What You'll Learn

How will I Learn to Improvise Piano Cadenzas?

Improvise piano cadenzas and free your soul! Stop memorizing and start speaking piano music! Join Dr. Bert Mooiman (Royal Conservatoire of The Hague) to master the art of the classical cadenza. Using 18th-century ‘Bel Canto’ vocal models and the 3-Part Structure method, you’ll learn to improvise flourishes that sound like Mozart or Beethoven and not a textbook. Perfect for intermediate to advanced pianists looking to reclaim their creative freedom.

Piano Cadenza Vocal Models & Historic Sources

The Vocal Model (Bel Canto): Discover why the best piano cadenzas are actually “operatic arias for the pianist’s fingers.” Learn to breathe, pace, and ornament like a virtuoso singer.
Harmonic Devices & Skeleton Sketches: Learn when, and how, to create cadenzas on dominant and 6/4 chords.
Structural Frameworks: Learn the difference between a full-scale Sonata cadenza and Mozart’s Eingang (the perfect “mini-cadenza” entry point for beginners).
Thinking in Music: Apply the “Sound-Before-Symbol” pedagogy to internalize classical vocabulary so improvisation feels as natural as conversation.
Historical Research Driven Authenticity: Use methods and materials by Czerny, Mozart, Beethoven, Pauline Viardot, Manuel Garcia, Laure Cinti-Damoreau and Türk. These all historically significant musicians; learn from their music and historical teaching materials. You are learning from the very best.

What Will I Achieve in this Improvising Piano Cadenzas Masterclass?

Singing, Opera & Bel Canto were at the core of popular music historically. Instrumentalists tried to copy singers and thus bel canto singing methods are an excellent resource for piano cadenza training.
Pauline Viardot Pars Conservatoire Vocal Exercises: Pauline’s scalic, arpeggio and broken chord patterns that she used with her students in Paris. We also focused on upper/lower neighbour notes, échappées and embedded turns.
Manuel Garcia’s Method: This led singers to rehearse sequences using 2, 3, 4, 8, 12, 16 note patterns with scalic, arpeggio etc material.
Laure Cinti-Damoreau’s Method: Laure’s method is excellent for considering peak notes and “guide tones”.
Thinking in the Language: Paul Berliner & Czerny
Mozart’s Eingang – extending fermatas and elaborating dominant chords.
The Sonata Form/”Big” Concerto Cadenzas – Elaborating a 6/4 Chord
The Quieter Section & Prior Thematic Material (Mozart)
The 3 Part Cadenza Structure – 1. Implied extended 6/4 chord
2. Lyrical middle section, possible surprise feature 3. Sequential excitement building to final trill
The Skeleton Sketch –Türk and his pedagogical piano method from ornaments via fermatas to short cadenzas and longer examples.

Who is this Historically Informed Piano Cadenza Masterclass for?

Perfect for: Diploma-level students, professional pianists, and ambitious learners who are tired of playing only what’s on the page.

The Thinking Musician: Pianists, harpsichordists and organists who want to understand how music is built without getting too bogged down in abstract theory.
Grade 6+ to Professional: Perfect for those moving beyond the first masterclass or looking to refine their improvisational “vocabulary.” Excellent for Undergraduates and Postgraduates as well as ambitious or hard-working learners.
Perfect For: Pianists, organists and harpsichordists who want to improvise, composers (including A Level and Undergraduate or even Postgraduate), students trying our Creativity Grades exam syllabus List A – Romantic Era Route, but also great for Lists B and D of our Ofqual & EU accredited exams.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to have completed Bert’s first & second masterclasses (Romantic Preludes) before starting this one?
While Masterclasses 1&2 provides an excellent foundation in basic decoration, it isn’t a strict prerequisite. If you are an upper-intermediate to advanced pianist (Grade 6+) who is comfortable with basic harmonic “skeletons,” you can dive straight into Masterclass 2 to explore advanced chordal textures and Partimento models.

