My Teacher Sasha
For the longest time ever I wanted to [at least briefly] share my story, about Alexander Korsantia: finally in English! He is a world-class pianist of an incredible depth, charisma, and artistic power.
I met Sasha for the first time in 2009, as a first-year Bachelor student, thinking to quit music at the moment — heard him perform without any previous knowledge about him whatsoever and got completely charmed by the magic he creates on stage. After the concert I went backstage feeling as a silly child and without knowing what to say, besides countless congratulations. Then my dream became to study for my Master's with him and I worked tirelessly for the remaining 3 years of my BM to boost my professional level and endurance just so I could end up in his studio at New England Conservatory in Boston. At that moment it was the biggest dream of my life come true.
This man has rejuvenated my belief in myself, in music, and in life. I have never met such a positive person, glowing with warm but powerful energy neither before, nor after. His persona and his playing is 'contagious' in a way that one is not able to remain indifferent. The two years under his tutelage was a mix of constant joy&inspiration with difficult, precise, and fully-immersive work, when one forgets to count the endless hours of practicing and contemplating. Sasha's way of teaching is unique in a way that he always finds something positive to say, at least one small aspect, even if the student's playing is completely horrible. And then he starts working on all the flaws, only after having identified the positive detail(s). He is always fully supportive, however he works with no artistic compromises. When getting ready for the stage I learned to forget the phrase "I can't". He would always convince me that "I CAN", perhaps partly because of his own never-fading belief in me and in each of us (students). He made me feel a musician. And a confident person. I graduated in 2014 and now we are close family friends, but of course, I will always be grateful that I had (and will always have) such a teacher.
If you are contemplating on attending his performance, taking a lesson/masterclass or perhaps earning a degree under his tutelage — I'd say without a doubt: go for it. Dive in. I believe that even one performance or a lesson with Sasha might be an eye- & ear-opening experience (maybe also heart-opening in a way) for some, or quite many musicians.
There are countless recordings, but I will include some of my favorite links on Sasha:
A documentary filmed on him by Sandro Vakhtangov (couldn't embed the entire playlist for some reason, sorry — just click below...)
Another very warm documentary in Russian