What's on Deck for the Rest of 2015

Haven't seen these Urtexts before? You're in for a treat...

As is often the case with working in the arts, it's either feast or famine. This year, I'm finding myself with the busiest year on record, with well over 50 students (mostly in Oakville, with a small number at the RCM), a busy examining and adjudicating schedule, continuing duties as Adjudicator Certification Program Specialist at The Royal Conservatory, and new duties as Vice President of the ORMTA Hamilton Halton Branch.

These are changing times in the arts and in music education, and no one has been able to nail down my thoughts on the way things are going more than Colin Thomson of the Modern Musician podcast when he interviewed me for Episode 39 in late August.

If you're in the Oakville area in the next week, you can see me in Meet the Pianist, a short lecture recital for the Oakville Symphony on Saturday, October 24 at 10 and 11am. Admission is free but by reservation, so be sure to call 905-844-6920 or email osochildrenconcert [at] gmail.com to reserve your seat in the Studio Theatre of the Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts.

See those lovely Mozart Urtexts in the picture above? They're part of a set of new scores that Ron Sacks of Dover Publications recently sent to me for review. Yes, you can expect to see more product reviews in the near future, although with my busy schedule there might not be as many articles coming out as I would wish.

My free ebook 31 Days to Better Practicing has reached thousands of readers in the last few years, and will soon be both revised and have a new home! I'll announce more details in the next while, but fear not - it will always be offered as a free download.

Finally, the Collaborative Piano Blog's 10th birthday is coming up in November. I haven't got anything planned in the coming weeks, but if you have any ideas, I would love to hear them!

Wendy Hatala Foley and I Will Be Performing This Saturday at the Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts

When Wendy and I lived in Vancouver, we performed together all the time. Astonishingly, since we moved to the Toronto area in 2002, we have never yet shared the stage for a concert. Wendy quickly got work in the opera, symphony, and described video fields, while I've been mostly busy with the worlds of contemporary opera and piano pedagogy.

Each year, the Oakville Symphony holds several outreach events to introduce younger audiences to the instruments and voices that they will hear throughout the symphony's season. On Saturday, March 28, Wendy and I will be performing two free concerts at the Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts. If you're interested in hearing our varied program of opera, musical theatre, and art song selections, call (905) 844-6920 or send an email to osochildrenprogram [at] gmail dot com to reserve your seats. From what I hear there will only be seating for around 100, so reserve your seats as soon as possible. This will be the first time that Wendy and I have performed together in many years!

A Studio House Concert (Times 5)

A few days ago, I held a year-end studio recital in my new home studio. This was an entirely new venture, as although I'm a huge fan of home concerts, up to now I haven't had enough space at home to actually hold one.

Given the dimensions of the studio, I estimated that I would be able to seat 20 people at a time. Assuming that each performer brought an average of two people, a concert sitting would only be able to accomodate 5-6 performers without overcrowding the room. But since I would be needing to accommodate close to 75 people (including students, parents, and friends), there would need to be not one, but at least four of these concerts throughout the day.

Here is where circumstance and the busy schedules of my Oakville students and parents came into play to make the format work. Since most families would only be available for a short window of time in the late morning or afternoon, it became a necessity to schedule multiple concert times. And since each recital would end up being 25-30 minutes in length, I could schedule recitals each hour, allowing for a half-hour reception after each performance.

A month before the performance day, I put out a sign-up sheet for four hourly recitals starting at 1pm. They quickly filled up and I added a fifth recital for 11am. Each student signed up for the number of people they would be bringing, and once the magic number of 20 was reached, the program was closed. This format meant that I couldn't control exactly who played when in the course of the afternoon, but each concert ended up being a mix of junior and advanced performers.

Since there is considerably less formality in a house concert compared to the concert hall, I decided to entirely do away with programs for the event and only asked each student to introduce their pieces before they played. The dress code for the afternoon was listed as "Strictly Casual", so no student would be prevented by concert attire from jumping on our backyard trampoline following the concert. Each family brought some food for the reception, so it turned out that the event was as much a culinary occasion as a musical one.

The concerts were short and sweet (a blessing compared to many epic studio recitals taking place at this time of the year), parents got the chance to connect and chat, and several were kind enough to bring friends interested in enrolling their children in lessons for next season. I plan on doing several of these events throughout the year, and the informal, non-competitive spirit of the concerts may inspire yet more students to take the next step into more competitive situations such as festivals or competitions.

Teachers: how do you structure your own home studio recitals? If you have any ideas or best practices, leave them in the comments.

Backstage at the Fern Hill Christmas Show

Here's the keyboard setup I used earlier this evening while playing for the Fern Hill School Christmas Show at the Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts. Yes, that's a triangle on the left side, and this was my debut doubling on that noble instrument. Shown faintly on the iPad is the running order of the show - there was only one program on stage left so I took a shot of it with my iPad's camera.

Also in the band were Lord Bubba on bass guitar, Jeremy Kelly on guitar, and Riley O'Connor on drums. I don't get a chance to play much rock or jazz these days, so it was a great pleasure to work with these guys, and it's a great experience for the kids at Fern Hill to work with a professional band, all under the guidance of musical directors Amanda Nelli and Chris Cigolea.

Hansel and Gretel March 19 at the Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts

Much of my practice time in the last while has been taken up with learning and rehearsing the murderous piano reduction of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, orchestrally a cross between Mahler and Wagner with nary a moment to regroup in a solid 90 minutes of music. I'll be playing the H&G reduction for Opera Jeunesse this Wednesday--the production will feature Jillian Yemen as Hansel, Meghan Fleet as Gretel, Ramona Carmelly as the Mother/Witch, Phil Kalmanovitch as the Father, Tessa Laengert as the Sandman, and Kelly Semkiw as the Dew Fairy. This Opera Jeunesse production is presented in collaboration with Balletomane and the Oakville Children's Choir. Madeline Young will be directing and I'm the musical director as well as the pianist (orchestra!) for the show.

You can catch Hansel and Gretel this Wednesday, March 19 at 7:30pm at the Studio Theatre at Oakville's Centre for the Performing Arts. Tickets are $30/25.

Look for an interview with Opera Jeunesse founder and artistic director Madeline Young in the next few days...

Wendy to perform with Oakville Symphony this weekend

The Oakville Symphony's Gala Season Finale is this weekend at the Oakville Centre in a program of orchestral and operatic favorites featuring soprano Marian Sjolander, mezzo soprano Wendy Hatala Foley, and trumpeter Neil Balm. The Oakville Symphony Orchestra is led by Music Director Roberto De Clara.

Ticket info

Introducing the Opera Jeunesse Blog

In the Toronto suburb of Oakville, Artistic Director Madeline Young is in the process of starting up an opera company from scratch. Her new blog will track the progress of Opera Jeunesse as she builds an audience, tracks down financing, and finds new and clever ways of advertising in the process of bringing North America's fastest growing art form to this affluent community known to be a tough nut to crack for arts groups.

Link