Spring Open Stage
Found in: Recitals & Events, Studio Management
Cathy H., California
Today was my second recital. 28 of my 52 students performed a total of 38 songs lasting about an hour. We had approximately 130 people in attendance – an amazing turnout. The program was spotted with duets, a trio–piano and 2 singers, piano for three hands and some arrangements my students had created themselves of various SM songs. The kids were on their best behavior. Aside from a few bobbles here and there, no major problems, they all played great. The setting was the church I grew up in that has great acoustics and a beautiful grand piano. The ham of the day was one of my six year old boys who played as close to perfect a level 2 Alma Mater Blues as there can be complete with the blues scale. Finishing with a big cheesy grin he received cheers and enormous applause from the audience. The most moving part was when my student with dyslexia accompanied her mom on flute in Amazing Grace. Both parents and grandparents are professional musicians, mom a classical flutist. They had tried for years to find a suitable program for their daughter but were not successful. Mom had been hesitant about SM for fear of another failure. Recently the parents had told me their daughter is thriving under SM and are thrilled. They played the piece through two verses with mom jumping an octave the second time. It was really beautiful. Two of my 8 yr old girls had prepared a duet using Honey Dew, incorporating the old Heart & Soul melody but created their own rhythm variations in 3 verses. The other students loved the idea of a duet. We ended the program on a rowdy note with my Thursday and Friday groups inviting the siblings up to use egg shakers and other small instruments to help accompany She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain. The words were printed in the program and I even heard a few “Yeehaws”. I had no idea how this would turn out – but everyone loved it.
A funny thing, I noticed that whenever a student was playing, the students in the front two rows were playing the songs along on their laps. Still practicing even at the recital! A visitors comment—It’s really impressive to see a child that young play the piano like that.
Nancy L., California
Last Sunday was our second annual “Music Celebration”. I started this special day last year as a way for all of the budding musicians in our home school group to have a special venue to share their gifts. I wanted my piano students to have a chance to participate in an informal concert, if they were inclined (with my gentle coaxing of course)! Last year approximately half of my students were also part of our home school group, so I opened up the concert to all of my students as well as students from our group who play other instruments. In addition to piano, we had violins, a banjo, a brother/sister blues duet with piano and electric bass, an American Sign Language class which signed the Star-Spangled Banner while one of my students played the accompaniment and the audience provided the singing, we had voice/piano duets, and even a little 5-year-old boy who played “Mary Had a Little Lamb” on a comb! It was a wonderful afternoon for all involved and everyone demanded that we do it again this year!
This year we had only 13 students sign-up to participate (22 last year) and it just so happened that everyone would be playing the piano! Eleven of the 13 are my students and 2 students (a brother and sister) are having traditional lessons. We had the concert at the Loomis Public Library. I rented the Community Room which has a nice upright piano which they keep tuned fairly regularly. The room is very “live” acoustically due to its chalet-style of architecture with open wood-beamed ceilings and wood floors so we were surrounded by wonderful sounds! The students ranged in age from 5-18, about a 50-50 boy/girl ratio. Because we had a smaller number participating, I had each student perform two pieces on the program (not back-to-back, however). We had pieces represented from Level 1 through the original Fur Elise, Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”, and some original compositions. We opened the concert with a student playing the National Anthem accompaniment with the audience supplying the lyric and closed the concert with a young man playing the accompaniment for Amazing Grace as we all sang. This was very fitting because he has a brand new baby sister named Gracye!
When I was arranging the selections for the program (and since so many kids love to play Fur Elise), I decided to showcase the progression that Fur Elise goes through in our curriculum. One little 5-year-old girl was to play the Level 1 version early in the program, a 9-year-old boy played the Level 2 version with all the added variations (the TP1 “Simple Classics” version) mid-way through the concert, and then my 11-year-old daughter played the original version with all three (A-B-C) sections toward the end of the program. The parents loved hearing the evolution of the piece and the younger kids are really looking forward to learning the “real” Fur Elise!
Original discussion started May 14, 2003