Done one recital , worry about the next

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Finally we finshed our year-end recital. Everyone performed well and charged up. I'm already worrying about the next recital in December. My problem is I have a bunch of students at the intermediate level (Beethoven's Sonata 20, Op 49 No 2; Clementi's Sontinas etc). I don't want 9 of them to sound alike or even worse, play same songs. Would anyone kind enough to offer me some some alternatives? Also, I'm thinking of assigning one or two Bach's 2-part invention. Would this be a good idea? Which one have your student had the most success with?

Thanks!

-- Pam (pamelia@ogjmmrinqo.net), June 11, 2003

Answers

Pam, If there's one thing you DON'T have to worry about, it's running out of great music for recitals. In my early years of teaching, after a great recital, I'd think "Oh, I'll never be able to find that many great songs for next year." (and with 25-30 students each playing 2 pieces, that IS a lot of songs!) But every year it seems I find more and better pieces for our recitals! I'll list a few of my favorite books and sheets (classical and otherwise) that come to mind, that my intermediate students used for this spring's recital: William Gillock "Fountain in the Rain" Dennis Alexander "Gardens in the Mist" and "Toccata Brillante" Margaret Goldston "Etude Brillante" Melody Bober (FJH) has a lot of nice pieces too--just can't think of particular names right now. Books (Alfred): Recital Winners (bk 1 & 2) Recital Gems (bk 1 & 2) Masterpieces with Flair (3 levels available; I like 1 and 2 best) Encore (bk 1 & 2) Applause (bk 1 & 2) Books from FJH: The Developing Artist Piano Literature (I think there are 5 levels--I like them all) Celebration Series (bk 6 has some especially nice pieces for late intermediate) Hal Leonard Publishers: Phillip Keveren is an excellent arranger, and some of my intermediate students have loved his "Shout to the Lord" book, which is classically arranged versions of numerous contemporary praise songs. If it's classical in particular that you want to teach, you should have every one of the above-mentioned Alfred books in your collection! They are wonderful (and there are CD recordings for each also).

-- annie (no_name_poster@yahoo.com), June 13, 2003.

Oh....when I typed in my reply, I had all the sheets and books nicely organized in a list format, but it posted as one ongoing paragraph. That makes it a little hard to read....oh well.

-- annie (no_name_poster@yahoo.com), June 13, 2003.

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