Thursday, March 5, 2009

On my first piano performance since 1982

For FB readers, you can read this note with normal formatting at http://kermitisking.blogspot.com.

I'm taking piano lessons at the Hoffman Academy.  It's relatively new, run by a young guy named Joseph Hoffman.  The staff is great - well-educated, friendly, talented, and engaged in the local music scene.  Joseph has done some arrangments for the PMCO, Dave Thomas is published as a researcher specializing in Russian music, Becca is part of a band that has paying gigs.  It's a good and fun place. 

The culture is laid-back in a certain sense - nobody makes you feel bad if you didn't make any progress that week.  But it's intense in that the staff will take you as far as you are willing to go.  These are pros who really really love what they do, and it shows.  Part of the experience includes performance opportunities.  There is the recital every term, and there is also a "come together" week every month or so.  This provides some cost-reduction (and free time) for the academy, as they provide 2 teachers for a group of 4-6 students.  But the value-add is that the students play for each other.  It's very informal, and everyone just plays what they've been working on.  

I'm rather outclassed at this point.  I'm the only man taking lessons there (most are children, as you'd expect), and there are 4 women who take lessons there.  All of them are vastly more capable than I am.  The first student to play did a Bach innovation (I think), #10.  Not flawless, but very good.  My first thought was, "Holy cow, the lady can play!"  I took out my little Bartok piece (get it here, this is a great site), #1 of his book for children.  After saying how new I was to this a few times, I played/stumbled through it.  I wasn't as nervous as I might have been.  It is a difficult piece for me - both hands attacking different rythms and changing hand positions.  And I wasn't perfect at it.  But it was good enough given that I'd only had it for 6 days.  The response was positive - we spent a little time going through it, we all played through it to give it some musicality.  And then it was time for the next student to go, and she did some crazy Beethoven that was extremely technical.  Amazing.

So it was a good experience - I'll be less nervous for my next session since I know what to expect.  And I'll spend a little time finding a piece that fits me better.  The Bartok was ok, but I'll need something that uses my voice, too.  I'm a singer at heart, and a piano going without vocals just sounds lonely to me.  Time to have fun with it and claim this art form as my own as I have with vocal performance and theatrical performance.  

Life is to be lived - forget that, and you might was well give up the habit.