Launching the Blog

Welcome to the Hal Leonard Classical Piano Blog! I’m Brendan Fox, a classical editor at Hal Leonard and part of the Classical-Vocal department team here. This will be a place for me to provide some insight and commentary on new publications, explore topics related to notation and performance practice, share interesting or funny stories about working at Hal Leonard, and give some updates from conferences I attend throughout the year: Music Teachers’ National Association (MTNA) and National Conference of Keyboard Pedagogy (NCKP).

What does a classical editor do? At face value, the title means that I guide new classical music publishing projects through production. The process starts with brainstorming ideas for a collection or new edition of a piece, compiling and editing music sources, then proofreading new engravings, making some more editorial judgment calls, and working with an artist on the cover design and interior pages. When the music and art are “clean” and all copyrights are approved, the book goes to press.

But even that description above is just one aspect of the job. I’m also responsible for helping Hal Leonard exhibit at piano-oriented conferences, where I have a chance to talk in person to the pianists and piano teachers who use our publications. I also curate quarterly newsletters about new classical releases, send copies of books to magazines to be reviewed, and record “training videos” about certain new series.

Sometimes I will feature articles or other commentary from some other editors, and occasionally you may see a post from Trish Dulka, who is a co-moderator on this site, but the majority of the blog will consist of my own content. As a lifelong piano nerd, I’m excited to offer some thoughts about this wealth of music.