From now until December 20, the Cape Ann Piano Studio is offering a 20% discount off of the remaining Winter Quarter at the studio for school-age children (10 45-minute lessons). This offer applies to both beginner and transfer students. Lessons begin January 7.*
A young student plays a duet with his mom at our first-ever annual Holiday Pizza and Piano Party. 🙂
*This discounted offer is for young students only.
Adults seeking lessons, you can learn more by visiting my Adult Lessons page, and please contact me if you would like more information.
This is one of the best blog posts I’ve read on the subject of how to help and support your child, written by another piano instructor, Elissa Milne, who lives in Australia. I agree with every one of these 15 things! 🙂
Here are the absolute basics that you need to know to be able to support your family’s journey into profound musicianship.
15 Things You Need to Know About Supporting Your Child Learning to Play the Piano
My young piano students will be performing in their annual spring recital on Saturday, June 11, from 4–5 pm at the First Universalist Church of Essex.
It’s free and open to the public, all are welcome to attend! The church is also handicapped accessible. We have a reception afterward downstairs, all are welcome there, too.
Students will be playing almost all contemporary composers’ pieces and songs, as well as arrangements of Mozart and C.P.E. Bach.
Come take and break, and put a smile on your face watching kids share their joy playing piano for all of us! 🙂
Performance from last year:
Cape Ann Piano Studio Annual Spring Recital
June 11, 2016, 4–5 pm
First Universalist Church of Essex
57 Main Street
Essex, MA 01929
Sunday was the last recital of 2015-16 for the North Shore Piano Teachers’ Guild annual recitals. It was held at the Second Congregational Church in N. Beverly. Students of piano teachers from around the North Shore performed; two of my students participated and did a fabulous job! Well done Bella and Adelaide!
The Practice for the Elephants Contest begins today and runs for 4 weeks through May 27th.
What Is the Practice for the Elephants Contest?
Students practice and earn two cents for every minute practiced over the course of 4 weeks. At the end, students total up the funds they raise, which is used to foster 10 orphaned elephants, we will continue to support the elephants we began to foster last year. If there are extra funds (it’s $50 a year for each elephant) we will donate them to be used by the Trust where most needed. Printed handouts on the contest, as well as the practice sheets and contest rules, are in the studio.
These African elephants have been orphaned due to the illegal poaching of elephants for their ivory. The use of ivory for piano keys once contributed to the ivory trade. Of course, ivory is no longer used; polymers and mixtures of plastics are used instead for the key tops.
Click here for the PDFÂ with more details on contest, and and why we do it!
Click here for more information about the The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.
This contest was created by friend and fellow piano instructor, Penny Lazarus.
Want to be a matching donor for a piano student practicing for the elephants? Contact me here. If you’re part of the studio, let me know in lessons and I’ll pair you up with a young student!
A few weeks ago a young student currently in love with Tchaikovsky (yes!!), who was learning an arrangement of Theme from Piano Concerto No. 1 from one of her method books, told me she wanted more pieces like this one (yes!!). I picked out an arrangement that I found of Tchaikovsky’s Theme from Romeo and Juliet, a personal favorite symphony of mine. It was all set to go for her lesson. While on my break, waiting for them to arrive, I thumbed through the book I’d found the Romeo and Juliet theme in, and came upon Theme from C Minor Concerto by Rachmaninoff and sightread through it, thinking this is lovely, I’ll play it for her, but she’ll want the Tchaikovsky one, I know.
Wrong! She practically raced to the piano to sightread through it, after I played only the first several measures. She loved it.
After the lesson I looked up orchestra versions on YouTube to send to her to listen to, and this one came up on the top of the list. I had not listened to this concerto in a very long time. Although I had errands to run, I decided to stop what I was doing and take the half hour to listen to this most gorgeous piece of music.
…About Supporting Your Child Learning to Play the Piano”
Here’s a wonderful blog post by Elissa Milne, a fellow piano teacher whom I “met” in one of my online pro piano instructors’ groups—she’s quite a teacher, and lives in New Zealand! So cool to now have input from teachers from around the world. 🙂
She has a lot of other informative posts for parents, too, on her blog.
My young piano students perform today in their Annual Spring Recital at 3 pm at the First Universalist Church of Essex. Click here for directions (it’s handicapped accessible).
The recital is free and open to the public, all are welcome to attend! My students will play pieces by Stravinsky and Bartók (natch!), and also Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saëns, Mozart, Bach, Haydn, Mussorgsky, and of course Beethoven!, as well as current popular and traditional music.
My piano kids practiced minutes to earn money from sponsors to foster baby elephants orphaned by the illegal poaching trade for ivory in Kenya. Visit the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust on Facebook for more info.
Piano practice for the elephants contest of piano instructor Penny Lazarus.
My young piano students will be performing in their Annual Spring Recital on Saturday, June 14, at 3 pm at the First Universalist Church of Essex. Click here for directions to the church (it’s fully handicapped accessible).
The recital is free and open to the public, all are welcome to attend! My students will play original pieces by Stravinsky and Bartók (natch!), and arrangements of Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saëns, Mozart, Bach, Haydn, Mussorgsky, and of course Beethoven!, as well as popular and traditional music.
And just like these young school girls (read their story on the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust page on Facebook) in New York City, my piano kids worked hard for the elephants, earning over $250, just by practicing the piano! 🙂
Fourth grade students of the Nightgale Bamford School in NYC earn over $900 for the elephants!
Cape Ann Piano Studio 