Does music have a color?: Steffin Johnson at TEDxDayton

Steffin Johnson began playing piano at the age of 4.
He speaks about his experiences in his musical career, breaking stereotypes, in regard to himself (because of his race) and the music he plays (classical, not jazz).

Hello everyone.

As you may or may not have heard,
my name is Steffin Johnson

and I play piano.

Now, an interesting thing happens

when I say that to people sometimes.

They immediately think: Art Tatum,

or they think Oscar Peterson,
or maybe Herbie Hancock.

And that got me thinking:

"Does music have a color?"

Now I want to make sure
I get this out there:

I love the jazz greats!

And Nat King Cole's performance

of "Tea for Two" on YouTube
will change your life!

I'm probably responsible
for half the views

on that video myself. (Laughter)

But I'm much more of a Mozart player,
which I owe to my mother.

She just got me introduced to
classical music at a young age.

So, I have a story for you guys.

Currently, I study at
the Jacobs School of Music

in Indiana University.

And on my very first day there,

I heard someone playing
in the recital hall.

It was amazing!
I was like this was probably

this world famous professor
or performer or something.

So I was like
"I'm going to check it out."

I run over to the window
and I peek in, right?

Ah! It's a student!

And the dude is a savage!

He's all over the place!
He's got like 13 arms.

He's like an octopus!
He's just like --

And my honest thought was
that's absolutely not cool at all!

Actually, I didn't want to hear that --

to be my first person that I hear there.

I'm in way over my head!

So, now I'm going to fast forward
a couple days.

I'm in the practice building.

What you've got to know about
the practice building is it's a circle.

and there's another circle inside.

It's like a concrete doughnut.

There's no windows,
no natural light gets in;

It's like a tomb of music. All right?

So, I'm in there
and I'm practicing this piece --

(Piano)

And I'm getting kind of frustrated!
I'd been there for hours.

It's not working how I want it to work.
I need to take a break.

So, I open the door
and standing right there is the guy

that I saw playing on the first day.

He's messing around on his phone.

Now, he's never seen me before

and he doesn't know
that I saw him playing earlier.

So, we meet eyes and we do
the guy thing -- ah, uh, oh, uh.

So we walk off and I'm coming back.

Now, you don't actually need to know
this part of the story,

but it's a circle building,
there are no distinguishing marks.

I got lost! It took too long
to get back to the room.

I don't know what the problem was.
I finally get back

and he's still standing out there
messing around on his phone.

So, I'll go back in
and I start practicing again.

(Piano)

Boom!

The dude just busts in my door!

And I'm like, "Hey, man,
I think there's some explanation

that's needed here,
you just gave me a mild coronary.

I need to understand
what's happening right now."

And he says, "I hope
you don't take offense to this,

but you are the first black person
I have ever heard

playing music like that."

Now, I wasn't offended.
He just said how he felt.

And to be honest, we actually
became pretty good friends.

So. Now, I'm going to take you
back in time.

1905.

Maurice Ravel is
a French Impressionistic composer.

And actually that piece I was playing
is by Maurice Ravel.

And that kind of washes sound
as your traditional

impressionistic sound, right?

So, in 1905 he writes a set of pieces
called "Miroirs".

There are five in the set.

But the fourth one
is particularly interesting,

because it is a Spanish piece.

This is a stark contrast

to the calm watery-like sound
of Impressionism.

And it's much more of a clean kind of --

He's evoking the Spanish idioms

of the Flamenco guitar and all this stuff.

So, without further ado,

I, Steffin Johnson,
hopefully changing your perceptions

of what the classical musician
can look like,

will play a piece from a composer

who changed perceptions with his music:

Maurice Ravel's Alborada del Gracioso.

(Piano)

(Cheers) (Aplause)