Hi from Hilda, your tonebase Piano Community Lead!

Dear Pianists,

I was really happy to meet you on today’s livestream! Thanks Dominic Cheli  for having me today! I am so truly gratified to serve as your Piano Community Lead. I joined the tonebase team in December 2021 and am currently setting up my studio to broadcast to you from my home in New York City. I’m so excited to have the chance to share our beloved piano-time. 

My goals for our piano community are to provide you with a welcoming piano community forum on which you feel open to sharing your ideas and reflections about practice, pianism, and musical experiences. I’ll facilitate verbal and musical conversations between you and your colleagues on the site by leading community challenges, community concerts, and other avenues for your participation. I want to inspire you to contextualize your piano playing in your life. 

I plan to broadcast three or four livestreams per month. I will bring on at least one guest every month. While Dominic will talk about repertoire, performance, and practice tips, I will also have conversations about piano in the context of your lives. I’m really eager to learn about you all both at and away from the piano. I want to give you tools to make the most of your piano-playing time, especially if it’s limited. 

I want for you to feel like you can relate to me both as your community leader and as a professional pianist, but also as your peer and colleague. So, here's a bit about myself! I started playing the piano when I was three years old, after encountering the instrument at my preschool friend’s house. I took to it pretty quickly, and have been playing ever since. I didn’t always want to be a pianist – in college, I studied chemistry and was really interested in pursuing medicine. I simply couldn’t imagine life without playing the piano, so I decided to take the plunge and go all in!

Concerts have been a bit slow during the pandemic, so I’ve been taking this opportunity to learn and do deep practice on some repertoire I’ve always wanted to play. I’m working on the Brahms second piano concerto and the Beethoven fourth piano concerto, which I hope (COVID allowing!) to perform with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra in June of this year in the California Bay Area. Some of my other projects include recording my debut Bach album, performing the seven Toccatas, and finishing the six Partitas. I’m pursuing my Doctor of Musical Arts at the Juilliard School. 

I’m going to do my very best to respond to your posts on the piano community forum. If you want to reach me directly with a question about music, a concern about any content on a post, or get in touch for any reason at all, simply write to me at [email protected].

Cheers, let's stay in touch!

Hilda