# Meeting Messiaen's student



## Gustav Mahler (Dec 3, 2014)

So today is a very exciting day for me.
Being around a great musician who knew the greatest musicians of the 20th century is a spectacular feeling.

I study Conducting at the Jerusalem Academy for Music.
We have an improvisation course with Prof. Andre Hajdu.
Mr. Hajdu is an old man, but it doesn't seem like it at all when he is on the piano-He is a truly great musician.
Hajdu is a composer. He studied with Messiaen, Kodaly and 
Milhaud. One of his colleagues is Ligeti. And he was a friend of him.
You can imagine what an honor it is to be around this man.
The improvisation course is an amazing course-Mr. Hajdu teaches us his special piano playing techniques, lets us improvise, dance to Shostakovich's music, improvise by conducting on a group and more. We are about 10 students in that course.

And why was todays lesson the best so far?

Today I decided to volunteer a lot-The students brought their instruments and I sat down in front of the piano and started improvising a theme. Then according to it, the other players joined me-I was leading them.
When it was finished, Mr. Hajdu, who doesn't always say anything after someone plays . said "He (me) really inspired the group with his special energy and force" Or something very close to that. 
I was very honored. He spoke about me in a way that was very complementary to me personally-I have never heard him say anything like that about any student.
(Then we all wen t to the piano, and simultaneously played the piano and plucked it strings, and then I noticed that my middle finger was badly cut. It was terrible.)

I was planning from before the lesson to ask Mr. Hajdu if I can study composition privately with him.
I went to him after the lesson and asked him.
And then he told me that he saw I have a very special personality (from my playing) and I could sense that he meant that. He asked me to bring some of my compositions to the next lesson and we will go on from there.

Being complemented and appreciated by such a great man that has connections to so many great musicians is just a marvelous thing.

We will see what happens next, but I sure am very honored to be around him, and to be appreciated by a great man.

You can read more about him here:

http://www.andrehajdu.com/biography.html

Let me know if you have any comments or questions. 
I wish you all a happy, musical life.


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