Akron Life May 2022

FOREVER YOUNG

Kahn got her into performing at school, women’s clubs and competitions, and he sent her to college-level instructors to learn music theory when she was 12. Michael recalls some of her favorite pieces she played at that age, like Beethoven’s sonatas and “Rhapsody in Blue.” And she was certainly learning from a deep well of knowledge. Michael explains that while Kahn taught her, the line of talent goes much further back. Kahn was taught by Russian pianist Arthur Friedheim, who was taught by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt, who was taught by none other than Ludwig van Beethoven. “That’s my lineage as a student,” Michael says. Their techniques trickled down to Michael as well. Many female pianists played with soft, animated hand motions, and she tried that once at a lesson. “[Kahn] said, We don’t do that ,” Michael says. “I did play like a man. I had a strength.” Her lessons steadily continued before coming to a halt when she was a teenager. Michael’s dad died, and she stopped play ing piano for three months. After taking time to herself, she started back up.

Choreographer Brad French and Jan Michael, 1970s

classes with Bernstein, whose most known work is “West Side Story.” “There is such a thing as genius, and he was it,” Michael says. “You just enjoy the near ness. You laughed, you asked questions and he would demonstrate things.” She spent her time at Tanglewood savoring those master classes, as well as every Boston Symphony rehearsal, student orchestra rehearsal and opera rehearsal she could get to. She even met Eleanor Roosevelt, who came to perform with the Boston Symphony. What came next? “I came home, and there was this handsome Marine,” she says. She married that Marine, Burt, who she was friends with in high school, and they moved into an apartment in California, where he was based. The property owners, who had a piano and lived adjacent to them, let her

come over whenever she wanted to practice. Soon after, she became pregnant, and they moved back to Akron a year and a half later when Burt’s tour was up to raise their family. During that time, she accompanied singers and conducted a choir at a synagogue. Conducting had been a dream for Michael for a long time, and she told her parents about it when she was around 14. “My mother said, Well, you know, there are no women conductors ,” Michael recalls. “It hadn’t fazed me. I said, Yeah. And she said, So you’ll be the first one. ” When she was about 30, an opportunity arose to play at Weathervane Playhouse. Michael was a classical solo performer first, so she felt some hesitation. But she took a leap of faith and joined “The Fantasticks” at Weathervane in 1962.

“I went back to it with more fervor,” she says. “I went over an emotional bump. I just found myself with my music.” After graduating from high school, Michael applied to Tanglewood Music Center, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer academy. They told her they already had their pianist spots filled, but they ended up accepting her anyway. She was their young est student at 18. It was an unforgettable experience for Michael. She took hour-and-a-half master classes with just 10 other students, and the teachers were renowned compos ers like Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein. Michael especially enjoyed

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