Recitals In January?

Periscope #3

Recitals In My Studio

These are the ideas I covered in the short Periscope video I did Tuesday January 19, 2016. :

1. Time of year I hold my recitals
2. Audience participation
3. Playing a piece myself at the recital

  Yes, I have a recital in January, not in December, when everyone is pulled in so many directions but in January, the end of January. That gives us a whole month to prepare. 

As I have done in the past, I like to have at least one audience participation piece. This year I am drawing from Wendy Stevens, Composecreate.com, and using Yee Haw, a lively beginning piece. The two students preparing this piece thought it looked easy but the rests are tricky. They both struggled at first but when I saw them the next week they had it together. I have not decided if I will have the audience clap or if I will hand out wooden sticks to some of the audience. . 

I play myself at every recital. After more than a hundred recitals what do I play this year?  Well, I happened upon the Dec./Jan. edition of the magazine "The Pianist". The 30 pages of free music is always attractive to me. Stardust by Elena Cobb is just right for my performance. Late intermediate difficulty so it allows me some leeway in preparation time and insuring I will have a polished piece. I played the first page on the Periscope video and promised to play the whole thing next Tuesday morning at 10:30 PST. Come join me!

Periscope is a free app by the Twitter company that allows you to broadcast all over the world. There is no time limit. Viewers can participate by typing messages and questions and by sending hearts for content they like. The recorded broadcast is viewable for 24 hours after airing.