Do I need to be a professional pianist to improvise cadenzas?
Not at all! While the topic sounds advanced, Bert breaks it down into “musical building blocks” or schemata. If you are an intermediate player who knows basic scales and chords, you can start using these harmonic devices to create your own flourishes.

What are “Vocal Models” in piano improvisation?
Historically, the best instrumentalists were told to “sing” through their fingers. Bert uses Bel Canto (beautiful singing) as a model for the piano. By thinking like an opera singer, your cadenzas will sound like natural, expressive melodies rather than just a series of fast scales.

What is the difference between a Cadenza and an Eingang?
A cadenza is a large-scale, dramatic improvisation usually found at the end of a concerto movement. An Eingang (German for “entrance”) is a shorter “lead-in” or mini-cadenza used to transition between sections. Bert covers both, showing you how to scale your creativity to fit the moment.

Does this course cover specific composers like Mozart or Beethoven?
Yes. The masterclass focuses on the Classical and early Romantic traditions. You’ll learn how to become a famous composers like Mozart or Beethoven, creating spontaneous, historically-informed improvisations.

How does “Sound-before-Symbol” apply here?
At The Maestro Online, we believe in internalising the music first. Instead of memorising a written-out cadenza (the symbol), Bert teaches you to “think” in the musical language of the era (the sound), allowing you to speak through the piano fluently.

Is this course very heavy on music theory?
Music Theory is barely even a topic in this masterclass. Cadenzas are mostly single-line events and 18th-19th-century masters focused on “example-based” and “pattern-based” learning. You won’t spend your time labelling secondary dominants on paper; you will learn to “respond” to the sound at the piano. The goal is to internalise the music so your hands know where to go intuitively.

Can these techniques be used for instruments other than the piano?
Yes these are perfect for organists and harpsichordists as well as pianists. In fact, these skills are essential for anyone looking to master the historical “Art of the Keyboard.”

Your Maestro Teacher

Who is Dr Bert Mooiman?

Dr Bert Mooiman is Professor at The Royal Conservatoire The Hague, leading professor and researcher in improvisation across Europe, PhD research in Romantic Era piano improvisation. He has also been editor for the European Piano Teachers “Piano Bulletin” in the Nederlands (Holland). He is a distinguished Dutch pianist, organist, music theorist, and researcher who specialises in the art of improvisation within classical music.

Academic and Professional Background His PhD is, “An Improvisatory Approach to Nineteenth-Century Music”. Since 2000, he has been a teacher of music theory, piano, and improvisation, as well as a research supervisor at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague, a leading Conservatoire for embedding improvisation as a core teaching method for all instrumentals studies.

Musical Specialisations He is a leading figure in “Historically Inspired Improvisation”, exploring how 19th-century performers used musical commonplaces (loci communes) to create spontaneous music.

Performance As a performer, he is active in solo and chamber music, frequently collaborating with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.

Church Music: Since 1989, he has served as the organist for the Nieuwe Badkapel in The Hague.

Key Achievements Awards: Recipient of the Fock Medal for outstanding artistic achievement and the Martin J. Lürsen Prize for his theoretical work on Olivier Messiaen.

Editorial Work: He serves as the editor of the Piano Bulletin for the European Piano Teachers Association.

Key Concepts of His Research The “Continuum” of Music-Making: Bert argues that improvising and composing are not separate skills but two ends of a single continuum. He uses a “Time-Fixation Diagram” to show that even strictly notated scores in the 19th century contained improvisatory momentum.

Loci Communes (Common Places) He identifies “musical commonplaces”—shared patterns like specific harmonic progressions, ornaments, and sequences—that 19th-century musicians used as building blocks for spontaneous creation.

Rhetorical Music-Making His research treats 19th-century music as a “wordless language” intended to persuade the listener. He highlights the principle of varietas (variety), which encouraged performers to add unique, unplanned elements to a performance.

Pedagogical Application Bert applies his findings to teaching at the Royal Conservatoire, moving away from “random noodling” toward structured, “historically informed” Romantic craft.

Primary Historical Sources Bert’s work draws heavily on 19th-century treatises and the practices of famous composer-performers, including:

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