Add David Hyde Pierce to the list of performers who start the day with a Bach Prelude and Fugue.  Both lead actors on the TV show Frasier, which I think is the funniest TV show to have aired in the last couple of decades, are accomplished musicians. A good bit of the humour is based on a high-brow approach to music, literature, and fine food.

A link to an interview with Pierce by Mike Thomas at the Chicago Sun-Times showed up on the SuiteLinks post at Piano Addict. Pierce discusses his upcoming performance with Emmanuel Ax, no less, at Symphony Center in Chicago. He is asked if playing piano helps him gain clarity in other areas of life.

I’m getting ready to this musical… and playing the piano has nothing to do directly with the musical. But every day I start the day with a Bach prelude and fugue. Or I’ll be working my way through the Beethoven piano sonatas. It’s not like I said, “Oh, this is how I prepare for doing a show but there is something (helpful) about organizing your mind, sort of fine-tuning your senses, linking up what you hear and what you imagine with what your body does. All the stuff you need as an actor is also stuff that you need as a pianist.

I had a high-school student a few years ago who was a high-level soccer player. Every game day, she made sure she found time to practice her piano lesson first. She said it helped her play soccer much better, because it got her mind and her muscles co-ordinated. Music should be learned for its own sake, but we’ll take these bonuses!

Read the whole interview via the SuiteLinks post above, or here at the Chicago Sun-Times.