What a busy but wonderful week of music making we had this last week. It was so wonderful to chat with returning students and hear about their summers and start some new music AND it was fabulous to meet the new faces and begin a musical journey with them.
Along with new pieces to practice, we talked about our goal of 5 DAYS of practice…not a new goal for many but sometimes a bit of an adjustment to make after a summer away from lessons or for a new student not yet used to playing the piano each day. I have each students name on my chalkboard and each week they reach the goal of at least 5 days of practice they may add a colored chalk checkmark under their name and see how many they can collect between now and Thanksgiving.
With the year off to a galloping start, I just wanted to give you a few upcoming dates in this newsletter. First is that we will have our first all studio master class the week following Thanksgiving, October 11-13. Many of you are old hats at master class week, but some of you are new and I’ve had a chance to tell you a bit about it and look forward to sharing it with our new students. More information including the exact master class times for you to choose from and RSVP for will come out at the end of the month or beginning of October. If you’re new and would like to see what a master class looks like in my studio of enthusiastic musicians, check out this link and scroll on down. I’ve not been organized enough to post them all but there are several there to take a little peek at: https://mmmusicstudio.com/category/master-classes-2/page/2/
Another important date coming up this fall is the Christmas Recital (yep, I said Christmas!). Our annual Christmas Recital is booked for Friday, December 16, 6:30-8pm at the First Church of the Nazarene 14329 94 street. Already this week, a few of the students were asking about this and you can’t help but catch their excitement. Each year I build sort of a mini-theme/title for our recital….usually inspired by or based around a special ensemble piece or a song…and we dress up in our Christmas finest and present it to you. Sometimes the students request a theme. Last year one of our classes were inspired to wear Christmas sweaters and that was a lot of fun. Now, I have had a student ask again and again and again if we could have a pajama party recital and I’ve always said, “oh maybe one day we will try that” So, imagine my surprise and delight when in looking for Christmas music and ensemble inspiration I stumbled across a little song called, “Christmas in Our Jammies”. If that’s not a sign, I don’t know what is! And so that will be this year’s Christmas Recital: Christmas in Our Jammies. Wearing jammies will not be mandatory but encouraged as I think it would be fun. Families can get it on the action too and come in jammies! What could be more fun than enjoying beautiful music and yummy refreshments in warm and cozy jammies on a chilly, December evening?
I keep a calendar for our studio posted on my webpage and am often updating it. You can also subscribe to this webpage/blog and be notified of any updates or new postings. So far I have it updated all the way to Christmas and you can find it here:
https://mmmusicstudio.com/check-the-schedule/
Also we have a studio Facebook page, feel free to follow (“like”) it for updates, practice tips, inspiration and more and feel free to share on it anything you find inspiring! https://www.facebook.com/mmmusicstudio/
So….just a quick hello from me and a few dates to mark on your calendar. In the meantime, enjoy this beautiful fall weekend!