Repertoire Ideas & Inspiration
Are you looking for some new repertoire ideas for yourself or your students? Join Graham Fitch online on Saturday 3rd February for a showcase of inspiring and interesting pieces at all levels. This bouquet of pieces will include well known works alongside some hidden gems and exciting new pieces. As part of introducing these pieces, Graham will also give thoughts on narrative, interpretation and practice strategies.
Who it’s for?
The events are aimed at pianists of all levels and will also be useful to teachers looking for ideas for what to prescribe students. Although they are divided into sessions based on three skill levels, you may find it worthwhile exploring repertoire outside of your level as ideas for a challenge to work towards or easier pieces as quick studies.
Even if you don’t intend to play many of the pieces presented, the sessions promise to be an enjoyable and inspiring showcase of piano repertoire. You will also gain tips and ideas that can be applied to your own pieces!
Featured works
Starting at the elementary level, Graham will be showing how to bring a well-known minuet to life with colour and texture in addition to presenting one of Burgmüller’s evergreen studies and works by Bach and Reinecke.
The intermediate session will feature an intriguing renaissance work by Byrd followed by others by Hofmann, Tchaikovsky and Clementi. The advanced session will then bring the day to a close with the second of Debussy’s Arabesques, a piece by Frank Bridge and two works by Schubert and Schumann.
All the pieces featured in these sessions are in the public domain and links to scores will be provided upon sign-up.
How it works
These workshops are streamed live from our studios via Zoom and all ticketholders will receive high quality recordings afterwards. Therefore if you cannot join us for any of the sessions, you can watch them at your convenience at a later stage.
A list of repertoire to be featured will be sent in advance of the event with links to open domain scores. You will also have the opportunity to ask questions about the pieces or choosing repertoire in general during the sessions. Furthermore, we also welcome suggestions for works to feature!
Ticket options
Tickets for all three sessions cost £50 (£30 for Online Academy subscribers) and can be purchased here or individually via the following links:
- Elementary (Initial – Grade 3) – 13:00 – 14:00 GMT
- Intermediate (Grades 4 – 6) – 14:15 – 15:30 GMT
- Advanced (Grade 7 & 8) – 15:45 – 17:00 GMT
Previous events
Awakening the Imagination (14th January 2023)
In this introductory presentation, Graham shows you how to open up your imagination by exploring possible narratives and imagery using a selection of pieces from all levels. Graham also gives ideas to inspire you to create your own artistic image of a piece for a personal interpretation that is meaningful to you.
Repertoire Ideas & Inspiration (4th Feburary 2023)
In the first set of repertoire ideas workshops, Graham presented a selection of pieces at different levels, including the following:
- Elementary – Works by Diabelli, Dussek, Louise Farrenc and Florence Price and MacDowell’s To a Wild Rose.
- Intermediate – Two well known works by Bach and Mozart, some hidden gems from the classical period by Galuppi and Kuhlau and two exciting new pieces from contemporary composers!
- Advanced – Tchaikovsky’s beautiful June, hidden gems by Moszkowski and Purcell, a Chopin Mazurka and Mozart’s well known Rondo alla turca!
If you missed these events, you can save 20% by purchasing a combined ticket for the recordings and resources from both of them here. Alternatively you can purchase individual tickets here for the event on 14th Jan and here for 4th February.
Here’s what some of our audience had to say about the introductory event on awakening the imagination:
“Absolutely AWESOME workshop, I am buzzing with inspiration. It’s opened up a whole new listening and interpretative world to me.”
“This workshop really helped me figure out what was missing for me with regards to really enjoying playing rather than just worrying about learning the notes.”
“Graham really opened my mind up to a world of delightful, creative possibilities in this presentation – I can’t wait to apply these ideas to my new and old pieces!”
“Everything about the workshop was superb – first class and 5 stars! As always, Graham was brilliant and the quality of the streaming and recordings from the new studio set-up is fabulous.”
“The session on ‘awakening the imagination’ reminded me of the purpose of music – to enrich our lives and communicate a story or a picture behind each composition. This takes us away from the pianist’s sometimes unhelpful fixation about just playing the correct notes at the correct time. This isn’t music, and a less perfect performance with character and imagination is much more satisfying for an audience to listen to!”