When I came for the first time to study with him at the North Carolina School of the Arts, I already held my bachelor's degree from the Russian Gnessins Academy of Music and considered myself quite a knowledgeable and skillful pianist. But at the very first lesson it turned out that there were lots of things I sim ply didn't know about, so I had to change my approach towards music and music making.As a concert pianist and a teacher, Mr. Larsen has developed such a personal, charming and intimate piano sound, that it depicts both his performance and the perfomance of his students.Studying with him I started gradually changing my outlook on life. Of course, his influence was aso tightly connected with my experience of living in a new country for a considerable period of time.
I became less orthodox in my approach to piano. Generally speaking, Mr. Larsen's methods of teaching and piano playing were absolutely different from those I was taught in Russia. He gave me a real feeling of freedom in my approach to music.
Mr. Larsen turned out to be the wisest man I've ever met in my life. Every time I go to get a lesson from him I expect a new discovery of the meaning and the sound of the piece., which is already so well-known that it seems there is nothing new ot be discovered or added. I admit that the statements he makes during the lessons such as "every time you play the piece you do it better than the previous time" really helped me to develop myself as a musician.
During the lesson he really knows what your real problem is and helps you to solve it at once considering your current state of mind being as important as a routine fingerwork.
I became highly influenced not by Mr. Larsen artistic qualities but also by his life style. In fact, Mr. Larsen is a man in whose personality the musicianship cannot be separated from the everyday life. He gives all his pupils an eample of hard work of worshipping art. Everyday he wakes up around 6 a.m. working for more then fouteen hours knowing no weeknds or holidays. He never permits himself to be lazy and in fact is never satisfied with the results he achieves realizing that there is a long way to achieve a real perfection.
He treats all of his student as his own family trying to help them not only in the music field but also in their everyday life. All his life is entirely devoted to music,on which he is concentrated most of the time. This way of living when you devote yourself entirely to music and work hard depicts the life of a real artist.
There is also another human quality about Eric Larsen. If he becomes interested in a student, he eventually picks him up and leads him throughout a whole period of his piano career. I was lucky enough to receive both my Master's degree and Artist Diploma from him.