One of my former students, Anna, studied with me from when she was in Kindergarten until I went on sabbatical when she was in high school. She continued her studies with a colleague of mine and is now about to graduate from college with a degree in Piano Performance.

As luck would have it, she was looking for an opportunity to practice-perform her recital program, and I wanted to offer a live performance to my group of 2nd graders.

Knowing the ability of my 2nd graders to sit and enjoy about 20-25 minutes of music, but not much more, I requested that Anna perform two of her three recital pieces: a Mozart Sonata and Schumann’s Papillons. I wanted to allow time to introduce the pieces, and time for questions after her performance.

My 2nd grade group had been studying Mozart’s Little Nightmusic, Haydn’s Surprise Symphony, and Beethoven’s Fifth, and were thus familiar with multi-movement works. I thought the Schumann would be a lovely contrast to the Mozart Sonata, both in form and character.

In addition to students and their parents, Mark and I also invited Dr. David Littrell with whom Anna had studied orchestra. And Jamey, another former student who occasionally comes back to play for me.

Here is Anna’s performance of the slow movement of the Mozart Sonata in A minor:

And here is Papillons by Schumann: