Congratulations ~ to Nicole, Blaise, Jessica, Kyle, Coleman, Katie, Kristee, Katherine, and Linda for participating in the Piano Concerto Competition on February 13!  There were a total of 29 contestants, covering all grade levels from 1st grade all the way through 12th. 

Jessica placed 2nd in the 1st-3rd grade division, with Nicole and Blaise receiving Honorable Mention. Kristee placed 1st in the 7th-9th grade division, and Linda placed 1st in the 10th-12th grade division.

Congratulation to Taylor for receiving the highest rating (a I rating) at the state level of the High School Piano Festival in Wichita on February 20!

With the exception of the year 2009, the Manhattan Area Music Teachers Association’s Piano Concerto Competition takes place every year in late January or in February.  I have been chairperson of this event before, and am now again for 2010. 

The Piano Concerto Competition is a very important event in my studio calendar, probably the most important.  For months, my students and I prepare for the competition.  At the moment, one of my students is already preparing for next year’s competition.  I often thought that in order for me to miss the concerto competition, someone would have to die.

This year’s competition took place yesterday, February 13, 2010.

One week ago yesterday, my mother died.  Although her health had been deteriorating, her death was unexpected.  Mark and I flew from the States to Germany, arriving Tuesday morning.  Yesterday, we had her Memorial Service. 

I am blessed with wonderful students and colleagues.  For instance, I was able to send a brief email to a student, requesting to reschedule a lesson because my mind was with my mother but not piano, and all I heard back was, “No problem.  Have a safe trip.”  

My colleagues pulled together and were able to take over the organization of the event, as well as find accompanists for my nine students, organize their rehearsal, and get them through the competition.

I will remain in Germany for another week, getting started on the closing of my mother’s apartment as well as continuing to take care of the many other obligations which arise after the death of one’s mother. 

http://sibylleandmark.wordpress.com/2010/02/13/a-beautiful-fitting-memorial/

What I wish for, for 2010:

Picture taken after my concert at McCain Auditorium in Manhattan, in March of 1996.  Radio Kansas later broadcast the concert.  Thanks to my good friend Linda who picked up the boys after school and kept them until the concert, I was able to focus all of my energy on getting ready, mentally and otherwise, for what was and to this day still is one of the most important and beautiful days of my life. 

No one will ever know what it meant to me to win the competition and consequently be invited to perform at McCain Auditiorium.  Preparing for the competition and then for the concert was my getting-back-on-my-feet accomplishment after a devastating divorce. 

Thank you to my good friend Virginia, who employed me the summer prior to the competition to catalog materials for her music and piano library.  It was during the commute to her house that I discovered and fell in love with the Piano Concerto with which I eventually chose to compete.  I will never forget the liberation I felt, listening to the concerto (it is still very special but also private to me, that’s why I don’t refer to it by its name), on a whim buying the score, initially just so I could read along, then, slowly, thinking that maybe, just maybe, I could learn to play it.  Then the discovery that, yes!, it was manageable.  And thank you to Dr. Edwards who worked with me, getting the concerto and me ready for the competition. 

Beautiful, beautiful memories.

Last Wednesday, the White House welcomed 120 middle and high school music students from all over the country to participate in four different engaging workshops.  From the Blue Room to the Map Room and the East Room to the Diplomatic Reception Room, beautiful music and instructors’ guiding voices echoed through the halls of this historic home.  Aspiring students plucked their bows and strummed the strings of their guitars, while picking up tips and queues from their instructors, renowned classical musicians Awadagin Pratt on the piano, Joshua Bell on violin, Sharon Isbin with classical guitar, and Alisa Weilerstein on cello.

This link takes you to the page with more information as well as links to wonderful videos of the performances!

From The White House:

The greatest joy that this job affords – and there are many – is the chance to throw open the doors and invite Americans into the White House and expose them to the talents of their fellow Americans. One of the ways that the First Lady has been doing is this is through the White House Music Series. This series was conceived as a way to celebrate the arts, demonstrate the importance of arts education and encourage young people who believe in their talent to create a future for themselves in the arts community be it as a hobby or as a profession.

Please read the rest of the article here.

