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Maurice Levy: This is Maurice Levy speaking to Mrs. Lucretia Marracino for
the Oral History of Music in Pittsburgh project. It's November the 12th,
1991. Obviously you got your first contact with music from your father.
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Marracino: Yes. When I studied with my father.
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It is called.
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Levy: Yeah. I went through the files and. Welcome. Thank you. Uh, maybe
we'll start first with your recollections of your father, and then we'll go
up, and then we'll go into your your experience. Okay? Marracino: Okay.
Levy: Uh, your father, of course, was a very well known musician, very well
known person in Pittsburgh's music scene. Uh, what do you recall your first
recollections of? When you first realized that here was your father, was it
was it really a person of some substance in the musical scene? He wasn't
just your daddy or your teacher. Were you a teenager? Probably.
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Marracino: No, I was younger than that because my father, when I was ten
years old, my father played with the Minneapolis Symphony here at Carnegie
Hall. And I went to the concert, and that was a big event for me.
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Levy: You were, what, about 8 or 10 years old?
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Marracino: Ten. Levy: Ten? Marracino: Yeah. And he played I don't remember
what concerto, but he played a concerto. And he was also traveling. He had
played with them in Minneapolis, and he played with the Saint Louis
Symphony and. He well, that these are the things I can remember. He did
things before that that I can tell you about.
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Levy: Yeah. In your experience, yes. Of course.
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Marracino: In my experience. So I realized then, and my mother was also a
performer. You see, they both were public performers.
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Levy: She played piano, too.
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Marracino: She sang. She was a soprano. Yeah. Good one. And, uh, so I
heard practicing all the time at home. My mother always practiced in the
morning, and then my father often practiced at night. And I would wake up
sometimes in the night and hear playing or singing going on. So it was. I
was surrounded by it.
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Levy: He. She sang opera. She sang? Marracino: No. Levy: Just classical.
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Marracino: She sang in churches. She was the soprano soloist at the
Bellefield Presbyterian Church at the corner of Bellefield and Fifth.
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Levy: Do you live in Pittsburgh? Marracino: Yeah. Levy: You lived in the
city. You live in Oakland?
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Marracino: We lived on Millvale Avenue right across from the West Penn
Hospital.
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Levy: Oh, yeah.
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Marracino: And she also sang recitals, lots of recitals at the Institute
and many other places. They gave a good many concerts together in areas
around Pittsburgh and in Pittsburgh. So. And when I got old enough to play
for my mother, I accompanied her in a lot of performances because my father
was probably teaching and I was available.
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Levy: Um, so she, she primarily, uh, sang in on a local level as opposed
to. Did she travel at all?
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Marracino: Well, they went to different places around Pittsburgh often. Um
East Liverpool, Newell, West Virginia. Um, I know that in the First World
War they went to Newport News and sang for the and performed for the
troops. Mhm. I remember that because they brought me a present when I, when
I got home. I must have been very young then. And. She gave things. She
would give a whole lieder recital. After hearing Lotte Lehmann give a lead
a recital, she prepared a whole recital, which was wonderful. And then she
prepared a whole recital of French songs. These were given at the
Institute. And she was a teacher, too.
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Levy: She probably.
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Marracino: Yeah. I studied voice from her.
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Levy: What kind of training did she have?
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Marracino: She. She never had any college training. She studied with a man
by the name of Frank Milton Hunter. And she was. Mother was brought up in
Ohio on a farm, and Mr. Hunter went to Warren every week or every two weeks
and gave lessons in Warren, Ohio. So my mother drove the buggy with the
horse to Warren for her piano lesson and her voice lesson. She studied
piano there with the Olive Howard, and Mr. Hunter encouraged her to come to
Pittsburgh because he thought she had great possibilities. And he said, if
you come to Pittsburgh, I'll get you some jobs with a funeral director to
sing a lot of funerals. And I think she told me that she sang Andrew
Carnegie's funeral and got $10, but I'm not absolutely sure of that. I
think that's right.
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Levy: Sounds sounds right.
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Marracino: Yeah. That's about what he would have given.
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Levy: He may have built libraries, but well, he didn't sign that check
anyway.
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Marracino: So then she assisted Mr. Hunter in his studio and did some
teaching and lived with a cousin in Coraopolis to get started. And then she
moved into Pittsburgh, and that's when she met my father.
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Levy: She? What was her maiden name?
