Palo Alto Times Tribune, Thursday, December 4, 1986, C-1

Aldo Ciccolini 1986 Stanford Concert "He loves his cat more than people, performs more than 100 concerts a year, interested in Far Eastern philosophies, and will play at Dinkelspiel Auditorium, Stanford, Friday, December 5 at 8 pm" I read this in Palo Alto Times Tribune "Music and mysticism make a natural pairing for pianist Aldo Ciccolini". I got a left-side seat in the first row, took Stanford's Lively Arts Music Quiz: Question 4 asks how many white keys on a modern piano keyboard with note "Sorry, we cannot allow audience on the stage at intermission". From my numbers research, I knew there are 52 white keys and 36 black keys. Received a letter from Claire Kelm of Lively Arts congratulating me as one of only two entrants in the Quiz who answered all 6 questions correctly. Was offered two free concert tickets, never claimed, as I had just moved to the West Coast from Boston to care for Dad & Mom, with no friends to attend. After the concert, I go backstage to get Ciccolini's autograph, asking where he gets the energy to perform two concerts each week. He confides "I do the corpse posture before playing", telling me on reading all of Paul Brunton's yoga books. "I was missing just one book and found it at a bookstore in Brussels." When I tell him about my meetings with PB in Switzerland, he invites me to a Stanford professor's house who was hosting him. Couldn't go as I'd miss the last bus home. Learned he's an expert on Erik Satie whose minimalist music is so relaxing, played now by Jean-Yves Thibaudet, one of his student, but Ciccolini seems to me a long-lost friend.         Peter Y. Chou         Mountain View, 10-12-2017