The Phenomenon of the Piano School in Art History: Specifics of Its Functioning in a Foreign Environment Based on the Case of China
Abstract
The article systematises approaches to defining the concept of the “piano school” in modern art history and identifies the specifics of the functioning of this phenomenon in a foreign cultural environment on the example of China. The work sets out to clarify the theoretical and methodological foundations of the study of the piano school and develop an analytical model of its cultural transformation. The methodology is based on historical-cultural, comparative and systemic approaches. The theoretical basis of the study was formed by a systemic-synergetic approach to the study of the performance school in the context of contemporary theories of culturally determined musical perception. It is established that the Chinese piano school is not a mechanical borrowing of Western European models, but the result of their complex adaptation as conditioned by the interaction of the conservatory system of professionalisation and the traditional Eastern paradigm of the “teacher-student” relationship. Particular attention is paid to the role of private schools within the broader national system on the example of Zhou Guangren’s school, which demonstrates how imported piano traditions can be transformed in different cultural environments through pedagogical continuity, institutional consolidation, and the rethinking of artistic norms. As a result, the Chinese piano school can be understood as a hybrid model that synthesises Western academic technologies, the specifics of the national “ethno-hearing,” and the central role of the creative personality of the Master as the main transmitter of artistic tradition.
Keywords: piano school, foreign environment, Chinese piano art, pedagogical system, continuity, art history, Zhou Guangren
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.56620/RM.2026.2.159-166
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