Jake has all the qualities to make it great—whether as a musician or anything he sets his heart into. He is tremendously talented, exceptionally intelligent, disciplined, capable, cerebral, focused and impressively hard working.
He came to my studio in July 2010 when he played Chopin Waltz Op. 62 No. 2, in c-sharp minor for me. At the time, he has hardly played any of the major piano repertoire and his ideas on interpretation were rudimentary and limited. However, I noticed he had wonderful motor skills. We started to work in mid-September.
It has been 14 months. We have worked intensely together and he has made remarkable improvements. He is a serious “practicer” who works on the piano 3 to 5 hours a day. He has not missed one lesson (unless one of us was out of town). Last month, his city had a black out for 5 days. All his family went to stay in a hotel but he stayed at home to study on the piano. He told me that the house was 40 degrees.
Everything about Jake is impressive: he is a fast learner. Oftentimes I gave him a new piece, he’d come back the next week with the entire music learned nearly up to speed. He has learned 11 substantial works in depth in the past 14 months from the following composers: Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Ginastera, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev. I don’t know how he allocates his time between the piano, composition, and a very demanding high school. However I can say that someone has to be exceptionally disciplined and competent to accomplish all.
As a person, Jake is polite and well mannered. He is a likeable person and a student that would make any teacher proud. All he needs is time and a great institution so that he can learn and grow and being influenced by the best. I truly believe his mind and talent paired with the consistent hard work will make him succeed in any challenging environment. In time, he will make his school and his teachers proud. I recommend him without reservation.