Amy O’Dell plays classical piano, avant-garde toy piano, and chamber rock keytar. A staple in the Atlanta music scene, Amy has performed with Bent Frequency and NeoPhonia, among other groups. For over 20 years, Amy has been in demand as a classical collaborative pianist, performing throughout the U.S., Europe, and China.
ASN: Tell me about your piano studio. How did you get started, and what lessons have you learned along the way about maintaining an active studio?
AO: I’m so thankful I had amazing teachers that influenced me to build a solid home studio. One of my piano pedagogy professors at GSU, Dr. Erica Keithley (who also had a home studio outside of the university) assigned us a project to figure out what we would need to start our dream studio. I thought back to my pre-college piano teachers, Linda Wood and Betty Jo Sutherland, and chose elements from their studios and teaching styles that suited me best. We calculated an investment budget to get started. This included a space to teach (in my case a separate space in my home), a piano, a website, advertising, books and other teaching materials. We wrote a studio policy for the project, which I still use but have adapted over the years. We learned about the different teaching methods and materials for beginner adults and kids. Finally, we learned how to create lesson plans and how to write clear and concise lesson notes. I still have the folder of this project in my studio and referred to it when I started this studio.
Once I had my own studio space and piano, I built a website, advertised my studio through different teaching websites and found other ways to make my website come up when somebody googled “piano lessons” in my area. It wasn’t long afterwards I started getting emails or phone calls asking for a piano teacher. Today, roughly 60% of students I take in are from referrals of my other students. 20% are either musicians or friends (and their kids) that I already know, and 10% are students that found me online. I don’t pay for advertising anymore (if you don’t include the website), which is nice.
My teaching “goals” have changed in ways that were unexpected over the years. I had originally envisioned all my students would be capable of continuing in college as a music major. However, I learned quickly this approach alienated some students. Not everybody who takes piano lessons are going to be as invested in piano lessons the way I was as a student, and that’s okay! I gained a broader perspective of the unique roles that piano/music plays in our lives. It brings me so much joy to help students accomplish their music goals, whatever they may be.
ASN: You’re considered a “staple of the Atlanta music scene.” How has the scene changed over time, and who is doing interesting work now?
AO: Atlanta has a uniquely diverse and eclectic music scene. If you know where to look, you can find anything from mainstream to the most unusual experimental music. Before the pandemic, there were several regular venues that provided artists a space to perform for free or for a very minimal fee. They’re not all gone, but it’s definitely more of a challenge to create concert opportunities on a minimum budget. Finding spaces outside of a university or church with a decent acoustic grand piano has always been challenging, but it’s even moreso these days.
Much of my interest is in the New Classical (or experimental) music scene. Bent Frequency, ensemble vim, the Atlanta Improvisers Orchestra, Mosaic Quartet, Atlanta Contemporary Music Collective are all just some of the ensembles in the Atlanta music scene regularly performing and premiering new works. There are countless colleagues that regularly perform and inspire me. Some to look out for are pianist/improvisor Ipek Eglini, percussionist Paul Stevens, and composer/improvisor/mandolinist Majid Araim. It really is incredible how much is happening in Atlanta’s music scene. I feel so fortunate to be a part of it.
ASN: How do you navigate working with various ensembles, and how do you manage your calendar?
AO: I’m much better at navigating my schedule/calendar than I used to be. I’ve also have gotten better at saying “no.” I experienced an exercise injury years ago (a shoulder impingement) that forced me to stop playing for months. If I’m not careful with the amount I practice, that injury creeps up on me. As a collaborative pianist, I’m more forward about asking for music ASAP because that allows me to better plan ahead with my practice schedule. I believe it’s helped me to be a better musician and colleague because I’m better at planning ahead than I was before my injury. There is also privilege in being at a place in my life and career where I can say “no” more often than I used to. I’m certainly grateful the injury happened after I had made many connections already.
I’ve also have found some digital tools that work for me. A favorite that I use regularly is the “Reminders” app. I love crossing off an item on a list. So satisfying! I have multiple lists for work and home. They help me to stay on top of everything without feeling overwhelmed. I also love the “unread” feature for emails and texts. If I’m in the middle of a busy teaching evening or rehearsal schedule, I may have a chance to read an email or text, but if I can’t respond right away I’ll mark it as “unread.” Otherwise, I’ll forget to respond to it later. Mondays and Fridays before lunch are my designated times to work on crossing off list items and answer correspondences. These times do get used for doctor’s appointments and other non-work related things, but it’s helpful to have designated “office hours” even when self-employed.
