they’re going to have a concert career. They understand they may be teachers, have a church job or a piano studio, do some accompanying, and still have a rich life in music. “But I also have education majors and music therapy majors. My role is to
bring the highest level of musical understanding to them, so that they’re using music in their profession at the highest level.” According to James Leonard, a nationally read music critic, reporter and
lecturer based in Ann Arbor, the highest level of artistry, technique and passion is what Schoenhals brings to what Leonard deems “the greatest body of piano music ever written by the greatest composer of piano music who ever lived.” “His phrasing is lyrical, all his lines sing, he’s got a bell-like tone, and all the
pitches ring,” Leonard says. “He’s got a command of form: he knows where everything is and he knows where it’s all leading to. He’s got a tremendous technique; nothing I’ve heard him play is beyond his abilities.” Leonard has not only heard him in concert but also penned reviews of
several of his eight recordings (five solo, three with colleagues), all of which have earned wide critical acclaim. He is appropriately awed by the enormity of the task Schoenhals has undertaken. “What he’s got to do is not just learn to play but also memorize 10 hours worth of music,” Leonard says. “And he not only has to play and memorize it but he’s got to understand it. And then he’s got to communicate that understanding in his performance.” When he received a Faculty Research Fellowship in 2012 that helped launch the project, “I had performed publicly about eight of the sonatas,” says Schoenhals, “which isn’t very many. Those you relearn anyway.” The preparation process that he’s developed keeps him hopping during the six months between Pease presentations. “If I memorize a movement a week, I’m at three months, and I start the
house concerts at month four, so I better get cooking,” he says. “Every weekend for two months ahead of the Pease concerts, that’s what I’m doing. They’ve almost turned into not being practice recitals. People are so into it that I feel just as much responsibility to deliver a meaningful concert at the first house as I do at Pease. This has forced me to be more organized, more efficient, more disciplined and to understand the music more deeply and immediately.” The next program at Pease is scheduled for September 18, 2015. Like all the others, it will be recorded and posted both on YouTube and at
joelschoenhals.com. For Schoenhals, archiving his performances is another kind of learning experience. “The great thing about live performance is it’s live and it’s gone,” he says,
“and the bad thing about live performance is it’s live and it’s gone. Doing studio recordings has its own pitfalls, and I was interested in the idea of documenting the live performance, as it is, with all the memory slips, coughs, and finger twisters.” If and when he watches them himself, he’ll be revisiting an experience that,
for all its challenges, will be hard to let go of. “I love playing the piano because it engages me mentally, emotionally,
physically and spiritually,” Schoenhals says, “and I’m engaged on all those levels every single day with some of the greatest music ever written. It’s relentless, but the work is always welcome. It’s been the most intensely gratifying musical experience and growth opportunity that I’ve had. I’m going to miss the stimulation of it when it’s over, for sure. It’s been a real cool ride.” 3
20 Eastern | SUMMER 2015
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