Goodnight, Sweet Dreams is one of six compositions by Lisa Donovan Lukas.

To Raise The Wind Horse is an imaginative duet that was premiered at the Daniel Pearl World Music Days concert in California. You can read a little about the inspiration and history of the composition on the Daniel Pearl Music Days website. I can think of several horse-loving students that would love to learn this duet!

Each piece presents fairly advanced rhythmic challenges, but the end results are well worth it! The most accessible of Lisa’s six works is A Song From the Garden. It has a lovely singing melody, and could be handled by a motivated intermediate student.

I think Summer Dance would be an engaging selection for a student looking for a fresh contemporary piece to use for a festival or contest. Waiting is a rich, gorgeous piece that I’m adding to my collection of wedding and prelude music. And A Passing Cloud is a great mood piece if you or a student are looking for something to sink your hands into and let your expressiveness take you away.

I love that you can download samples and listen to full recordings of each piece on the Alberti Publishing website! But I love even more that Lisa has offered to giveaway a copy of each of her compositions to Music Matters Blog readers! Six winners will be given one of her pieces and you can enjoy it yourself and/or use it with a student in your studio. Just leave a comment below and six winners will be chosen using a random number generator at noon (CST) on Thursday, February 9, 2012.

I just put together this simple Recital Repertoire Pop Quiz worksheet that I handed out to each student as they arrived – in exchange for the book with their printed music! They had to fill in as many blanks as they could. Then as each student performed their piece during the rehearsal, I tallied up their answers and awarded prizes to the top finishers. Three of my students tied for first place. And the others will hopefully make it a priority to know as much as possible about their recital repertoire selections in the future!

I didn’t realize until after it was posted that the credits at the end rolled through at the speed of light! So, here is a list of pieces included in this year’s program for those who are interested (all of which should be available through Sheet Music Plus):

O Come, Little Children
Arr. Phillip Keveren

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
Arr. Catherine Rollin

‘Twas in the Moon of Wintertime
Arr. Joseph Martin

God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
Arr. Lyn Freeman Olson

Mary, Did You Know?
Mark Lowry
Arr. The Band

We Three Kings
Arr. Nancy Faber

We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Arr. Catherine Rollin

Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow with Go Tell It on the Mountain
Arr. Melody Bober

There is a Redeemer
Arr. Ellen Banks Elwell

Joy to the World
Arr. Lloyd Larson

The Little Drummer Boy
Arr. Nancy Faber

Away in a Manger
Arr. Nancy Faber

A Cradle Prayer
by Rebecca St. James

Silent Night
Arr. Melody Bober

Infant Holy, Infant Lowly
Arr. Nancy Faber

What Child is This?
Arr. Melody Bober

The First Noel
Arr. Melody Bober

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
Arr. Mona Rejino

Sing Hallelujah
Arr. Mark Hayes

Sing We Now of Christmas
Arr. Martha Mier

Panis Angelicus
Cesar Franck

Amazing Grace
Arr. Wendy Stevens

And Can it Be?
Arr. Marilynn Ham

Pat-a-Pan
Arr. Carol Klose

O Come, All Ye Faithful
Arr. Melody Bober

Angel Medley
Arr. Melody Bober

Carol of the Bells
Arr. Kevin Olson

What a Friend We Have in Jesus
Arr. Lenny Seidel

My Savior, My God
Aaron Shust
Arr. The Band

At lessons this week I’ve found myself asking most students these two questions:

1. On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being completely performance-ready, what number would you say this piece is right now? (It’s kind of funny how many of them insert a .5 into their numeric evaluation – I’ve had a 6.5, an 8.5, etc…)
2. What does the remaining [3.5; 1.5; etc.] represent? In other words, what still needs to improve on the piece to bring it to a level 10?

This has proved much more effective than just asking the student what they need to do to get their piece ready by the designated date. Because invariably I get the not-so-helpful answer, “practice.” I resist the urge to say, “Wow, how perceptive. I wish I had thought of that.” But I digress. Sarcasm aside, I realize more and more how important it is to have meaningful, musical discussions with students to gauge how well they understand their music and whether or not they have a clear idea of where they are headed with each piece and how to get there. This kind of interaction with students spurs me on like nothing else to become the best teacher I can be for each of them!

You can download a 4-page pdf preview of the book from the Alfred website. I like the fresh, lively style of each arrangement. And instead of assigning it to one of my students, I decided to keep the whole book all to myself. I love playing through some of the carols each day as part of my practice routine.

Check out koertsmusic.com for more information and to listen to some of James’ other music.