These tools are not for everybody, and it took years to figure out what worked for me. My husband is amazing with his work, but he has 1,000+ notifications on his email app icon (mostly spam, which I automatically delete while he just leaves unanswered). In contrast, I currently have 2 notifications on my email app. We each develop what works best for us. The thought of having 1000+ notifications on an app icon stresses me out, haha!
ASN: How do you select what to play and who to play with?
AO: Years ago, I heard some advice that is helpful for choosing gigs. Take the gig if you can say yes to two out of three: Does the gig have 1. Good pay? 2. People you enjoy working with? or 3. Is the repertoire enjoyable to you? I used this advice quite a bit earlier in my career, and still do to a degree. These days, I find most important that I enjoy who I’m working with more than anything else. If they’re reliable, enjoyable to work with, and good to others during and outside of rehearsals, then I want to work with them. “Be the collaborator that you would want to work with” is a good musician mantra.
How I select repertoire to play is not as easy of an answer. Often it happens organically. For smol ensemble, there are five of us who are co-artistic directors and the musicians. Several months before one of our concerts, we all make suggestions of repertoire to consider, then we decide as a group what works best for the upcoming concert. It may be decided by which pieces will be more practical. If any member of the group wants to compose for the upcoming concert, that takes priority. There’s never been conflict with the repertoire we’ve chosen because we all came together with similar curious interests. The same goes with working with Jean Gay in Alya Ensemble. These two groups that I’ve co-founded with all of the other members have provided some of my favorite music experiences. I have so much awe and respect for these musicians, and I feel so fortunate they want to work with me.
ASN: We’re at the 10th anniversary of the Find Your Inner Child album. Tell me about your journey with the toy piano.
AO: It’s a surprisingly personal journey. I originally became fascinated with the toy piano after watching the film Amelie when I was in high school. Yann Tiersen composed the beautiful soundtrack for this film, and there were several toy piano elements that perfectly captured the charm of the film. I even scoured the internet and bought a 2-octave toy piano from craigslist that had a similar sound to the Michelsonne that Yann Tiersen used. However, I didn’t get into playing toy piano repertoire until after I went through a divorce a few years after college. My ex-husband is also a professional pianist/organist, and we were high school sweethearts, so we developed our professional music careers together. At that time, our divorce was the most challenging experience of my life. I was seriously considering changing careers because all the music experiences up to that point reminded me of my time with my ex-husband (Side note: I am still great friends with my ex-husband! He’s an amazing person/musician).
Before my divorce, I wasn’t active in Atlanta’s new classical music scene. Most of my playing was accompanying choirs and vocalists around the area. Not long before the divorce was finalized, a friend suggested I go to a Chamber Cartel concert featuring Morton Feldman’s “Crippled Symmetry.” I had never experienced his music before, and it was a transformative experience. The experience inspired a fresh beginning in my music career. I became the pianist for Chamber Cartel, and also the keytarist/keyboardist for Clibber Jones Ensemble after getting back in touch with my friend Olivia Kieffer (composer/percussionist). All of this was so fresh and different than anything I was doing before. I believe it was after a Clibber Jones rehearsal that Olivia and other friends/colleagues showed me videos of Phyllis Chen and Margaret Lang Tan playing imaginative toy piano repertoire. I wanted in! So I invested in a Schoenhut 3-octave grand toy piano and started learning toy piano repertoire! That eventually led to the album Find Your Inner Child, toy piano festivals, and more!
I still play toy piano for gigs every year. I find that toy piano repertoire is perfect to introduce an audience to experimental music. It inspires nostalgia and intrigue, and for unknown reasons (at least to me), it helps audiences to be open to experiencing the unusual. It is still one of my favorite things to play a toy piano concert, and hear from an audience member that they didn’t know that composers wrote for the toy piano. It’s a uniquely captivating instrument. I’m so thankful that a challenging time in my life somehow led me to the toy piano world. It’s a surprisingly small and interconnected music world, but there are many paths to take if you look out for them.
Thanks for sharing your experiences, Amy! Readers, check out a recent performance of Amy’s group, smol ensemble, performing Christopher Adler‘s The Toy Robot’s Mechanical Heart.