For the last 15 years or so, before this January when we used the two upright pianos as a down payment for our new concert grand (a GS-70 Kawai), I’ve always had at least two acoustic pianos (plus a digital keyboard, to connect to computer).  I love it for teaching: student gets his/hers, I get mine, they get to watch me demonstrate (all the time) without having to get up (and then standing which skews the angle), and two-piano literature is so much easier to practice on two (similar) acoustic instruments than on one acoustic and a digital.

For ten months, I enjoyed the new grand.  I grew to really love its touch, the tone, the many different shades of tone, I kept telling Mark “there’s really nothing I can’t play on this piano!”

But I missed a second acoustic piano.  So, a few months after having paid off the Lexus which freed up a considerable amount of money each month, I went back to the piano store.  In their monthly flyer I had seen both a Yamaha upright and another Kawai concert grand which caught my interest.  The upright wasn’t what I expected but the grand (a KG-C6) did not only look like a twin to the one we already had but I already liked its tone and touch even though it will need a bit of work. 

I was anxious for Mark to see the instrument, to hear it and play it.  I rescheduled a lesson so we could both return to the store before they closed that day.  After looking at other instruments as well as the Kawai, we both felt that the Kawai would be a good addition to the piano room.  It would look good, and despite the work we are looking forward to having done, it was in perfect playing condition the way it was. 

I asked my favorite piano technician to look it over and give me an estimate of the work he’d like to do on the instrument, and how much it would cost.  Also, if he saw anything which, in a few years, would make me regret having bought this instrument.  About a week later, I heard from Charles – good news (not that I expected any different, I just wanted to double check):  everything looked ok, and the cost of the work he anticipated was quite reasonable.

Over the weekend, Mark spent much time and energy rearranging the piano room.  When we first moved into this house, we had two upright pianos which dictated pretty much where everything else had to go.  Now, with concert grands, though bigger than an upright, we had more flexibility because they don’t need to be against a wall.  We quickly found a setup we liked; Mark moved the book cases, I cleaned, and then we moved the couch, end tables, the children’s table, etc. and the grand to its new location.

There’s still room for improvement – I want to rearrange some of the books, etc.

Today, Wednesday, over the lunch hour, Dan and two other strong guys, delivered the new Kawai.  Fortunately, despite being cold and damp, it wasn’t raining.

.

In less than 45 minutes, Dan and his guys had the piano all set up. Mark had missed the delivery of the first piano, so he was thrilled to be able to watch this time. 

The piano weighs about half a ton.  Takes a couple of really strong guys to hold one end up while Dan attaches the third leg:

Attaching the pedals:

Ende gut, alles gut:

This afternoon, I taught a few lessons with this new arrangement, and I already love it.  Most of my students are working on concertos and I am really looking forward to being able to practice (and perform) them in this setting.

Life is good.

September 26, 2009

Alicia de Larrocha, Pianist, Dies at 86
By ALLAN KOZINN

Alicia de Larrocha, the diminutive Spanish pianist esteemed for her elegant Mozart performances and regarded as an incomparable interpreter of Albéniz, Granados, Mompou and other Spanish composers, died on Friday evening in a hospital in Barcelona. She was 86.

Her death was confirmed by Gregor Benko, a piano historian, record producer and family friend. He said she had been in declining health since breaking her hip two years ago.

In a career that began when she was a child — she made her concert debut at 5, and her first recording at 9 — Ms. de Larrocha cultivated a poetic interpretive style in which gracefulness was prized over technical flashiness or grand, temperamental gestures. But her approach, combined with her small stature — she was only 4-foot-9 — was deceptive: early in her career she played all the big Romantic concertos, including those of Liszt and Rachmaninoff, and she could produce a surprisingly large, beautifully sculptured sound.  [...]

Ms. de Larrocha’s most enduring contribution, however, was her championship of Spanish composers. Although Arthur Rubinstein played some of this repertory, few other pianists outside Spain did, and none with Ms. de Larrocha’s flair. She made enduring recordings of Albéniz’s “Iberia” and Granados’s “Goyescas,” and helped ease those works into the standard piano canon. She also made a powerful case for the piano music of Joaquín Turina, a composer otherwise known mostly for the guitar music he wrote for Andrés Segovia, and she almost single-handedly built a following for Federico Mompou, a Catalan composer of quietly shimmering, poetic works.  [...]

