We hope that all of our readers had a peaceful and enjoyable Festive Season and that 2023 is off to a good start for you so far. We have an array of exciting of plans in store including many resources and events for your piano playing and teaching over the coming year! The following are some of the activities with which we’ll be ushering in the New Year.
Events programme
Our events programme kicks-off on the 14th January with an online presentation on awakening the imagination to create personal interpretations followed by an in-person performance workshop. The next event in our series of workshops in partnership with the Piano Teachers’ Course takes place on the 29th of January with presentations on pedalling and style in classical and 20th century music.
If you’re looking for new repertoire ideas and inspiration, Graham Fitch will be presenting a bouquet of pieces of varying levels alongside tips for choosing new pieces on the 4th of February. Then on the 18th of February we will be running an interactive, hands-on workshop on deep learning techniques for both an online and in-person audience.
Click here to view our full events calendar and for more information on individual events.
New videos
Building on the collection of videos we started publishing last year, we will be publishing many new videos featuring walk-throughs of pieces from all grades in the 2023 & 2024 ABRSM examination syllabus. The following new videos for pieces from the Grade 5 & 6 lists are now available:
- Grade 5 A1: Cimarosa – Allegro (3rd movt from Sonata in C minor, C.68)
- Grade 5 B1: H. Hofmann – Minnelied (No. 7 from Stimmungsbilder, Op. 88)
- Grade 5 C3: David Önaç – A Distant Star in the Stillness
- Grade 6 A1: S. Heller – Prelude in C# minor (No. 10 from 24 Preludes, Op. 81)
- Grade 6 B2: Granados – Vals poético (No. 6 from Valses poéticos)
- Grade 6 B3: Mendelssohn – Venetianisches Gondellied (No. 6 from Lieder ohne Worte, Op. 19b)
Works for the advanced grades (7 & 8) will be published soon with many more from across all grades following thereafter. Other parts of our library will also be receiving new resources on topics such as technical exercises, creating a beautiful piano sound, improvisation and music theory for pianists.
Learning pieces
The start of a new year is a good time to be embarking upon learning new pieces and we have several initiatives planned to help you along the way. There will be several events on related themes, including how to choose pieces, interpretation and deep learning techniques.
Alongside publishing many new walk-throughs and a few of our own editions, we will also be creating an index that makes it easier to find and access resources in our repertoire library that now covers over 200 works!
Lastly, our highly popular free email course on how to start learning a new piece is being revised with additional examples and materials. The updated course will be re-launched within the next few weeks together with a Facebook group in which we will be posting various materials and giving you the opportunity to share your progress. In the meantime, you can sign-up to be notified when the course is available here!