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The Art of Accompaniment

What makes an accompanist successful? John Milbauer, assistant professor of piano and accompanying, admits that there is a certain personality that makes for a better accompanist. The best, he said, are magnanimous and kind. "One of my favorite teachers called it 'mutual gift giving,'" Milbauer said. "If you have someone who is not interested in that aspect, it becomes a very selfish endeavor. Even if you have two people with very different tastes, if they have the spirit of working together, it's enjoyable."

Milbauer is the adviser for the music department's accompanying program, but he said he doesn't make a distinction between performing and accompanying -- for his students or himself. "What I'm most interested in for my students, whether they are accompanying option people or performing option, is that they are good pianists and they play quality repertoire," he said.

Although Milbauer earned degrees in performance, he said he enjoys accompanying very much -- he did it for a living for a while. "I wanted to be the best pianist I could be, and I didn't want to limit my repertoire one way or the other," he said. "I find now I spend half my time performing, half my time accompanying, and I'm happy doing that."

After a restless spell as an undergraduate at Harvard, Milbauer realized that music was the only subject for which he had passion. He transferred to the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, where he earned a degree in 1992. He went on to earn a master's at Juilliard, and a doctorate at the Manhattan School of Music.

It was at Eastman that Milbauer studied with "the best teacher" he ever had, a pianist trained by a Hungarian musician. In 1994, a Fulbright grant enabled Milbauer to study at the illustrious Liszt Academy of Music in Hungary. "The tradition of training young musicians is extremely strong in Hungary," Milbauer said. "Every public school has a strong music program that emphasizes the elegant art of singing well and singing good music at an early age."

After the country's revolution in 1956, many of the better music teachers fled Hungary; in fact, most European conductors who came to the United States in the 1950s and '60s were from Hungary. "A few of them stayed in Hungary," Milbauer said, "and when I studied there, I worked with the best -- the greatest remaining Hungarian piano teacher. He was devoted to maintaining the tradition of Hungarian musical education."

Milbauer performed throughout Hungary and Switzerland; he lived in New York City while he worked as an accompanist. But New York City is not friendly to pianists: "It's hard to find a living space where you can have a piano because apartments are so small and they are not soundproof. Most buildings won't let you rent if they know you are going to put in a piano," Milbauer explained.

After two years as a professor at drizzly Humboldt State, Milbauer arrived in Chico last fall, ready to soak up the sun. He is pleased with the diligence and commitment of his students here; teaching suits him well. And, of course, his other passion will always be the one he discovered as a six-year-old in Wisconsin: playing the piano.

Lisa Kirk