Ilana Makarina defens her doctoral thesis on 10 June at 10.30 room A-402 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Music):

“Pianist as Arranger: Creating the Piano Reduction for Unsuk Chin’s Piano Concerto”

Supervisors: Sten Lassmann, PhD and Maksim Štšura, DMus

Opponent: Mihhail Gerts, PhD

The doctoral thesis is available HERE and in print in the EAMT library.

Abstract:

The performance of late twentieth- and early twenty-first century piano concertos is
frequently hindered by the absence of piano reductions, which are essential tools for the
pianist in the rehearsal and preparation process. This gap limits access to the repertoire and
affects the efficiency and depth of practice. The artistic research project titled “Pianist as
Arranger: Creating the Piano Reduction for Unsuk Chin’s Piano Concerto” (“Pianist kui
arranžeerija: Unsuk Chini klaverikontserdi klaviiri loomine”) aims to produce a piano
transcription of the orchestral part of the Piano Concerto by the South Korean composer
Unsuk Chin (1961) and elaborate on the ways that artistic and pianistic practice inform the
process of a transcribing, and vice versa.

This research seeks to answer to the following three questions: 1) what are the attributes of a
playable, yet musically accurate transcription; 2) how does pianistic experience help to create
a playable reduction; 3) how does the process of creating the piano reduction, in turn, inform
the pianistic practice.

The methodology of making a piano reduction is a three-fold process that synthesises the
ideal concept of the concerto as represented in the full score and the sonic unfolding of the
work as represented in live performances and studio recordings, with personal pianistic
practices. This qualitative case study is led by reflective artistic practice that aims to create
and articulate new knowledge and experience in the field of contemporary piano reductions
and in the field of contemporary performance practice. The outcome of this research includes
the first piano reduction of Chin᾿s Piano Concerto which hopes to contribute to the
dissemination of the work and a model of transferring knowledge between musicological and
artistic practices.