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[The following program notes are from an unidentified piano recital]

Tonight's page turner, Ruth Spelke, studied under Ivan Schmertnick at the Boris Nitsky School of Page Turning in Philadelphia. She has been turning pages here and abroad for many years for some of the world's leading pianists.

In 1988, Ms. Spelke won the Wilson Page Turning Scholarship, which sent her to Israel to study page turning from left to right. She is winner of the 1984 Rimsky Korsakov Flight of the Bumblebee Prestissimo Medal, having turned 47 pages in an unprecedented 32 seconds. She was also a 1983 silver medalist at the Klutz Musical Page Pickup Competition where contestants retrieve and reorder a musical score dropped from a Steinway Model M. Ms. Spelke excelled in "grace, swiftness, and poise" according to Van Cliburn, one of the judges at the event.

For techniques, Ms. Spelke performs both the finger-licking and the bent-page corner methods. She works from a standard left bench position, and is the originator of the dipped-elbow page snatch, a style used to avoid obscuring the pianist's view of the music. She is page turner-in-residence in Fairfield, Iowa, where she occupies the prestigious Alfred Hitchcock Chair at the Fairfield Page Turning Institute.

Ms. Spelke is married, and has a nice house on the lake.

Is this a joke? If not, it's still pretty funny. Imagine that... Techniques for page turning!

Now, if it were for turning while playing, that's understandable; it's pretty hard to turn your own pages and not drop notes or lose the rhythm.

Haha, freshman horror story: the accompanist and I were in a disagreement on how to turn pages best. The book fell down.

No joke -- Ruth is my page turning professor at music school. Believe it or not, the 2-credit course is required for all music majors.

That's amazing, pianojerome - I took the same course with Ruth Spelke. One day Ruth Spelke didn't like one of her students. She told him to use the dipped elbow technique but he kept on covering up half the music with his hand.

Finally Professor Spelke told him, "Either you dip or the poor pianist is gonna take a nip right off your freakin' fingers!" It was pretty funny.

best wishes,
Valerie

It is indeed fun.

BUT

When I was in college studying both flute and piano, I was asked to be the page turner for a recital by Jean-Pierre Rampal and Robert Veyron-Lacroix. Since they had been on tour, there was no rehearsal.

I was the guy walking in 'cold.'

At first Mssr. Veyron-Lacroix would nod his head for a page turn. I quickly learned that he wanted the page turned 6-8 measures prior to what he was playing. So, when that was known, it was easy page flipping and just holding my suite coat and tie away from the keyboard. I flipped left handed so I wouldn't knock him in the head with my right elbow.

What I didn't expect, after the opening Bach Sonata, was that I would be gestured to for a bow. I stood and managed an embarrassed nod.

Offstage Mssr. Veyron-Lecroix said that I need not worry about turning well in advance. Back we went for the Poulenc Sonata.

The final work was the Franck Sonata. I'm turning pages furiously. But, I think I could have taken the score, ripped the pages out, and made paper airplanes with it. I don't think it would have mattered. These two incredible musicians were so totally absorbed in great music that they wouldn't have noticed if the ceiling caved in.

Yes, I was given a gesture for a bow and I did my polite nod. Mssrs. Rampal and Veyron-Lacroix nodded back, bowed to me, and then gestured me for a full bow to the audience. OH MY GAWD! I was so glad that I went to the restroom at intermission.

wow i never imagined there were some who have page-turning as a profession!

I did it once and it was a nerve-wracking experience.

My son's violin teacher had organized a concert and since I play the piano she asked if I would mind being the pianist's page turner. I agreed.

I was so nervous about the prospective event that I went out and bought the scores that I didn't already own so that I could become familiar with the music.

Fortunately the pianist had prepared her scores by photocopying at reduced scale the first two measures after the page turn and taping them to the bottom of the preceding page. That helped put me at ease somewhat.

One of the works on the program was Mendelssohn's D minor piano trio which has lots of rapid passagework. I was so relieved when it was over. I'm pleased to report that there were no serious mishaps.

A year or so ago I tuned for a piano and violin concert. They were playing a new piece that requires the sostenuto pedal. The piano does not have one. They had the page turner hold the notes that the pedal would have held. That was above and beyond the call of duty!

i have had page turners flip the entire sheet music off the piano. maybe they should have taken that class.

I have seen a page turner, sitting on the pianist's left, and too lazy to stand, reach across with his right hand, elbow in the face of the pianist, arm blocking the view of the music, to turn the right-hand page from the bottom. What an idiot!

Regards,

Okay,

I really don't want to sound nasty, but page turning scholarships? page turning competitions? page turning professors?

My best wishes to Ms. Spelke, but COME ON! That is just plain out SILLY! haha, it sounds like a flying circus joke!

Did she also catch a gig in the ministry of silly walks?

haha, sorry to be so rude but that is hilarious!

What kind of homework do they give you? Do they consider a person's height or arm length when giving out final grades?

The first time I heard the Brahms F minor Quintet I was turning pages for the pianist. Too bad I had to be so distracted during the first listening to such a great work.

Ivan is really Borge's son.

When I took the page turning course, it was 4 credits plus lab plus a 3 week field camp at a rundown saloon in New Mexico. I am surprised I lived to tell the tale.

Yeah, but it was so worth it -- it was like turning a page in the score of my life, as I'm sure it was for you.

Alas, this poor fellow failed to pass his final exam turning pages for a chamber recital at the Boris Nitsky School. I believe he is currently employed as a washroom attendant in a small hotel in Tashkent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG931XPV5VU

Although I am not in the same league as the esteemed Madame Spelke, I had a horrible page turning experience myself. I was working in the Cystic Fibrosis Lab at CHildren's Hospital. There were a lot of physicians finishing their residency there. Perhaps you can imagine the egos which accompany physicians who are accepted to Harvard Medical School.

Anyway - they had a resident Talent night - and if anyone on this board is familiar with the opulence of Harvard's 'dorms' you will not be surprised to learn that there was an auditorium with a stage and a concert grand Steinway - right there in the student housing. A woman I worked with knew I played piano and she asked if I would turn pages for her. Piece of cake right? We even had a practice session just to be sure.

On the big night she was all gowned up for her peers - she was playing CHopin's fantasie Improptu - pretty well as a matter of fact - perhaps it was the excellence of her playing that sent my mind into another dimension for a brief spell - but just long enough to miss the page turn - she sat there frozen with rage while I turned the page - cursing me under her breath -

She never spoke to me again.

Recently I told this to my teacher who had the perfect response - "If she was so great she would have memorized it"

Yeah!