he cover art for this summer issue of the magazine was created by Karlin Uretsky (see details below) and appears on the cover of Random Walks: The Collected Solo Piano Works by David Kraehenbuehl. Although most of us are familiar with David Kraehenbuehl's early level teaching pieces, much of his more advanced piano music was virtually unknown until the publication of the above collection which was compiled and edited in 1999 by pianist, Martha Braden. Martha has also produced a stunning performance of this music on a CD (RANDOM WALKS, New World Records #80584. For further information contact: info@newworldrecords.org)

Because Richard Chronister, KEYBOARD COMPANION'S founder and previous Editor-in-Chief, had been a close associate of both David Kraehenbuehl and Martha Braden since 1960 when all three of them were faculty members of Frances Clark and Louise Goss's New School for Music Study in Princeton, NJ, he expressed great interest in Martha's project of cataloguing, compiling, editing, and recording David's more advanced piano compositions. Richard had also intended to promote this large-scale undertaking in KEYBOARD COMPANION just as soon as the project was completed. Unfortunately, his illness and untimely death in 1999 prevented him from doing so, but we are pleased to be able to follow through with his desire in this issue.

David Kraehenbuehl (1923-1997) began piano study at age five and wrote his first composition when he was eight. He graduated from high school at the age of sixteen and enrolled in the University of Illinois. Upon graduation from the U of I, he entered Yale University where he studied composition with Paul Hindemith who described him as "the most gifted student I have ever had." David subsequently became head of Yale's Department of Music Theory and founded the University's Journal of Music Theory. In 1960 he gave up his tenured position at Yale for a position as Music Director at the New School for Music Study in Princeton. He saw this as an opportunity to elevate the standards for elementary piano music assigned to children, and so he did!

In memorial remarks about David which appeared in the Summer 1997 issue of KEYBOARD COMPANION, Richard wrote this about their relationship at the New School: "We first worked together in the early 1960s.... I had worked in piano pedagogy quite a while before that collaboration, but David had not.... It was fascinating to watch him learn about music pedagogy for young children just as it was enlightening for the New School teaching staff to learn his theories about the rhetoric of music and other aspects of the field of music at the (advanced) level he had been so much a part of (at Yale)."
Richard and David went on to collaborate in their own music education and publishing enterprise called National Keyboard Arts Associates, continuing to search for "better ways to introduce young children to the language and performance of music." Richard ends his eulogy of David with these words: "I can truly say that my life as a musician and ... educator would have been entirely and substantively different had I not met, and known, and worked with David Kraehenbuehl. And without the difference that he made, I would be a much lesser person."

The career of Martha Braden, who also met David Krahenbuehl in Princeton in 1960 at the New School, was also significantly affected by the composer as well as by her primary teacher, Frances Clark. Martha received a series of Gilmore and Gilmore Foundation grants to underwrite her concert and recording activities. She has been a major prize winner at both the Bartok-Kabalevsky International Piano Competition and the Ibla International Competition in Sicily, and was also awarded a travel grant as the Tcherepnin Society's first foreign exchange artist. Martha has performed extensively in the U.S., Mexico, and the Far East, and she is also in demand as a workshop clinician in colleges and universities, and at music conventions. Both on the concert stage and as a lecturer, her focus is always on the role of the performer in the 21st century, the education of audiences, and the music of 20th century masters.

In this issue's NEWS AND VIEWS column, we are reprinting an article on modern music by David Kraehenbuehl, as well as some of Martha Braden's views on the same subject.

The cover art for this issue is by Karlin (Kuppy) Uretsky and is titled: Pregnancy #4/Intimations of Coming Events. It was originally created in 1992 as a 48" x 41" design done with lecturer's chalk and charcoal on paper. KEYBOARD COMPANION is most appreciative to both Mr. Uretsky and Martha Braden for granting us permission to use this work on the magazine's cover for this issue.

RHYTHM DEPARTMENT

Louis Nagel and Bruce Berr explore the question, "How do you teach the written-in improvisatory gestures in repertoire?" Nagel describes how he teaches the flexibility required by Chopin's Gm Nocturne, Op. 15, #3, and graces us with a performance of the entire Nocturne. Berr discusses how he teaches the improvisatory mindset by analyzing the "emotional content" of passages, and by sometimes altering the music itself. Berr also provides an audio clip of an improvisatory passage from the Mozart Fantasy in Dm.

REPERTOIRE DEPARTMENT

Catherine Rollin presents an "online workshop" - she answers the question "What pieces have you written that you consider preparation for style?" by discussing three of her own pieces in depth: Gigue, Waltz, and Under the Sea. After exploring each piece, just as in a live workshop, she performs each piece.

MUSIC READING DEPARTMENT

"How do you teach theory so that it enhances your students' reading skills?" is the question that motivated Julie Lovison to describe a typical day in her teaching studio. A few photos not found in the print-magazine version of the article are found here.