February News! Happy Ground Hog Day!
I hope the prediction is for early Spring. 😁
There are many items so please read.
Playathon
Will be held February 11 between 2-3 pm at Brightleaf Square (I will explain more about our venue – we are choosing between two at the moment but definitely in the South Building at Brightleaf Square.) Parking is free in the lot opposite. This is a DMTA (Durham Music teachers Association) event to raise money for scholarships for students who otherwise could not afford music lessons. Each student contributes $5 towards the fun when they play. We hope to attract donations from the public as well. Maus Pianos donate two good pianos for us to use, one acoustic, one digital. I would really like all my students who can come to play one or two pieces. This is a great opportunity to meet colleagues and hear them play as well as yourselves. You can play pieces from last semester or a combination of 2022 and 2023 pieces. It is a fun relaxed event. I will be pestering you in lessons!
My students
Interesting facts about Flourishing Muse Studio: I have 29 students on 4 days: 5 adults; 9 students between 12-15 years; 8 students between 9-11 years; and 7 students between 5-8 years including 5 x 5 year olds.
Spring Soirée 2023
Save the date: May 12 at ERUUF between 5:30 – 6:30. Be considering what you are going to play.
Summer camps
Several of my students have attended the UNCG Music Summer camps in Greensboro NC and have loved it and come back with increased skills. There are camps for piano and other instruments. Website: https://vpa.uncg.edu/music/smcamp/. The applications start 2/13/23 and you need to get in there before the camps fill. I really like to way these camps are run and the professors who participate. Piano camp is for grades 6-12 who have learned piano for at least 2 years.
RCM program
The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto conducts music assessments in the USA according to its syllabi for piano and other instruments. My past students have successfully passed these exams from preliminary to level 6. The exams involve playing pieces but also sight reading and technical work. Website: https://www.rcmusic.com/learning/examinations
Compositions
I have several students working on their own compositions and I really want to encourage more to work on this. Am investigating competitions where they could enter their compositions.
Oscar’s story
This is pretty much what I hope to achieve in teaching piano: Oscar arrived at a lesson and said he had taught himself a Christmas song and did I want to hear it? Of course. It was very well played. I teach students to read music so they can go away and teach themselves pieces they like and that I might not have time to teach in lessons. Very well done Oscar.
Interesting article about the piano
I am not advocating that everyone should go out and buy a grand piano (I can’t myself – cost and room) BUT this article is a fascinating look at how pianos work. Would love my older students to read this.
https://pianopricepoint.com/why-upgrade-from-an-upright-piano-to-a-grand-piano/
And if you really want to know more about that middle pedal click on the link!
Stay well. I now have an air purifier in the studio to keep us all a bit safer.
Lorna
Happy Holidays to everyone!
What a feeling – holiday – hurray! This image was from my dear friend Arthur at the DSA.
I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday in 2022. It has been a turbulent year but we all made it. The highlight for me was the Soiree and I am already planning for Spring so get ready.
Spring Semester – starts the first week of January and I am conflicted about the two Mondays; the official New Year’s Day Monday 1/2/23 and MLK Day 12/16/22. I would prefer that Monday students had their full 4 Mondays in January so I am going to teach both days but I know some people will not want to come to music on one or both days. Let me know if you want to come to lessons:
Monday January 2:
And/or
Monday January 16:
I will then reorganize lessons so that people can come earlier in the day if they want their lesson(s).
I hope this is not too confusing.
All other students start Tuesday January 3, 2023
As far as I know now times will be the same as in the Fall semester unless you let me know there is a problem. After Christmas I will put the schedule with any changes – click on Schedule.
Be well, safe and warm.
Lorna
Fall Soirée 2022
The Soirée was wonderful and amazing!
On 2 December, Flourishing Muse Studio held the first in-person Soirée (aka student recital) since 2 December 2019. During the pandemic I was able to hold one on-line concert and although that was also wonderful it was not like seeing everyone play in the same venue on the same piano.
I hope everyone loved the new venue – I did! Beautiful space, tiered seating so everyone can see, fantastic acoustics, and a really nice grand piano. I am so grateful to ERUUF (Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship) to be allowed to rent the space and I hope to have the Spring Soirée there too.
All the students played so well from the 5 year old to the 14 year olds. I will talk to students as they come to lessons in the next two weeks before I break for the holidays on December 16. However Lucas played with such sensitivity it is hard to believe he is only in 9th grade. Sam also thrilled with Rush E and he is in 7th grade. Jikai played a difficult Sonatina from the RCM level 6 book and he only turned 12 in November! Louise played a song from Hamilton – challenging music and lovely playing. But all students played so well and I particularly noticed that everyone had really good hand positions on the keyboard.
I want to say something about nervousness. You can be thoroughly prepared for a performance and still have such nerves that you do not play as well as you know you can. There are many factors. If you were not well during or in the weeks leading up to a concert it can really affect your performance. If you had a lot of homework or other commitments that week, it can take the energy you need to play well. Mostly it comes down to concentration and clearing your mind of extraneous thoughts like who is watching me? What do they think of my playing? And lastly is it about being fully present in the music you are playing, being sensitive to the mood of the piece. This takes preparation in working on your interpretation. It could be a sad or mournful piece, or happy one, or you might want to emphasize the clarity of the composing.
