Important Changes in May

Hello Students and Parents,

By Monday May 10, both Carol and I will be fully vaccinated so I am able to welcome students back to in-person lessons at 2119 Sprunt Ave, if so desired, but with several provisos:

• We will all need to wear masks, as well as myself, even if fully vaccinated.  This includes the parents or guardians who bring the students plus any other siblings who come to the lessons. There is a slight risk of Covid 19 infection even after vaccination and we cannot risk that.  The way I think about masks is that apart from covid it has drastically reduced the flu and cold seasons which is great.  Ukulele and Guitar players need to wear masks as well; just have to deal with singing in a mask!

• Please do not bring food to the waiting room (you can’t eat while effectively wearing a mask).  Bring a water bottle of course and slip your mask down briefly to take sips.

• It has been shown in research that Covid is rarely passed on by contact with surfaces but I will be wiping the piano down after each lesson.  I will also provide hand sanitizer and I will have a few disposable masks if you forget to bring one.

• Please respect our lovely house and yard.  We have a bathroom that can be used for absolutely necessary use only.  Please try to use your own facilities or those at school before coming to your lesson.  This also reduces any of the small risks we have of the infection. I will leave paper towels in there to wipe your hands so please do not use the hand towels.  You can sit on the deck if the weather is appropriate but please don’t allow students to run around the yard (would hate for someone to have a fall and the terrain is rough!) or touch my plants, indoors or out.  Please bring a book, school work, ipad, something to use while waiting. Wifi is available.

• In May I expect to be teaching in a hybrid manner and have purchased an additional laptop to facilitate this.  It will not be easy to keep switching but some people have already indicated that they want to stay virtual till the end of the Spring semester on June 11 and I cannot realistically change the schedule before that (From fall I will be teaching on dedicated virtual and live days and I will speak with each of you regarding scheduling when the time comes). When you arrive for an in person lesson I might still be teaching online at the piano so, as before, the door will be open, just come in.  If the door is closed please close it after you but if the weather is nice you can leave it open and just the screen door will be closed.  We have the yard sprayed regularly in summer with garlic spray so there are no mosquitoes which makes sitting outside very pleasant.

• New People:  My address is 2119 Sprunt Ave.  Please come down the driveway and along the path on the right hand side of the house (be careful on the flagstones) and come up on the deck at the back where you will see the door to my waiting room.  Parents of older students can wait in my waiting room or leave for the half hour and return at the end.  This has worked really well in the past.  Go for a walk down on Ellerbee Creek or do some fast shopping.

IMPORTANT PLEASE:

I need to know if you are going to come to in-person lessons after May 10 or whether you are going to remain on line.  This is critical for my teaching!! Every student and family needs to let me know by Friday 30 April by 4pm. Please consider carefully. Thank you!

Other news:

The Durham Music Teachers Association (DMTA) held a very successful outdoor playathon on April 17 in the grounds of Greystone Church Hillsborough Rd Durham.  We raised over $1,000 for the scholarship fund!  Two of my students played very well, Mai Dunn and Louise Downs.  Thanks girls!

On Saturday April 24, five students played in a DMTA Virtual concert from 3-5, Quinn Barbaza, Lydia Pollak Coy, Leo and Ava Pieraccini and Pascale Lodewick.  These virtual concerts have been so great as in person recitals have been not possible.  There will be a final one on 5/29 at which another 4 students will be playing, Khaleel Jackson, and Louise Downs, and possibly Oscar McCormick  as well.

Summer lessons:

Summer schedule will run from Monday June 21 to Friday August 20.  Please let me know if you are interested in summer lessons and what times and days would be best. If you are attending day camps, what time are they finishing?  Fall semester will begin Tuesday September 7, the day after labor day.

All the best wishes for your good health.

One way in which music students set goals is by scheduling performances for friends and families and colleagues.  Lately, Flourishing Muse students have taken advantage of Durham Music Teachers Association (DMTA) recitals.  On February 27, 5 students performed and each performance was a special event for their families:

Khaleel played a Benda Sonatina (very fast, needs slick fingers); Kavisha played two of her level 3 RCM exam pieces perfectly from memory; Lucas played two pieces and you can find videos under student performances; Annabel played her own composition (where are all my other composers?) and Louise astonished us with the jazzy City of Stars, also up under Student Performances.

On Sunday 3/7, five of my ukulele and guitar students participated in a zoom recital much enjoyed by grandparents and other family members:

This was the program:

Hal Sharp:  “Believer” Imagine Dragons

Jane Sharp: “More Hearts than Mine” Ingrid Andress

Leo Piaraccini:  “Iphone” with thanks to Paul Simon’s Kodachrome!

Ava Pieraccini:  “Cups” Anna Kendrick

Kaitlyn Busch:  “Jackie and Wilson” Hozier

Kaitlyn is my most senior player and she had these comments for her fellow students:

“Tell Hal I loved how the ukulele sounded on Believer. Jane has such a nice singing voice and she sounded like she really understood the song. iPhone sounded great and made me laugh! Leo should write more songs. I love the Cups song and Ava’s voice is so impressive and sounded so great with it :)”

The next recital for the DMTA will be Saturday March 27 and I already have five willing performers!  The last one will be April 24 and two of my most advanced students will be playing then (you know who you are!).

