La Roque-d'Anthéron (France) (AFP)

"If he works, I warn you, your son will touch the summits": this advice is worth gold. It is lavished by the Russian teacher Rena Shereshevskaya, who trains the prodigies of classical piano, to the parents of his pupil Jehiel, after a master class of the La Roque-d'Anthéron festival.

The three masters class, which mixes amateurs and artists in residence, are full to listen to the valuable advice of Rena, one of whose students, Alexandre Kantorow, 22, comes in late June, to be the first French to win the prestigious Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow.

A culmination after four years of preparation. "I helped him because he told me he wanted to put his name in history," recalls the pianist.

In 2018, Alexandre Kantorow gave La Roque a recital at 6 pm, the hour when the hopes of the classical piano occur. This year, it was scheduled at 21:00 in the beautiful park of Florans Castle, as confirmed virtuosos. Like Lucas Debargue, also a pupil of Rena, 4th in the Tchaikovski competition in 2014.

Dimitry Sin, another student of the famous pianist at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris, is invited to perform, for the first time, after a master class in 2018, on the big stage at 18:00.

Jehiel Quimfumu wants to put his steps in those of his elders. Born in 1998 in a family from the Congo, Jehiel grew up in Marseille with a pastor father and choir director and took classes at the conservatory before moving on to those of Rena at the Rueil-Malmaison Conservatory (Hauts-de-France). de-Seine), three years ago.

He enjoys his master class where he plays for the first time. "It's a class and at the same time a concert, it's another public approach," he explains.

- Mother Teresa or mechanic -

"He's a great teacher," he says of the one who trained in Colmar and Rueil, very many young hopefuls of classical music, propelling some to the summits.

For Jehiel, Rena is more than a piano teacher. "It teaches us more than music, it teaches us the philosophy of life," he says.

In fact, in front of the attentive public and that she takes to witness, she moves away from the technicality of a partition to include it in a work, an era, a life.

"The public is there to understand our job, otherwise it is useless," she argues.

"It's important to know the story around the piece," she says to her student who starts Chopin's Scherzo No. 1. "He suffers when he writes, he is sick, he storms, on the piano, you have to storm ... put some acoustic dirt".

She sometimes interrupts the young pianist: "Well, we will not martyrise the public, that you will repeat at home ..."

A humor that for his student conceals "a requirement in the work". But if "she looks hard, she is not," he tempered.

Rena's international fame has not diminished her simplicity or modesty. "I managed to prove to myself and to everyone that young French people are very good at music," she says.

Wherever she is in the world, Rena is always listening to her students to advise and help them out. "They call me mother Teresa or garage because I know how to fix things even on the phone," she laughs.

The creator of the La Roque-d'Anthéron Festival, René Martin, who sends him his young recruits, is full of praise: "I venerate this teacher".

For her part, Rena appreciates the La Roque festival, which allows young pianists "to listen and play with the greatest pianists of the moment" and gives them "the hope of reaching the summit".

© 2019 AFP