Tag: Festival

We recently celebrated Piano Day 2021 with a festival of online events and workshops over the preceding weekend. Over 100 pianists and teachers from literally all corners of the globe – Australia, Indonesia, Europe, Canada and the USA (even Hawaii) participated in what was our biggest ever online events line-up! In this week’s blog post we bring you a write-up of a selection of the events from the weekend.

Keep Going No Matter What!

Our programme kicked-off with a presentation by Ken Johansen on how to maintain a steady pulse when sight-reading. Ken discussed how to find a good tempo and provided some tips and tools for tackling rhythmic difficulties such as dotted rhythms, syncopation and polyrhythms.

Click here to view in your library if you purchased a ticket or click here to purchase access to the event recording and resources

Making Good, Healthy Sound – Even at the Softest Dynamic Level

The next event saw William Westney discuss one of his favourite topics: demystifying the technique of playing softly. William used examples by Schumann and Kuhlau to demonstrate how to find a satisfying, reliable approach that sounds and feels good.

Click here to view in your library if you purchased a ticket or click here to purchase access to the event recording and resources

Note Learning, Maintaining Repertoire & Solving Problems

Saturday’s programme started with two interactive practising workshops. In the first workshop, Graham Fitch gave a hands-on demonstration of a selection of practice tools for learning new pieces and maintaining repertoire. The workshop included break-out sessions with exercises to give participants an opportunity to try out the concepts themselves during the session.

The second workshop focussed on solving musical and technical difficulties within pieces. In this workshop, Graham worked directly with a few volunteers who had submitted specific questions or problems in advance from works by Beethoven, Prokofiev, Chopin and Rachmaninoff.

The workshop recording and resources are available via the following links:

• Note Learning & Maintaining Repertoire – click here to view in your library or click here to purchase access to the event recording and resources
• Solving Technical & Musical Problems – click here to view in your library or click here to purchase access to the event recording and resources

Haydn’s “English” Sonata – A Fantasy Analysis

On Saturday afternoon, Graham took us on a journey back to Haydn’s last visit to London. In the style of his “Fantasy Analysis” of Brahms’ Intermezzo in A (Op. 118 no. 2), Graham analysed the Sonata in C, Hob. XVI/50 with a creative narrative to bring the music to life in an imaginative way.

Click here to view in your library if you purchased a ticket or click here to purchase access to the event recording and resources.

Other Events & Resources

Click here to view a write-up of the other events, including a session on inventing exercises directly from pieces, a performance-lecture on the harpsichord and workshops on building speed and Baroque music followed by an online performance workshop.

The full programme and event details can be viewed here. All of the resources for the events for which you’ve purchased tickets are available under the events tab in your library. If you missed any of the events then you can still purchase access to the recordings and resources from the programme listing or from the events page on our store.

In last weeks’ blog post we provided a write-up of a selection of the online events from our Piano Day 2021 festival (click here to view the initial write-ups). In this second instalment we bring you a write-up of the remaining events from the weekend.

Inventing Exercises from Your Pieces

On Saturday afternoon Graham Fitch explored the idea of inventing exercises directly from pieces as an alternative (or complement) to separate technical studies and exercises. Graham used various examples from his study editions featuring works by Burgmüller, Chopin, Debussy, Brahms and Ravel to show how this works and give ideas for creating your own exercises.

Click here to view in your library if you purchased a ticket or click here to purchase access to the event recording and resources.

Baroque Style

Pianists are often scared of playing baroque music. Am I allowed to use the pedal? How do I deal with all those fiddly ornaments? What about articulation and dynamics? Should I try and copy the sound of the harpsichord? 

These questions were addressed in two events focussing on the baroque style period. The first was a lecture-performance by twice grammy-nominated harpsichordist and conductor Jory Vinikour. In this intimate session, Jory showed the inner workings of the harpsichord and discussed various aspects of Baroque style alongside performing a delightful selection of works by Bach, Couperin, Rameau and Scarlatti.

Jory’s presentation also dispelled many myths held by pianists regarding the harpsichord, with several participants commenting on how surprised they were at the level of expression that it is capable of!

Graham Fitch then presented a follow-on workshop looking specifically at how one might apply the various aspects of the Baroque style on the piano. Graham drew upon his background as a harpsichord student and as a pianist to demonstrate how to play Baroque music stylistically and expressively.

The workshop recordings and resources are available via the following links:

• Baroque Style & The Harpsichord – click here to view in your library or click here to purchase access to the event recording and resources
• Baroque Workshop for Pianists – click here to view in your library or click here to purchase access to the event recording and resources

Getting Your Pieces up to Speed

In a revised version of our most popular workshop to date, Graham Fitch addressed one of the most common questions amongst pianists, namely how to build speed. The workshop featured a practical demonstration of various practice methods for developing speed. These were followed by break-out sessions in which participants could try the methods out on their own pieces.

Click here to view in your library if you purchased a ticket or click here to purchase access to the event recording and resources.

An Online Performance Workshop

The programme concluded with an online take on the traditional masterclass format. Six participants played a piece of their choice to an audience of observers who were treated to works by Beethoven, Pescetti, Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Soler.

Graham then worked directly with each performer, providing them with feedback on style, technique, practice methods or help on any specific questions they had.

Click here to view in your library if you purchased an observer ticket, click here if you performed or click here to purchase access to the event recording and resources.

Conclusion

Although this was quite a substantial undertaking, we were thrilled with the response and feedback received from participants. We also received some fantastic suggestions for future sessions which we will be incorporating into our planning. Thank you to everyone who participated and supported this initiative – we hope to welcome you back at future events soon!

The full programme and event details can be viewed here. All of the resources for the events for which you’ve purchased tickets are available under the events tab in your library. If you missed any of the events then you can still purchase access to the recordings and resources from the programme listing or from the events page on our store.