Start 2022 On a High Note!

The New Year has begun and we’re kicking off with a fantastic day of piano-themed events on Saturday 15th January. We had originally planned on holding this day to celebrate the Practising the Piano Online Academy’s fifth birthday in October 2021 but had to postpone. Therefore we’re delighted to be able to reschedule for the 15th at the Fidelio Cafe in central London.

If you’d like to start your year on a high note, join us in person or online or for a variety of inspiring and informative sessions, including a performance workshop with Graham Fitch and three special lecture-presentations by Graham, Masayuki Tayama and Penelope Roskell. Click here for further information or to book your place!

Sessions & content

Performance Workshop

This event is Graham’s take on a traditional masterclass and is an in-person version of our online performance workshop format. Each performer will have 20 minutes to present a work of their choice (or part thereof) and to work with Graham on specific problems or obtain general feedback on matters such as style, interpretation, technique and practice methods. Please click here to find out more about the format or to watch a video example from a previous workshop.

Lecture-presentations

The afternoon comprises three lecture-presentations. In the first session, “Bringing Baroque Music to Life”, Graham Fitch presents a rough guide to playing baroque music stylistically and expressively on the piano using works by Bach, Couperin, Rameau and Purcell to illustrate. Click here to view an excerpt from a previous workshop in which Graham demonstrates how to explore possibilities for articulation in a work by Handel.

This will be followed by a presentation by Masayuki Tayama on Beethoven’s piano sonatas. Masa will perform and excerpts from a selection of sonatas and discuss influences, interpretation and the development Beethoven’s style. Click here to view a blog post with video excerpts in which Masa explores Beethoven’s first Sonata, Op. 2 No. 1.

In the last session, Penelope Roskell will perform movements from Schubert’s last sonata (D960) and share some insights on texture, voicing, harmony and what she particularly loves about this monumental work. Click here to watch Penelope perform the second and third movements.

Various ticket options for joining us in person or viewing online are available. Please click here for further information and booking links.

Other plans for 2022

We have many other plans afoot and the following are some of the developments that we look forward to sharing with you over the coming year:

• Interactive Workshops – A new, interactive workshop format and further additions to our online events programme
• Technique – Further installments in our technique library project focusing on improving technique and providing recommendations and guides to popular exercises, studies and regimes
• Practising – Ongoing extensions to our materials on effective practising with an index of practice tools and many additional examples in the context of repertoire of varying levels
• Learning Pieces & Repertoire – More guides on how to interpret, learn and master new pieces of varying levels in our repertoire library
• Sight-Reading – Additions to our existing resources for improving sight-reading skills, including the final part of our Advanced Curriculum
• Examination Guides – Resources for the final grades (7 & 8) will be added to our collection of resources for the Trinity examination syllabus and we will also be creating resources for syllabuses from other examination boards.

We will also be making several enhancements to the Online Academy to make it easier to find and interact with content as it’s library continues to grow. These include various navigation improvements and applying new video viewing and online course functionality to selected content. Please sign-up to our mailing list here for news and updates on these and many other developments!