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Marracino: What did she. Romaine Smith, Romaine Smith. And they announced
their engagement by giving a concert at the Carnegie Lecture Hall. And she
sang. And he accompanied with no music. He memorized all the accompaniments
and he played the piano. And then in the next day's paper it said that they
were engaged to be married. Kind of romantic.
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Levy: It is romantic in public. And they played at their trough with
music. Yeah, right. Marracino: Yeah. Levy: So now he he then, uh, of
course, then she, uh. After she was married. She was she still active in
the musical scene?
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Marracino: Oh yes.
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Levy: Oh, yes. Even with the family?
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Marracino: Very much so.
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Levy: You have a sister?
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Marracino: I have a sister. Um. Had something in mind I was going to say.
Well, I'm probably getting ahead of you. I was going to say something about
the founding of the Institute. Yes.
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Levy: No, I bring that. That was what, 1915? Yes. Right.
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Marracino: It was incorporated on my birthday on the day I was born.
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Levy: On the day you were born?
Marracino: Yeah. It was founded by four men, uh, Frank Milton Hunter, uh,
Charles N. Boyd, William H. Oetting, and my father and Mr. Hunter moved
very soon, I think within a year, maybe to California. So he was never a
part of it, really. And Mr. Boyd died. Doctor Boyd, I should say, because
he became a doctor later. He died in 1936, very suddenly, leaving my father
and Mr. Oetting. It was a nice experience to be at the Institute. I mean,
it was always a congenial atmosphere there and we had a very nice recital
hall. With an organ.
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Levy: That was Bellefield Avenue. That's where it was.
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Marracino: Yes. It's where the library school is now, I think, next to the
Ruskin Apartments. And, uh. We had many good recitals there and many good
experiences. Uh, unfortunately, the parking in Oakland and the television.
Killed it because people who could study somewhere else weren't going to go
into Oakland. And of course, when television first came in, people dropped
out of lessons like crazy because they just wanted to look at television.
So that that kind of finished it off. It was too bad.
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Levy: Once it was an independent school, as opposed to the schools
associated with the various colleges.
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Marracino: Yes, PMI was associated with Pitt from 19. In 1931 to about
1941 or 42. Um, you could take your music credits, 90 music credits a year
at PMI and 10, 30 credits at Pitt. And you got a Bachelor of Music degree.
And that's where I got my Bachelor of Music degree. But it it depended on
the people at Pitt being friendly toward the Institute. And as time went
on, the people who had been friendly toward it died or retired. And so it
just kind of.
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Levy: Some kind of a competitive situation set up then.
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Marracino: Well, no.
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Levy: They didn't feel.
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Marracino: Pitt. I don't know why they never would declare the Institute
campus, and therefore our students could not belong to a lot of things on
campus.
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Levy: Well they still shut you up.
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Marracino: That was the problem. Yeah. They did.
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Levy: They kept you segregated and. Marracino: Absolutely. Levy: As an
independent school, even though they had some kind of working relationship.
The students were not Pitt students.
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Marracino: No they weren't, although we graduated from Pitt another
earlier than that, though, they had had an association with Pitt in the
people who were getting a Bachelor of Arts degree at Pitt could take their
music credits at the Institute and be credited. That was a less you know, I
don't know how many credits you could take in music for a Bachelor of Arts,
but. Then when the GI Bill came after the Second World War, we had a horde
of students, a lot of people, quite a few of whom had not graduated from
high school and couldn't enter a college, but they could come to the
Institute and get a musical education. That's how I got my husband.
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Levy: Oh. There's a GI Bill for you.
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Marracino: Yeah, he was in one in my classes, and he said he was getting
C's and he wanted A's, so he married me. But after that surge died out, we
had kind of a descending success.
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Levy: So the what was the range of courses? Let's say that I enroll or I
intend to enroll at the PMI in the 30s or the 40s. What choices did I have.
In terms of you taught every musical discipline?
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Marracino: Well, we had classes in elementary theory, harmony,
counterpoint. Perform an analysis, orchestration, composition and music
history. Um, also, if you were a pianist, there was a piano ensemble
course. Um, now, these were all given prior to the time we were associated
with Pitt, and Doctor Boyd did many of those theoretical courses and the
history course. He was a wonderful musicologist.
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Levy: I talked to his eldest daughter, and she implied in some way that.
There was no such thing as musicology, and he almost developed it himself.
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Marracino: Well, yes, he really did.
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Levy: Did you agree with that?
