Dutch mourn one-handed piano maven, 88
NewsThe most sought after piano teacher in the Netherlands, Jan Wijn, died yesterday.
After a right-hand paralysis ended his performing career in 1976, Wijn established a piano studio where his pupils included Ronald Brautigam, Hannes Minnaar and Lucas and Arthur Jussen. Quite a class.
Why do pianists always seem to lose use of their right hands?
Generally the top voice has to stand out over the other voices, but the higher strings are the shortest and on top of that the outer fingers of the right hand are the weakest. That’s why, I think.
Out of the thousands of pianists without problems you can practically count the injured on one hand.
Focal Dystonia in this case. It is horrible and a nightmare for anyone who works with one’s hands!
Maybe with other instruments it is more possible to redistribute the hands over the instrument (e.g. Use a lefthanded guitar or violin)?
With piano however there is no escape, unfortunately…
Anyway, Jan Wijn was wonderful and very inspiring.