'Maestro Zander's coaching is phenomenal; he does indeed have an extraordinary ability to inject needed life and vitality into these gifted students' music making. I have to give the poor pianist kudos for withstanding such an "in-your-face" coaching! Zander reminded me of Seinfeld's Kramer at times with his manic, hyper-charged personality--gesticulating and thrusting his arms and body inches from the performing pianist, singing loudly right in his ear and thumping on the piano and even the poor pianist's back and shoulder even as he is performing. All this made a tremendous improvement in the quality of the ensemble playing but I truly commend the poor pianist for holding up so well.'

'In less than ten minutes, Ben managed to change the performers' entire conception of what the piece is all about. This kind of radical transformation in students' conceptions would, in Ivy League humanities courses, require a "trigger warning", since it would probably make students "uncomfortable". This class in chamber music performance is an example of simply extraordinary teaching!'