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Marracino: Yes, I would. And he was just a marvelous teacher. I have the
greatest respect for him. Um, at that time, we didn't have as many
instruments as we did when the GIs came in. We had violin, of course,
always, and voice and, um. Probably trumpet. But when the GIs came, they
wanted a lot of different instruments. So at that time, many other old
French horn, flute, oboe. Clarinet, saxophone.
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Levy: And then you had to go out and hire teachers. Marracino: Yes. Yes.
Levy: And you and I know that you. I know somebody who taught in the public
schools who taught there part time. Carl. Carl McVicker.
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Marracino: Oh, yes. He taught there a long time. Yes, very long time X
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Levy: I talked to him a few weeks ago.
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Marracino: He's still living, isn't he?
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Levy: Yes, he's 86.
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Marracino: Is he really?
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Levy: I know him because I taught with him. I taught at Westinghouse.
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Marracino: Oh. You did?
Levy: Yes, yes, as a matter of interest, I know the tapes. But he said
when he goes to Florida, he still sits down with the band, and he still
plays a little trumpet.
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Marracino: Good, good. Well, he was a very satisfactory teacher because he
was always there on time. He always did what he was supposed to do, and
people liked him and kept on with him. You know, he was outstanding.
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Levy: Oh, very thorough. Marracino: Yeah. Levy: So those are the kind of
people you hired. You probably hired school teachers who needed second
jobs.
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Marracino: Well, either that or musicians in Pittsburgh who were doing
something else and who.
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Levy: Somebody maybe from the Symphony. At that time, the Symphony wasn't
paying very much.
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Marracino: Yes. That's right.
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Levy: We had some I talked to somebody recently to pay in the 30s was $50
a week. Marracino: Oh, brother. Levy: For an 18 week season. That's what
they paid in 1936.
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Marracino: That's terrible, isn't it?
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Levy: Well, at $50 a week in 1936 was a fair amount of money, Marracino: I
guess. Levy: But weren't working. Most people weren't working.
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Marracino: That's true.
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Levy: Of course, they only work 50, 18 weeks, so they only made $1,000.
But that was more than more than some people made. Because that's before
the advent of the union and it doesn't work. Two three jobs like school
teachers. So those are the kind of people you had working for you then?
Marracino: Yes. Levy: You thought you had piano? You have a fair sized
piano faculty.
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Marracino: Oh, yes. We had a big piano faculty because that was the most
popular, of course. And a time at one time we had about four voice
teachers, I think. I can't say how many piano teachers. It must have been
15 or 20, maybe.
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Levy: We got a sizable investment in pianos.
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Marracino: Oh, the number of pianos we had was incredible. When my father
had to sell them. By the time the Institute was closing, Mr. Oetting was no
longer able to do anything. And my father had the job of selling all those
pianos, and he did it. We had two good grands on the stage, and we had
grands in many of the studios and then a horde of uprights, of course. It
was quite a. Quite a job.
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Levy: Well, he's, of course, running the Institute in conjunction with
these other men. And, you know, there were no women involved in the
administration here.
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Marracino: No, no, no, we had a manager who was a man, a business manager,
and three directors were men. Well, way back in 1913.
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Levy: There weren't women, but women were were were decorative.
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Marracino: We had teachers, women teachers.
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Levy: Right. But they didn't give them any kind of responsibilities,
though, did they? Well, that was typical of society.
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Marracino: They took them. Oh, I just thought of another thing we had. We
had elocution lessons.
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Levy: Oh. People don't know what that word is, is so extinct. I remember
that as a youngster. Yes. Can you define it for somebody listening to this
tape?
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Marracino: Well, elocution is proper speaking and reciting. And I took
elocution lessons one year and I recited at a recital.
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Levy: It was sort of a declamation kind of thing. Well, that and then
acting drama.
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Marracino: Yes, yes. And the teacher who taught that at first was Miss
Steckel from Greensburg, and she put on plays, and I didn't see too many of
them, because that was when I was quite young. And I guess they didn't take
me, but I understand that they were very good. That she did an excellent
job.
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Levy: You probably had a number of talented kids in the youngsters in the
school.
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Marracino: Well, it was mostly adults, I think. Levy: Oh, really?
Marracino: In fact, it was the faculty that you used to put on plays with,
and some of them turned out to be excellent actors. Which was surprising,
you know.
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Levy: You know, elocution was the kind of thing that the young, I remember
as a youngster in grade school and said, so-and-so will give an example of
elocution. And the boys used to groan because there'd be this little girl
with curls. Yeah. My mother, you know, I remember everybody was Shirley
Temple. Marracino: Oh, sure. Yeah. Right. Levy: So. So there were other
elements besides music? Yes. So in were there any other anything else that
you recall besides that? Many elocution borders on drama. I think that's
reasonable.
