Our much-anticipated kickoff for the year, September Surprise!, launched us into a new year of piano lessons with lively interaction and surprising performances!
We began the evening with a fun get-to-know you game where I compiled a list of interesting facts – one for each student and parent – and the families had to work together to see who could correctly identify the most people by their interesting fact.
I may have gotten a few details slightly off, but everyone still had fun trying to figure out the subject of each interesting fact (even if it happened to be themself and they didn’t realize it…).
Next up was the announcement of this year’s practice incentive theme: Redwood Resistance! Inspired by my trip to the Redwood Forests this summer, each student will be striving to grow their own giant redwood tree on the studio wall throughout the year.
After all the info for the theme was presented, it was time for the piano performances. The title for this kickoff event (“September Surprise”) initially came from the idea that unlike a typical recital where the student and I plan together what they will be performing, for this occasion the student is surprising me with whatever they choose to play. It might be a new piece they’ve learned over the summer, or a favorite piece from the previous year, or even an original arrangement or composition. In this case, it was all of the above, plus one more category…
…Three of my new students this fall have participated in our Piano Expeditions piano camp for three years, so they are very comfortable improvising at the piano. All three of these new students put their names in the tin I was drawing from to determine performance order. One of them played a simple rote piece I taught her at her interview and evaluation. Another one played an original piece he titled, “Storm on a Hill.” And the best line of the night came when the third one announced that he was going to play the Darth Vader Theme from Star Wars. On his way to the piano he turned around and added, “I’ve never actually played it before,” then proceeded confidently to the piano and improvised a one-minute performance that I’m sure sounded just like the Darth Vader Theme in his head!
I usually play a piece of some sort at our studio events, but this evening I had an extra special surprise for everyone. At his request, I taught my husband the primo part for the duet version of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, arranged by Melody Bober. He had heard me play it with one of my sisters a number of years ago and loved it, so I recorded it in excerpts and he learned it by rote (despite the fact that he’d never had a single piano lesson!) so that we could perform it this evening. I know I’m biased, but I think he did an incredible job learning and playing it!
We ended this portion of the evening with a rousing team-building activity that pitted students v. parents to see who could grow the tallest tree utilizing only the supplies provided. The parents definitely proved their engineering prowess and came out the winners with a 4-foot tall masterpiece!
The event concluded with an array of snacks and mingling (apparently we were too busy eating and talking to remember to snap any pictures…). Truly a surprising and energy-filled start to a new year of piano lessons!
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