I applaud the two Sipe boys who played their own compositions. My neighbor David Dodson attended the Soirée and he particularly liked the modern sounds in their compositions. In Spring I really want to see more students playing their own compositions and I will help write them down.
Bobby Hartman and sons Adam and Andrew were wonderful, helping in so many ways. I really appreciate that they came early and helped me set up, and Bobby took charge of keys and locking up at the end – thank you!
There are two more weeks of lessons and in them I will have candy canes for everyone. I did really forget them Friday night but I have them, allergy free, non-GMO, gluten free, vegan and mostly sugar!
If you would like to see the program here is the link
fhttps://flourishingmuse.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Fall-Soiree-Program-2022.pdf
Fall Soirée 2022
This is the first in person Soirée I have held since December 2, 2019. The three years of the pandemic have taken a toll on everyone. Sadly it lead to my no longer teaching voice, guitar or ukulele. However, it is wonderful to be able to have another student piano recital which I like to call Soirées because they are more relaxed than more formal recitals – making mistakes and starting again are definitely allowed!
This is the first time I have held a Soirée at this venue, the Sanctuary at the Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and I thank them for allowing use of the space, and also thanks to Bobby Hartman and sons who attend fellowship there and are helping me today.
The illustration on the front of the program is a painting by my eldest granddaughter, Lakota Delaney, age 14. She lives in Fremantle Australia, and I commissioned her to do a painting that expressed the things I love best: the forest, the Eno River, hiking and playing my piano. Thanks Lakota, it is perfect!
Thank you to all my students and families for choosing to learn piano with me. There are a few students who are not playing to day for various reasons, Pascale, Logan, and Lydia so would like to remember them today even though they are not here. I also have 4-5 adult students who are here to support us all but who will have their own evening at my house with adult beverages! Thanks for coming.
Welcome to all the new students and their families who have come to lessons since 2019. It is so important to share your music with others; practicing piano can be a bit lonely. I hope everyone has fun listening to their peers playing.
See you all there on Friday!
Soirée 2022 at last
On Wednesday I went to look at the Sanctuary at ERUUF (Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship) and I am so excited. The Sanctuary is perfect: lovely grand piano, tiered seating, plenty of space both high ceilings and we are able to spread out in the seating.
Exciting October News
Holiday Soirée at last
I have some exciting news! I have finally secured a venue for a Holiday Soirée! The date is Friday December 2, and I am thinking about 5:30 – 6:30 pm for the time (I do have the venue from 4-8 pm). For new students (since I last had one of my soirees in person December 8, 2019), I had been having in person concerts which I called Soirées twice a year at Croasdaile Retirement Community, Of course this was all pre-pandemic! Over the subsequent years, my contact there, the Rev Denise Waters, retired and I felt like I did not want to use Croasdaile without Denise. During the pandemic I did have an online concert and it was fun but I do not want to do another online concert.
The venue is the Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (ERUUF) sanctuary, where they have a nice grand piano and a lovely auditorium. I have played there a very long time ago. The Address for ERUUF is 4907 Garrett Rd, Durham, NC 27707. To find more about ERUUF go to their website: https://www.eruuf.org/. They are a spiritual community but basically non-denominational. Luckily, they do hire their venues out to people like me for activities such as recitals. I teach two of Bobby and Michelle Hartman’s children, Andrew and Adam, and they have helped me make contact with ERUUF.
So students, you need to be working out now what you might play. I really encourage all my students, youngest to the other end of the spectrum, to come and play and share their music with their colleagues. Playing piano can be a bit lonely and solitary, but when we get together it is so good! If you decide that you simply cannot play because you get so nervous, please, please come and meet your fellow students and listen to them play! Often after a Soirée, students will ask can they play something they heard another student play. We have a very relaxed atmosphere, and I sit with most of the younger students, and starting again is encouraged!
So please mark your calendars now for an early evening Soirée on Friday December 2, 2022. Let’s celebrate making it through the pandemic. Of course you can play with a mask if that is right for you!
October is here!
Fees for October will be due next week. Monday people, can you think about Halloween, 31 October? Another Monday!! I definitely teach that day but the students who come after 5 might want to think about costumes and trick or treating. You can of course come to music in costume. Of course I will be a witch – every year the same, sorry!
Monday people will have 5 Mondays in October except if you are not coming on Halloween. All other days of the week there will be 4 weeks in October.
The News
If you would like a different take on News… I read nicenews.com. Recently they featured an article from the Washington Post on why we like the music we do. I found the article interesting especially for older students and I mean middle school onwards.
Here is an extract:
Our cognitive styles and how we think may also predict what types of music we may like. A 2015 study by Greenberg and his colleagues distinguishes between systemizers and empathizers — people who understand the world through thoughts and emotions vs. people who are interested in rules and systems. “Empathizers tend to prefer sadness in music whereas [systemizers] prefer more intensity in music,” Greenberg said. “A lot of IT [and] data science professionals [are] high on systemizing and also prefer really intense music.”
Not sure I agree but still very interesting. I would definitely be on the empathizer end of the spectrum.
https://www.washingtonpost.
Stay warm and safe and it is so good to feel cold and wear sweaters (in Australian, jumpers)..
Lorna
