitals, the greatest piano I ever owned ended up in a private home in the desert… For Chopsticks. So I have some mixed feelings about the sale of that piano.