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Marracino: Yes, I don't think anything else except musically related
subjects like.
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Levy: And you had you had annual recitals, things, things like that.
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Marracino: Well, we had constant recitals, teachers had student recitals,
and faculty members gave recitals. My father and I played many two piano
recitals. Not only there, but other places and. Singer's recital. Everybody
gave recitals.
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Levy: Was it was it primarily for the people in the school or just people
in the community?
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Marracino: Oh, everywhere. Everybody. We used to send out announcements,
but, you know, they were always free. They never charged a penny for any of
them, and therefore we didn't get as much of a crowd. If you charge, people
have more respect for it, I think. I should look up. I think I must have
some old programs, and I didn't think of it before you came, but I'm sure
that we had gotten up to 2 or 3000 recitals by the time it closed.
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Levy: Well what you have. If you send it to the music department, we'll be
glad to make a file, because we do. We do collect programs.
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Marracino: I'll have to go through, um, a box that I have upstairs, which
I have out in order to go through it, but I haven't been doing anything
with it. Uh, you saw the. Did you see the scrapbooks that I took in that
were my father's?
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Levy: I didn't get a chance to go through it.
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Marracino: Well, he has in those, uh, two, I think two of them are mostly
European programs that he heard when he lived in Europe. Many of them. He
must have gone to a concert every night. But one of them has a lot of
programs that he heard at Carnegie Hall here in Pittsburgh. And those are
interesting.
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Levy: We have I have, uh, the list of the not the, the, uh, the annual
reports of Carnegie Music Hall, but we have some kind of feel for them for
a wide variety of people who appeared, not just, of course, Carnegie Music
Hall, but students for lectures and things of that nature. In addition to.
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Marracino: And then all those organ recitals every Sunday they had an
organ recital.
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Levy: Area that, uh, Doctor.
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Marracino: Marshall.
Levy: And Marshall Bidwell.
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Marracino: Yeah. Henry first, and then Bidwell.
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Levy: Caspar Koch, I guess he was on the North Side.
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Marracino: Yes. But then I think Paul Koch gave some at the Oakland
Carnegie Hall.
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Levy: That's died. That's all.
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Marracino: I just thought of something I could lend you or. Well, I'd lend
it to you. It's a catalogue from way back. From the Institute, the kind of
thing they put out every year in the beginning.
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Levy: That'll be fine. We could make a Xerox of it and file it.
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Marracino: You want me? I think I know where it is. Shall I get it now?
Levy: Well, we can get it later. Marracino: Okay. Um, I got it in a very
strange way. We never saved all that stuff. You can't save all those
things. Uh, a brother in law of mine must have said something at work. He
was a supervisor in a mill about me. I don't know exactly what the started
this, but a black man who worked in that mill came in with his catalog, and
he said maybe you'd. Maybe she'd like to have this.
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Levy: Right. That's very thoughtful.
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Marracino: Yes. To think he had it. It was anciently old. I think he was
from. Well, he.
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Levy: Probably, uh, probably thought highly of it. It was one of his
possessions.
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Marracino: An interesting thing about the Institute. It was founded in a
in a building at the corner of Tennyson and Fifth. As a house made into a
music school.
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Levy: This is where the Masonic Temple.
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Marracino: Uh, well, it was the other side. It was where there's some Pitt
science building.
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Levy: Well, Platt Hall.
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Marracino: Yeah, it was there right at the corner. And they wanted to
expand. And at that time, the Ruskin Apartments were not there. So they
bought a home, a house on Bellefield Avenue, and they moved the other one
across lots with horses and a treadmill. And attach them in them together
and put on the auditorium on the back. This was about 1923, and all the
time this moving was going on, people kept teaching. So you if you went to
your lesson, you didn't know where your school was going to be.
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Levy: Moved from Belleville over to over to Ruskin, over to Tennyson
Avenue.
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Marracino: Over to Bellefield. Yeah. Um. So that was interesting. I guess
I wasn't around then, but. Doors would jam and people couldn't get out of
their studios, you know? This building was big.
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Levy: The building consisted of the small studios that each teacher had a
student in and the appropriate instrument, a pretty large size auditorium.
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Marracino: Yes. It held. I'm guessing it held at least a hundred people.
Maybe 125.
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Levy: That's what a recital for.
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Marracino: And it was. Yes. And there was a stage. And then the organ.
