17 December 2015
The past few months have been spent at Uni preparing for my recital and SIPCA audition. I spent them largely alternating between practice and resting or relaxing, as I had few other academic commitments.
One of the few I did have though was Piano Pedagogy, a third-year requirement, where we learnt various techniques, methods and philosophies that have been developed throughout the past century or so to teach piano, and music more generally, to beginners, and especially children. The culminating assignment for this subject was to construct a lesson plan for three lessons worth of teaching a particular piece to an intermediate-level student. We also had to stage a mock lesson using other students in the class. It was a new experience for me as I don’t do any formal teaching.
During that period I also finished a new composition for orchestra, as I am trying to get into the habit of constantly composing, which is another passion of mine.
My end of year requirement at Uni was a forty minute recital containing one piece representative of each major era in Classical Music: Baroque, Classical, Romantic and 20th/21st Century trends. I performed Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in G minor from Book 2 of the Well-Tempered Clavier, Mozart’s Sonata in A minor, Chopin’s Ballade in G minor and Messiaen’s Vingt Regards: no. 4. But I didn’t get much rest after that as I had to immediately prepare for my Fine Music Young Virtuoso Audition, using some of the same pieces, and my SIPCA recording, which consisted of a different program which I thought was more suited to the audition tape requirements: Chopin’s Ballade in F minor, Liszt’s transcription of Isolde’s Liebestod from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, and Scriabin’s 9th piano sonata. I chose those pieces based on the pieces I have felt most successful and enjoyable to perform in the past. My University results for the past semester recently came out and I’ve continued with a HD average, which I was very happy about.
That pretty much sums up the past few months – since then I’ve been learning new pieces and preparing for my 50-minute recital recording in February for the Fine Music Young Virtuoso Award Semifinals.
