I was the first Harmony Road music student to enter the piano concerto event of the National Federation of Music Clubs piano festival. Soon other students began putting in the effort required to learn a classical piano concerto. Then Janna also took up the concerto challenge. The NFMC concerto list includes pieces by famous composers like Mozart, Chopin and Beethoven which can often be heard played by famous pianists and professional orchestras. For the piano festival, the student must learn one movement, memorize pages of music, and bring it up to a high performance standard. The student must also work with the accompanist, who plays the orchestra part on another piano. No, rushing off at one's own speed and no forgetting when the "orchestra" has a solo and when it's time to bring your part back it again, and chords on the downbeat should sound at exactly the same time! All these details must be in place while performing for an adjudicator who is writing comments and deciding a grade while listening to you! Learning a movement from a concerto is a big accomplishment!
That's why I am so thrilled to see Krista and Kathrina take up this challenge. They are both busy high school students. They both have other instruments which they prefer to focus on. But they worked hard all year and what a beautiful performance came of it! Krista and Emily C. (another Harmony Road student) performed Mozart's Piano Concert No. 20, 2nd movement on April 22nd. Kathrina provided solid accompaniment for both. Krista and Emily each received a Superior rating and Kathrina received several compliments and many thanks. And best of all, the musical and technical skills that were carefully honed to insure a stellar performance will find their way into so many of the girls' musical endeavors.
Congratulations Krista, Emily and Kathrina!
~The first rose
6 comments:
Did the accompanist also have to play by memory? That'd be hard. :-)
The accompanist does not have to play from memory, thankfully. :) It was quite funny, though, when our piano teacher got into coaching Krista at one of our last rehearsals and she took my music to look at without realizing what she was doing. As it turned out, I had my part memorized!!
~Kathrina
Congratulations Krista and Kathrina!
That’s great! :)
~Bethany
One more thing… that was a post that I actually had to read! So I did… word for word! Whew, not a very easy thing for me to do! Aren’t you proud of me?! ;)
Thanks. :) And, of course I'm proud of you! Good job!
~Kathrina (for both of us)
I won't lie to you. I really don't have any idea what most of that means :), but I'm sure you worked hard and deserved every bit of it. Congratulations!
Daniel
Basically, Krista participated in a piano festival, I accompanied her, and we did really well. :) Thanks for the congrats!
~Kathrina
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