Well, the organ could be lowered into the. Ground, so to speak.
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Levy: The console was on an elevator. Marracino: Was on an elevator, Yeah.
Levy: Uh, what other, uh. Your father was involved in a lot of other
things. Besides the Pittsburgh Musical Institute. What do you recall from?
Some of the things.
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Marracino: Well. He played with many musicians, an ensemble not only the
ones at the Institute but others. Um. I know he played with Joe Durdin at
Tech, not at Tech, but they played together. Um, far back before my time,
he played with Luigi von Kunits. Who was a very famous violinist.
Afterward, the Luigi von Kunits had played the Brahms violin sonatas with
Brahms. Levy: Really? Marracino: Yeah. So that was a marvelous thing.
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Levy: There's a connection for you?
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Marracino: Yes. And my father's teacher in Europe was a pupil of Liszt. So
that's all wound up together.
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Levy: Oh, it is, it is. Yes. Those those connections become more tenuous
as time goes by. There are people who look back and say that they were. Dr.
Schnabel or whoever it is 20th century, but it's comparable to the musical
line goes on. Marracino: That's true. Levy: Right into Pittsburgh, right?
Marracino: And my teacher. Levy: Brahms.
00:22:02.000 --> 00:22:20.000
Marracino: Yeah. My teacher in New York was a student in Europe at the
same time as my father. And they were friends. They used to play for each
other and criticize each other's playing. And he was a pupil of Godowsky.
So I'm sort of a granddaughter of Godowsky grand pupil.
00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:42.000
Levy: That's a well known name. Marracino: Yes, yes. Levy: So he he ran
the Pittsburgh Musical Institute. He was one of the four and he played
recitals and what other? You think of other things that he was involved in,
or did the Institute take up most of his time?
00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:51.000
Marracino: Well, it took a lot. Well, he became. Oh, I should mention
this. He was a visiting professor at Westminster College for many years. I
forget how many. 20.
00:22:51.000 --> 00:22:53.000
Levy: So he drove up to New Wilmington.
00:22:53.000 --> 00:23:39.000
Marracino: He went by train usually. Mhm. And, uh, he enjoyed that. That
was a different kind of teaching you know just college students and.
Instead of all kinds of people. And he really enjoyed that. He gave
recitals up there too. He was a pupil of my father, was a pupil of Harold
Bauer, as well as this person who was Liszts pupil, whose name was Jose
Vianna da Motta, who was a Portuguese. Well, my father had a lot of
interests. He played billiards with Doctor Heinroth, who was the organist
at the Carnegie Institute, and he liked to play tennis. He liked to play
bridge? He's a great man for games and he liked to win. He's very
competitive.
00:23:39.000 --> 00:23:42.000
Levy: Played ice hockey when he was younger.
00:23:42.000 --> 00:23:43.000
Marracino: Oh, yes. Yes. How did you get that?
00:23:43.000 --> 00:23:45.000
Levy: Well, it's articles here.
00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:48.000
Marracino: Does it tell there how he happened to quit ice hockey.
00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:51.000
Levy: About, uh, the glasses?
00:23:51.000 --> 00:24:12.000
Marracino: Yes. Some reporters said to him, hey, kid, do you have to wear
those glasses? My father said, yeah, and they didn't wear it for that ice
hockey. They just wore basketball suits. They didn't have any protection at
all. So after that, his I don't know why his parents hadn't thought of that
sooner, but after that he decided maybe he better not play ice hockey.
00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:15.000
Levy: Where he had no mask over his glasses, no.
00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:21.000
Marracino: Nothing but just shoes and the basketball suit. It was
terrible. It would be bad for the hands too.
00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:26.000
Levy: Take an interest in athletics. I think it was competitive.
00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:29.000
Marracino: Yeah. Yes he did.
00:24:29.000 --> 00:24:32.000
Levy: No. There you go.
00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:50.000
Marracino: He was unusual, I think, in that he loved to play and played in
public a great deal, and he also loved to teach and was a good teacher.
Many public players aren't interested in teaching and many teachers can't
play in public, so it was a combination that. Somewhat unusual.
00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:55.000
Levy: Many, many accomplished performers don't have the patience to sit
with the students.
00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:58.000
Marracino: No, and they don't know how to teach either.
00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:09.000
Levy: And there are many teachers who who can teach but wouldn't think of
performing. That's right, I said before. Right. So that's a that's a I
don't know if it's rare, but it's not common.
00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:25.000
Marracino: It's not too common.