Ms. de Larrocha began to demand piano lessons when she was 3, after visiting her aunt as she taught students. At the keyboard on her own, Ms. de Larrocha imitated what she had seen her aunt’s students do, and impressed her aunt sufficiently that she took Ms. de Larrocha to Marshall. He was less encouraging. He said it was too early to start lessons, and suggested that Ms. de Larrocha be kept away from the piano. Ms. de Larrocha said that once her aunt locked the instrument, she banged her head on the floor until Marshall relented and began to teach her.  [...]

“There are two kinds of repertory Alicia plays,” Mr. Breslin said in 1978. “Things she plays extremely well, and things she plays better than anyone else. But what I think makes her a phenomenon is that she doesn’t give the impression of being a great personality. She’s cool as a cucumber. Onstage, she doesn’t even like to look at the audience. So what the public is responding to is something in the music.”  [...]

But over all her technique never failed her, nor did her sense of color, especially in the twin pillars of her repertory, Spanish music and Mozart. She continued to earn glowing reviews.

When she played her final Carnegie Hall performance — the chamber version of Mozart’s Concerto No. 12 in A (K. 414), with the Tokyo String Quartet, in November 2002 — The New York Times reported that, “The small details — the trills and turns that adorn the score — as well as the more expansive pianism in the cadenzas and the glowing Andante, had considerable energy behind them.”

The review continued: “Her performance had the bright, light quality that she brought to her playing in the ’70s, when her appearances at the Mostly Mozart Festival were among the highlights of New York summers. If anything, her approach to Mozart on Monday was more fluid, more carefully nuanced than it was then.”

(source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/26/arts/music/26larrocha.html)

I like numbers.  I like keeping track.  I did the math, and here’s the result:

During the eight weeks from June 1 through yesterday, July 24, I taught 165 private piano lessons which ranged in length from 30 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes.  In addition, there were two performance classes for K through 3rd grade, four group events for high school students, and six partner lessons for two 2nd graders. 

Individual students and the number of lessons taken so far this summer:

Xavier:  7 piano lessons;

Blaise:  13 piano lessons, 6 partner lessons, two performance classes;

Jessica:  30 piano lessons, two performance classes;

Taylor:  8 piano lessons, 4 group events;

Anna:  15 piano lessons, 6 partner lessons, two performance classes; 

Abby:  11 piano lessons, 3 group events;

Nicole and Coleman:  12 piano lessons each;

Grace and John:  4 piano lessons each, two performance classes;

Liza and Ronette:  7 piano lessons;

Corbin:  8 piano lessons;

Kyle C:  14 piano lessons, two performance classes;

Kyle M:  7 piano lessons, two performance classes;

Zane:  5 piano lessons;

Jamey:  6 piano lessons, one group event. 

Additionally, I observed/interviewed 5 students, and enjoyed the company of three guest students.

This coming week, we will wrap up the summer with a few more piano lessons and one more performance class.

Initial post: Jul 23, 2009 12:16 PM PDT
Jeffrey P. Bezos says:
This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our “solution” to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we’ve received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.

With deep apology to our customers,

Jeff Bezos
Founder & CEO
Amazon.com
(source: www.amazon.com)

Robert James

Hello Teacher,

My name is Robert James,Am interested in learning Piano lesson in your place,i am 18 years of age and i will like to know how much your charge per hour and let me know how many lesson will be taken in a week,I will like like you to get back to me on time because i have already told my dad about it and he traveled a lot,so please get back to me earlier before he go for another trip ok.
Waiting to read from you.
Regards,
Robert James.

