Accompanist vs. Collaborative Pianist: I weigh in

It's fashionable nowadays to rail against the hateful, offensive, blasphemous word "accompanist."  "Collaborative pianist"or just "pianist" tend to be accepted as more PC, more considerate, more elegant.

My opinion:  nope.

I like the word "accompanist."  Why?  Because when I with you up on that stage, OK, yes, we're collaborating. But I am not following you.  If I were, I would already have to be behind you.  I am accompanying you.  To accompany is to go with, to remain with, to stay with.  If I am your accompanist, you can trust me.  You can trust that I am by your side and sticking with you, from capo to fine.  My favorite aspect of accompanying, the reason I still do it, is that bond of utter trust between my soloist and myself.  In a sense, we have to accompany each other.

That is why I am proud to be an accompanist.

Bah humbug, said the tired and unwilling class piano teacher.

We now come to that most breathlessly anticipated time of year:  exam and jury week.

As a grad student and class piano teacher, I get the distinct privilege of being a student and a teacher.  On Monday, I took a symphonic lit final.  Tuesday through Thursday I am observing and grading class piano individual exams; more on that in a minute.  And Thursday ends with my own piano jury.  Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Grading piano exams is jury-like.  I sit with my irritatingly-Rachel-Ray-like supervisor and one of the other class piano teachers, and we watch, notate, and when the student's finished, briefly confer to decide on a grade for each portion.

Let me explain my irritation with my supervisor.  It is of a most peculiar variety, and important to accurately describe.