Levy: It's not common at all. Though the story of. Horowitz. Oh, you know
how he ruined. By The Guardian. Janice Wright. Isn't that the famous
story?
00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:27.000
Marracino: I guess it is. I don't really I guess I've heard it's a.
00:25:27.000 --> 00:25:35.000
Levy: Classic example of the. Person who was so involved with himself. And
you can't be involved with himself when you teach.
00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:46.000
Marracino: No, not at all. Well, Horowitz, I would say. Would it be a bad
bet as a teacher? I mean, you can almost imagine that without finding it
out. He was.
00:25:46.000 --> 00:26:00.000
Levy: Very self-centered. I mean, that's. Marracino: Completely,
completely. evy: That's not a that's not a secret. Anybody who ever saw him
in a recital. In a concert. Well, he always named his terms 4:00 Sunday
afternoon. And when I come there, you don't hear me.
00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:06.000
Marracino: You wear a business suit and a bow tie. That's right. That's
true.
00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:26.000
Levy: Your father was able to combine the two. You think of anything else
we could, uh, point out about the father, I. What Westminster did he teach?
Just theory, or did he actually give lessons there?
00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:27.000
Marracino: He taught only piano. Piano lessons.
00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:32.000
Levy: He just taught piano. He wasn't involved with the academic side of
it.
00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:34.000
Marracino: Not at all.
Levy:
00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:41.000
Marracino: He usually went on in the morning of one day and came back the
evening of the next.
00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:43.000
Levy: Oh, I see. He spent two days here.
00:26:43.000 --> 00:26:46.000
Marracino: Roughly, yeah.
00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:51.000
Levy: I guess Doctor Boyd was the one in Baltimore with a theory.
00:26:51.000 --> 00:27:00.000
Marracino: Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. My father taught piano pedagogy at the
Institute. But no other classes.
00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:08.000
Levy: When you. Well, of course you were. You were exposed to that since
he was your teacher in terms of how to teach somebody to teach.
00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:34.000
Marracino: Yeah. We had good uh, we had other people who taught piano
pedagogy. Mr. Boyd taught one year of it, and Mrs. Faust. At the time
taught a year. She was good with little children. My father, well, my
father taught some little children. But that wasn't his specialty, of
course. So I had quite a few courses in pedagogy there besides observing.
00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:42.000
Levy: Well, you go through what the process of how to start them and how
to show them, how to show them how to practice.
00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:54.000
Marracino: Yes. That's really what teaching is, is showing people how to
practice. That's what I'm doing all the time. Um, and you have to learn the
material. You have to.
00:27:54.000 --> 00:28:05.000
Levy: You teach music along with the with the piano. I mean, when you sit
down with a piece of music and you point out to them the various musical or
theoretical considerations,
00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:07.000
Marracino: That's what I try to. Yes.
00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:11.000
Levy: For the youngster when they're finished. Not only started playing
the piano, they know the musical terms.
00:28:11.000 --> 00:28:44.000
Marracino: They're supposed to, but in a half hour lesson, which is mostly
what I have to do, you can't get too much theory into it. You don't have
time. And I figure that the parents send the children to you, uh, to learn
how to play. So I teach them as much theory as I can wedge in, but I. I
also want to teach them how to play and how to sight read. Um, of course I
have adult students and that's a different story. I had about ten adult
students and they're very interesting to work with. You don't have to
persuade them to practice.
00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:54.000
Levy: Well, they are voluntary at that level, at that level, and they
probably have the curiosity to know why a particular.
00:28:54.000 --> 00:28:55.000
Marracino: That's right.
00:28:55.000 --> 00:29:11.000
Levy: Thing occurs. Why? Why did Mozart do it this way? And what makes it
Mendelssohn? Is that right? Marracino: Yes. Levy: Our youngsters are.
Unless they're really precocious. It's just notes.
00:29:11.000 --> 00:29:19.000
Marracino: They couldn't care less. And they never. Unless you prod them.
They don't know even who wrote the piece. It's a piece of music. You play
it and that's it. You don't bother.
00:29:19.000 --> 00:29:21.000
Levy: What's the youngest? You take it.
00:29:21.000 --> 00:30:21.000
Marracino: Well, I don't really like to start them before the age of
seven, and I don't do too much of that because I don't think that's my
forte, I. I think there are other people who are better equipped to do
that. I like from about. Oh, let's say nine through high school. I enjoy
well, I enjoy the little ones too when I have them, and I've had some
really good ones. But I don't. When people call me up and say they want
their child to start at the age of five, I don't think that's my thing.