These are wonderful opportunities and there is nothing like a scheduled performance to elicit more practice!  And it is so amazing to see how much students can improve in a short week.  Imagine if they practiced with the same focus over several weeks/months?

If there are more students who would like to perform at the next 2 DMTA recitals please let me know.  I will try to fit in everyone who wants to perform before the end of the Spring Semester which will be the second week in June.

I am pleased that I was able to run the short string zoom recital myself with major help from Carol (my in-house tech support – lucky me as Don Bartosik says!) and I look forward to a few more until everything goes back to in-person.  Thanks so much to Carol and again to my daughter Rose in the UK whom we only had to call 3 times!

Hopefully in December we will be having a Holiday Soiree somewhere!! Hurray!!

Fees:  Thank you so much to the people who have already paid March fees and thank you in anticipation of the others who are going to pay this week! 😁

Spring Breaks:

I know various schools are taking various spring breaks and they do not always coincide with mine.  I will not be teaching from Thursday April 1 to Friday April 9.  If your spring break is earlier and you want a rescheduled lesson let me know; on the other hand if you are taking a break then, also let me know (thanks to those who have already done this). Alternatively, if you are on your spring break and still want your lesson that is fine except for the days when I am not teaching.

The Future:

I do not want to get into definites here but I strongly suspect that there will not be in-person lessons until after June 15.  After that I do hope to go back to at least some in-person lessons over the summer.  However, some of my students will always be remote (can’t drive from High Point or Charlotte for lessons or fly from the UK!) and I am thinking that there will be one day with all remote lessons and that would probably be Mondays.  I don’t want to have to switch from remote to in-person mid teaching session (don’t know how classroom teachers are doing it!).  On the subject of remote lessons, there may be local people who want to remain in remote lessons for whatever reason; please talk to me about that possibility.

In addition I will not be taking any more guitar students because I just do not have time to adequately practice guitar, and barre chords on guitar are interfering with my left hand which I want to save for piano.

I will keep my current ukulele students if they want to continue, but I probably will not take any new ones because preparation is a problem with no real text book to use (Carol has suggested for years that I write one – but time…)

I will not be teaching singing as a separate skill.  The problems with my teeth have severely limited my ability to demonstrate serious vocal work and I want to focus on piano music other than song accompaniments.  There are fabulous vocal teachers and coaches in the Triangle who are more specialized than me.  I have loved teaching singing to Michelle and Richard and others but it is time for a new vocal coach!

I want to focus on piano and especially composition and the possibility of teaching Finale, the music notation software that I use for my own compositions. I have not yet figured out how to do that but I am considering the issue.  I will have some free spaces for piano in Fall because 3 year 12’s will be off to college, Quinn, Kaitlyn and Andrew.

One other piece of important news:  I need to raise my fees to $35 for a half hour lesson.  Rises in costs of living have made this necessary, I am sorry.  Hour lessons would be $70 and I will still offer to 10% discount for more than one learning in the same family.  Hope everyone can work with that.

Thanks to all of you for learning music with me and for sticking at it during this pandemic.  The end is in sight I think!

With happy wishes from Lorna

If we are talking basketball, it seems there will be a tournament of sorts, but sadly no matches here in Durham NC; it appears the Indiana will get the honor.

If we are talking March weather and everything else, I am hoping for sunshine, warmth, no rain, and lots of vaccines being available.  Lucky for me, I had my second pfizer vaccine Sunday 2/21.  

Zoom DMTA Recital:

On Saturday 2/27/21 at 3 pm the Durham Music Teachers Association is holding a virtual Zoom recital and 5 of my students are playing:

Khaleel Jackson:  Sonatina in A minor by Jiri Benda

Kavisha Saram:  Gavotte in G major by Handel; Sonatina in C major by Clementi

Lucas Bartosik:  Gavotte by Telemann, Minuet by Bach

Annabel Haynes: own composition “Some Day”

Louise Downs: City of Stars

The DMTA will send out a link later this week to these students and families, but if any other students would like to watch the concert I can forward the link if you let me know.  I will attach the full program so you will see that several teachers have students playing in the recital   It is great to see colleagues and hear what they are playing.

Zoom ukulele and guitar recital:

On Saturday 7/3/21, at 3 pm, I am holding a virtual Zoom recital of my 5 ukulele and guitar students, who have all selected one song to play and sing.  Next week I will send a program and a link for anyone other than the students and families who would like to watch and listen.  Let me know!

Piano students:

There will be another DMTA virtual Zoom recital on Saturday 3/27/21 at 3 pm.  Would love some more students to participate, so let me know in lessons.  I will also try to have a Zoom piano recital myself before the spring break April 1-11, 2021.

I am very happy that all students are continuing in the Spring semester.  I know that in June I will lose 3 high schoolers who are so excited to be off to college, but more of future plans in subsequent emails. Can’t make predictions about in person music lessons yet.

March Fees: will be due next week.  Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday students will have 5 lessons in March ($162.50) and Thursday and Friday students will have 4 March lessons ($130). 

Everyone stay well and keep practicing!