Existential Piano Teacher: The Application of Jean-Paul Sartre\u27s Philosophy to Piano Instruction In a Higher Educational Setting

This essay uses existential ideas of Jean-Paul Sartre to provide a philosophy of college piano performance teaching which includes awareness of freedom, abandonment and responsibility as a prerequisite for student-teacher interaction. To set the stage for the interaction the study uses Sartre\u27s philosophy, illustrated with concrete examples from the world of piano teaching and performing, to describe what it means to be human. The author applies Sartre\u27s writings about literature to support the idea of an engaged performance, relating it to existential psychoanalysis, making the performer and audience member realize freedom through choice, while addressing ideas of abandonment and performance anxiety. Sartre\u27s philosophy is used to identify the roles both teachers and students play in the college environment as people and as performers. The study with the help of existentialism, describes the interaction between the different elements: teacher, student, performer, and human being, and provides a better understanding of the complexity of the pupil/professor relationship in the college piano performance program