The church where I have been holding my Christmas recital for years disbanded this fall and sold the building. I knew I wouldn’t be able to use it for my Christmas recital, so I’ve been praying that God would provide a location for us to use. My criteria is a place with a nice piano, preferably a grand, and a fairly cozy environment. And affordable, of course! One of my families volunteered to check with their church and I was really hoping that it would work out, but we got word back last Thursday that it would cost $550 for two nights of use (the rehearsal a week earlier and then the recital the following week) – and it wasn’t even available the nights I needed it.

With that door shut, it was time for more brainstorming and praying. With the rehearsal only 4 weeks away, I was beginning to feel the pressure of finding a place. I called a teacher friend of mine whose church we used for a festival several years ago to see if she thought their facility would be a possibility. She gave me a bit of hope and the name and number of the church secretary. First thing the next morning I whispered another prayer and made the call. The secretary said the dates were open, so she would send me the contract. I decided to drive over there instead to pick up the info in person and speed up the process.

As soon as I skimmed the contract, my heart sunk. A quick calculation of the numbers brought the sum for use of the sanctuary and fellowship hall to $300. I double-checked with the secretary on the cost and she said she would confirm the total with the trustee. I went home and resolved to keep trying to come up with alternatives. Maybe I needed to think outside the box. The possibility of checking with some area hospitals to see about using their chapel crossed my mind. It would be kind of cool to use a more public venue and try to reach out to hurting people through our music.

With that in mind, I prayed that if God wanted us to use the aforementioned church that He would put it on the trustee’s heart to offer it to us for $100. But if God wanted us to explore some outside-the-box options, the church would keep the cost above $100. I was excited about some other possibilities, but with such a short time left for planning, it seemed overwhelming. However, I was open to following God’s leading either way.

About five minutes later my phone rang. It was the church secretary. She had just gotten off the line with the trustee and he instructed her to offer to let us use the building for both nights for only $100! I was ecstatic! It was such a quick and obvious answer to prayer, and it gave me the confidence to move forward with this location. I’m still working on details and don’t know if we’ll have the ability to live-stream the event like we did last year, but I am so thankful to the Lord for meeting our needs in such a specific and special way!

May God make Himself real to each of you this week as you face needs and turn to Him to provide for you. He is more than able to do so! Have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving!

“And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:19

It was even better than I could have imagined! The Ogden Nash narration was included in the performance and a troupe of dancers did a masterful job portraying each selection. The coolest one was The Aquarium with its use of black lighting for an amazing visual effect!

If your area has a Young People’s Concert program, I highly encourage you to check it out!

1. Brew a pot of tea to sip on while I work.

2. Light a candle to create a better ambiance.

3. Spread out the newly acquired Christmas books and start playing!

I’m pretty picky when it comes to selecting recital music, so I didn’t get everything figured out that I was hoping to, but it’s a start! And I even started enjoying myself more once I got into it. In fact, I decided to share with you one of the surprising favorites that I ran across. It’s a lovely rendition of Silent Night, arranged by Melody Bober (located in Christmas Encores, Book 1):

Have you all found any new gems this year? Or any old favorites that you would recommend?

One of our members graciously invited us to use her home/tree farm for the festive occasion. Isn’t it gorgeous?!

Each of the students donned their brightly colored festival t-shirt for the occasion! Several rows of chairs provided seating for the students just in front of the deck so that we could quickly work through each of the performances. Family members and friends brought chairs and blankets to place on the lawn where they could listen and enjoy the performances.

Here’s a snapshot of all of my students who participated in the event (except for one who disappeared right before we took the picture!).

Ben, Joey, and Jed did a great job working together to prepare a captivating performance of, Secrets, by OneRepublic for the event.

Noelle, Naomi, and Amanda did a lovely job with their rendition of, Impromptu, by Gurlitt.

I am so proud of each of my students and their musical performances! And I’m so grateful for the dedication of other teachers in the area that enables us to collaborate and put on events like this for the benefit of our students, their families, and the broader community.

Are any of you involved in festivals with your students this fall?

Titanic: A Voyage in Piano Music is available as both an elementary level piano book with optional duets and an intermediate level piano solo book. Each volume includes nine repertoire selections that “recount the tale of the Titanic’s one and only voyage: original music that captures the mood of the day, numbers that were performed for passengers by the hired White Star Line musicians, popular music that would have been played by Third Class passengers who had their own instruments, and music that was bravely played as the ship was sinking.”

As if this weren’t enough by itself, Rebekah has also included a variety of black and white photos from the Titanic and its passengers, and a paragraph of historical notes for each repertoire selection. The books are truly beautiful and will be loved by pianists everywhere!

Now…the moment you’ve all been waiting for. Rebekah has kindly offered to giveaway two copies of these Titanic books to two Music Matters Blog reader. Just leave a comment below to be entered in a drawing to win one of these books for yourself or a special student! The giveaway will end at noon (CST) on Thursday, October 13, and the winner will be drawn using a random number generator.