Great teachers provide us wisdom to understand the complexities of our performance, career, and life. Here is some great advice imparted to Denis Wick artist Matt Lewis during his time studying with Denis Wick.
Denis’ teaching was obviously absolute gold dust. The one thing that has stayed with time the most was him saying to me whilst at the Academy “Matt, everyone in the department can do something better than you. It’s your job to find out what it is and copy it”.
Not only does it raise awareness of everyone’s talents but it subconsciously creates a fundamental respect for everyone in the department. He placed a value on everyone’s skills and talents and taught me to listen and learn from the free resources around me. This has become a fundamental in my teaching and the basis of my group classes when I taught at Junior RAM.
I didn’t actually study with Denis full time but I swapped some lessons with other students and he coached me in the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester.
He gave me the confidence to play properly in an orchestra and taught me the amazing skill of playing pianissimo but lifting the bell up, giving the most brilliant effect.
Aside from all of this, he could always take the trombone off me and play a fantastic top F!
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