Slutsky (left) with star pupil Eric Zuber, whom he's taught for 12 years.

Allowing Artistry to Take Over

After 3-year-old Eric Zuber came home from church and began picking out hymns on a portable keyboard, his parents, who live in nearby Bel Air, Maryland, quickly enrolled him at Peabody Preparatory. Some years later when his first Preparatory teacher decided to relocate, she asked Boris Slutsky, a member of the Conservatory's piano faculty, to consider teaching the boy. Slutsky was so impressed with the gifted 11-year-old that he readily accepted him as the only Preparatory student he has ever agreed to teach.

The arrangement worked so well that at 16, Zuber enrolled in the bachelor's degree program at the Conservatory, where he found the piano faculty to be "great people and great role models," as well as great teachers, and the students supportive of one another. "Everyone knows how difficult it is to make it in the music world, and we're happy with each other's successes," he says.

After graduating in 2005, Zuber went on to earn a performance diploma from Curtis Institute. In 2007, the first prize at the prestigious Hilton Head International Piano Competition paved the way for his recital debut at Carnegie Hall, which was warmly received. The New York Times hailed his playing as "irresistibly fluid," and the New York Concert Review declared him "a breath of fresh air" and "an especially thoughtful player who happens to possess technical brilliance."

Zuber has compiled a wide-ranging solo and concerto repertoire and says he likes any music that is "emotionally meaningful in some way," regardless of the style or composer. "I gravitate toward the great Romantic music—as a pianist I appreciate Rachmaninoff first and foremost— but great classical music and great baroque music is often as moving and equally as worthy," he says. These days Zuber's performance opportunities are associated mostly with winning or making the final rounds at competitions, which have taken him to places as far-flung as Sydney and Seoul. And the 23-year-old is back at Peabody, studying again with Slutsky, this time for his artist diploma.

Zuber describes Slutsky as "a huge influence" in his life as a musician. "There are many uniquely wonderful facets to Mr. Slutsky's style of teaching," Zuber adds. "One in particular is that he feels, I think, that listening to music is like looking out a window onto a beautiful landscape. The landscape is what you want to express musically, and the window is your technique. If the window is dirty, you can't properly view the landscape. Using this philosophy, he will often diagnose musical problems through the lens of technical issues. Correcting these issues, sometimes simple, sometimes complicated, allows the student more freedom of expression. When you aren't fighting with the piano, you can allow your artistry to take over."

After teaching Zuber for 12 years, longer than any of his other students and fully one-half of the young man's life, Slutsky says Zuber has become "almost like family, because I see him probably more than his own family does." The warmth and camaraderie between the two men was evident recently as they struck up a mean duet of Chopsticks while posing for a photographer in Slutsky's cozy studio.

"I try to work with Eric—and my other students—as my teachers did with me, which means if I have to see him every other day or every day, I will, and if I need to see him two hours, three hours in a row, I will," Slutsky adds. "Most of my teachers did not teach by the clock. They spent as much time with me as was necessary, and I guess that left a powerful impression on me."

A native of Russia, Slutsky came to the United States at age 15 and studied at the Manhattan School of Music and Juilliard. He compiled an impressive list of competition wins and solo performances before joining the Peabody faculty in 1993. In the years he has been teaching, he says he has seen a remarkable increase in the level of skill among young pianists, which he believes reflects a tendency among young people toward higher achievement and a willingness to tackle greater challenges in many facets of society. "I was just in South Carolina at auditions for the Hilton Head competition," he says. "We listened to 146 CDs and had to select 20. It felt impossible!"

At Peabody, one thing is constant, he states: "It's always about the student and how to make the educational process better. The faculty has changed over the years, but that has not. We are proud of our reputation around the country and the world that we really nurture students and try to prepare them intellectually, musically, and technically for a life in music."