England's Piano Sage ─ The Life and Teachings of Tobias Matthay

In England's Piano Sage, Stephen Siek tells the story of pianist and teacher Tobias Matthay, who began teaching at London's Royal Academy of Music in 1880 and two decades later had so many students that he had to open his own piano school in London. By 1925 his towering status in Britain reached across the Atlantic with the founding of the American Matthay Association and the adoption of his ideas by Yale and Juilliard. Rich in detail, Siek's book chronicles the personal and professional story of this remarkable man whose monumental achievements now largely lay forgotten but clearly deserve a second look. In this comprehensive biography, Siek offers a modern reassessment of Matthay's contribution, exploring not only the great piano theorist's life but also his musical compositions, writings on piano technique, relationship to the Royal Academy of Music, his successful piano school on London's Wimpole Street, and the many world-famous pianists he would come to train on both sides of the Atlantic.

Stephen Siek is a pianist and musicologist with an extensive background in the teaching principles of Tobias Matthay. He is professor of music at Wittenberg University.