With the recent snow, it certainly doesn’t feel like Spring time, but in just a few days Spring will officially be here. That means our 5th Annual Spring Recital is just around the corner.  Flyers should be coming home with our students this week and next. Please mark your calendars for this annual event!

Based on some comments we received after the Holiday Recital, perhaps it would be a good idea to remind students/families/friends of some basic recital etiquette.

• Students performing in our recitals are all in different phases of their development as a pianist/singer. Students take piano lessons obviously to learn to play the piano, but singers take vocal lessons for a variety of reasons.  Some have ambitions to sing professionally, major in music in college, try out for local musical theater productions and some simply want to improve in pitch and sight reading to help them with their school or church choir.  No matter the ability level of the pianist or vocalist performing, they should be listened to with respect by the audience. All students benefit by performing in the recital as it helps develop confidence and the time spent preparing a song to perform is beneficial as well. Comments that other students were whispering to each other and visibly texting while other students are performing are troublesome as it’s disrespectful to the performer.
• That “student played poorly/too fast/slow/was too quiet/went off pitch, etc and it was hard to sit through his/her performance” is another comment heard recently. Some of our students are quite advanced but get very nervous about performing in front of an audience and therefore tend to play slowly with hesitation.  Other pianists are beginners and the songs are very short and simple but nervousness cause the pianist to play too quickly, so he/she is only up front for 2 minutes or less.  Some singers do very well in our studio, but get so nervous performing that they forget lyrics, sing too quietly or even occasionally sing off pitch. Regardless of the quality of the performance, this student has worked very hard on the song(s) being performed, and deserve an attentive audience.

Let’s try to listen and enjoy each performance during the Spring Recital and keep in mind all the hard work that has gone into that performance.  None of us is perfect and no matter how prepared, we all make mistakes–even professionals.  We should be encouraging to the student as it’s hard to put oneself out there open to criticism.  This isn’t “The Voice” after all, but a local music school filled with students doing their best to show off what they have been working on in lessons!  Thanks everyone.