We recently connected with Caroline Veach and have shared our conversation below.

Caroline, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

My father was an amateur virtuoso pianist. He had performed concerts and live radio programs as a young adult and was greatly loved by his audiences. Although he was not my piano teacher, he was always my mentor. My earliest memories are of hearing him play Chopin on our Steinway grand piano which resides in my living room to this day. He inspired me to emulate his beautiful playing from those earliest days.

However, although she was not a trained musician, it was my mother who sat beside me on the piano bench during the years of my childhood when I didn’t want to practice. She and my teacher kept me going through the difficult early teenage years when so many people give up their pursuit of the piano. Sometimes I wouldn’t practice at all during the week, but I’d have a lesson nonetheless, and so I kept learning. Mother called it “getting over the hump,” and once on the downhill side, the going was much easier.

I had two older sisters who also studied piano, so we had lots of music in the household. I played duets with my sisters, and (the best part) 8-hand, 2-piano quartets which we performed for several years as the denouement to my teacher’s annual recital. That ensemble playing was key to my future career in music, for in junior high school I was asked to accompany a fellow student who sang two songs in the talent show. To my great joy, I have continued to accompany singers throughout my life. But it was playing with my father and sisters that first inspired that collaborative joy.

During high school I learned and performed the first movement of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto accompanied by my father who played the orchestral part. Those were precious times with him. He and my mother continued to encourage me through all the tough times — and believe me, Rachmaninoff can give a pianist some tough times!

As an adult, I have met dozens of people who have said, “Oh, I studied piano as a child but gave it up. I so wish I had continued.” It’s a sort of mantra that I hear from folks who really wish to create the marvelous range of music that the piano can give but who didn’t continue through those tough times. And in each case, it’s my belief that if the parents had been involved, encouraging, inspiring, nurturing (but never forcing), many of those folks would be playing today.

Caroline, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I grew up in Southern California, and from my earliest childhood I wanted to play the piano, inspired by my father’s exquisite playing. It wasn’t a chore to learn; it was a joy. But my greatest passion was born when I started accompanying singers. My mother had a lovely voice and enjoyed singing, and my eldest sister’s voice matured to pure beauty. We had many a songfest around the piano as I was growing up, and in junior high and high school I accompanied soloists and a trio of girls who sang for school, community and church events. I sight read music easily, so I became the go-to accompanist for various other singers and groups, and rehearsing and performing with those singers were my happiest times.

Oddly, I took a wrong turn when I decided to major in physics in college at the University of California, Berkeley. After two years and much grief, I turned to a music major which I should have done in the first place. There I learned ear-training, sight-singing, and music theory and history. What a joy! However, after college I didn’t pursue a music career. Due to emotional difficulties which I didn’t understand, I searched for answers and found them in Dianetics and Scientology. Music took a back seat for the next decade as I studied those disciplines. During that time, however, my sister with the gorgeous voice pursued a singing career, and through her I kept in touch with the musical world.

When my young daughter started into a small K-12 private school, I was asked to help with one of their musicals. That began nearly three decades of providing accompaniment for such works as Peter Pan, The Wizard of Oz, Annie, Our Miss Brooks, Cheaper By The Dozen and Cinderella. One of my greatest joys was helping children and teenagers find the confidence to sing in front of an audience and sound good. We did spring musicals, winter shows, summer concerts, music cafes, shows which included parents, teachers, staff and students — you name it, we did it. The performing arts there were alive and well. During that period, I conducted some small student choirs and taught keyboard as well. But accompaniment remained my greatest joy. When students learn to sing to live accompaniment instead of a track, they can really start expressing themselves.

Accompaniment is a special skill. It requires sightreading ability and a willingness to take the back seat to your soloist. My purpose has always been to make my singer(s) look and sound good. Sometimes with a child or hesitant singer, that may require playing very softly so that voice can be heard. With a professional singer, it requires listening closely and predicting where that artist is going with the music. With a student, it requires some leading. With a pro, it requires following. And always, accompaniment is a support and help to the singer. When I’ve accompanied choirs, I try to hear which section is having trouble and supply those notes.

During my years with the private school, one of my students was the grandson of a world-famous opera singer. This young boy had his grandfather’s pipes, let me tell you. He had sung as a young boy but had quit singing in his early teen years. Through our choir program, I helped to get him singing again. Around him formed a group of other boys who loved to sing. One of my best creations was that ensemble of five boys singing a stupendous version of “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue” which they choreographed themselves and I accompanied. We performed it for my daughter’s commencement ceremonies, and they brought the house down!

Earlier I had spent hours sitting in a choral music warehouse pawing through choral music for male voices to find appropriate music for them. They sang together for a couple of years to their great joy and the listening pleasure of many others. Although their lives have taken very different paths, I know they remember those times with joy, and their performances were some of my best accomplishments.

In my sixties, I began teaching piano, only because one of my earlier choir students asked me to teach her to play. I told her I wasn’t really a piano teacher, but she insisted, and so a new branch of my career was born. Teaching is, of course, a different discipline, and I’ve had to learn as I go. Bless my students for putting up with my learning curve! But I’ve had some good successes. One of my favorites is a young woman who had played flute in school but had always wanted to learn piano. And she wanted to play Chopin — exclusively! Wow! I searched every piece of Chopin I could find, but simple Chopin music doesn’t exist. This gal is a math teacher, however, with a very technical mind and a driving persistence. I managed to find a 32-measure reduction of the theme in Chopin’s First Piano Concerto. She followed my instructions, practiced hard and mastered it! Within a very short time, she has learned three Chopin Waltzes, some Debussy and Satie pieces, among others. I’m very proud of her.

Today I teach a few students, including my 7-year-old grandson which is very gratifying. But accompanying continues to be my favorite pursuit. Currently I play for a local retirement community chorus, provide music for several churches as needed, and give community performances of Broadway musical numbers with an actor/singer friend.

I find that bringing live music to others uplifts and brings joy to them. Supporting a singer so that she can put all her attention on communicating the message to the audience is a heady pleasure. And in all that I do musically, I think the greatest achievement is helping others to find and express the art within themselves.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I think the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is the ability to uplift others by expressing some of the most elemental human experiences with music. Art is an expression of our human life, whether happy or sad, beautiful or ugly, gentle or brutal. It uplifts by expressing the whole gamut of our life’s events aesthetically.

Another delight is helping my more advanced students better understand the music they’re playing so they can more clearly express their own version of it. Part of that is teaching the underlying theory of the chord progressions and phrases of the piece and helping the student hear with the “inner ear” what he or she wishes to produce.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to change my mind about being able to teach piano. Having found my joy playing the piano for decades, it hadn’t occurred to me that I might perhaps be able to share my knowledge with others.

I owe that change of mind to my first student who had been in one of my choir classes. She insisted that I teach her, so I asked her if she’d be my “guinea pig.” She said yes, and my new career was born.

Contact Info:

• Other: My email address is veachc@gmail.com if anyone wishes to contact me.

Image Credits
Life Force Photos by Christine Murphy