John Hill
Jun 27

Hi, How are you doing today?I want a private lessons for my son(Paul) at your location.Paul is 14 year old boy and is ready to learn.Please I want to know your policy with regard to fees, cancellations, and make-up lessons.Also,get back to me with the total fees for six month lessons(one-hour lesson in a week) starting from July 10th.
In addition,I want to know the lessons location and your phone number.Looking forward to hearing from you.
My best regards,

John.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

K-STATE SOPHOMORE FROM OVERLAND PARK RESEARCHES THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE BEHAVIORS AND ATTITUDES ELICITED FROM DIFFERENT MUSIC LYRICS

MANHATTAN — The words to “Itsy Bitsy Spider” tell a simple story about an arachnid and a spout, but simply recalling the lines could initiate an unintentional attitude.

That’s the focus of research by Kansas State University’s Eduardo Alvarado, sophomore in pre-law, Overland Park, who is looking at the behaviors elicited from the musical lyrics of common songs.

Alvarado is working with Donald Saucier, associate professor of psychology at K-State, through K-State’s Developing Scholars Program, which pairs underrepresented students with faculty mentors to work on research projects.

Alvarado is studying the effects priming can have on behavior by looking at the positive and negative responses stimulated from music lyrics from a variety of song categories, including patriotic and Christmas songs. Priming, he said, is when someone is exposed to a certain environment and their subconscious is activated, and then they tend to act in accordance with that environment without deliberate intent. Priming can manipulate behavior; if someone witnesses violent behavior, they would likely behave more violently.

“One of the key implications is that behaviors may be malleable in the sense that many individuals have the capacity for similar reactions in social situations,” Saucier said. “Relatively small-scale primes may activate certain reactions, and these may be pro-social or anti-social depending on the context.”

Alvarado said the researchers wanted to see if certain musical lyrics activated a pro-social response, which is a positive feeling like empathy, or an anti-social response, which is a negative feeling like aggression. Participants from K-State’s spring general psychology courses participated in the initial project for class credit. The participants had to complete a survey and do a lyrics exercise. For the lyrics exercise, participants had to fill in missing lyrics for different songs.

The songs involved in the study were patriotic songs, such as “The Star-Spangled Banner”; secular Christmas songs, such as “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”; religious Christmas songs, such as “O Holy Night”; and neutral songs, such as “Itsy Bitsy Spider.”

Participants filled out a survey that asked questions about their religion and their attitudes toward other cultures and diversity. Half of the participants were asked to complete the survey before the lyric exercise, and the other half completed the survey after the exercise.

Alvarado said the researchers assume people act similarly to primes, and they looked overall at the surveys to see if there was a change in the responses before and after completing the lyrics exercise. They wanted to see if the songs created a pro-social or an anti-social response. He said the preliminary findings showed that the patriotic songs had a negative effect on the participants, as shown through their responses to the survey’s questions about other cultures and diversity. The patriotic songs made the participants close-minded and prejudiced.

“Once they were in a patriotic point of view, they were less empathetic,” Alvarado said. “They didn’t put themselves in other people’s perspective.”

Though songs like “Itsy Bitsy Spider” and “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” were meant to be neutral primes, the researchers found that they stimulated a pro-social response.

“You wouldn’t think that those songs were going to put people in a certain mind frame, but they do activate a certain attitude,” Alvarado said. “We found it made people more accepting and more empathetic. The reason for this we think is because we used to listen to these songs when we were little and they kind of activate childhood happiness.”

Saucier said follow-up research will focus on using stronger and more salient primes to influence pro-social and anti-social behavior. Jessica McManus, graduate student in psychology, has been collaborating on the project.

Alvarado said he has learned that being involved in research is a full-time commitment, but he wants to continue learning more through his projects.

“At first I was nervous, but I knew it was a really good opportunity,” Alvarado said. “A lot of people don’t know they can participate in research as an undergraduate.”

Alvarado said he likes, through K-State’s Developing Scholars Program, learning about research projects other students are involved in. He plans to go to law school and thinks his research experience will help him understand how people think and react to different situations.

Alvarado is from Mexico City and moved to Overland Park when he was 11 years old. He is bilingual, speaking English and Spanish, and is learning Italian. A 2008 graduate of Shawnee Mission North High School, he is the son of Eduardo Alvarado and Lisa Lopez.

source: http://www.k-state.edu/media/newsreleases/jun09/ealvarado62309.html

… and I love people who support it:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/05/25/brown.graduates.sidney.frank/