Formal Spring Recital Recap
There are few things in this world more exciting and exhausting as a music teacher than planning and executing recitals. It’s a time when students show off the months of hard work they’ve put in learning songs, a chance to dazzle their friends and families, and to take ownership of their talents. It’s also a really stressful time.
Let’s be real. Recitals have long been the bane of most music students’ existence (including mine). They’re scary. We’re not into that here. Our students use the recital as a chance to face their fears and send them packing. Some studios may strive for a picture perfect recital program where every song is polished and executed impeccably.
That is not how we operate. Perfection isn’t a word we use in this studio, in fact, it’s a word we’re working to abolish, kind of like “can’t”. Some words simply do not belong in our vocabularies.
Last Saturday was our largest studio recital ever. We had 22 students performing, with several collaborating on other instruments or singing multiple songs. Our Teen Treblemakers group made their debut along side the Treblemakers N Training small group voice class (with their fearless leader Miss Megan at the helm). There were five students doing their first recital ever, and showing enormous bravery by doing so (first recitals are terrifying ya know). We had the widest mix of genres ever represented on a recital, all chosen by the students. We heard everything from Classical and Romantic period piano pieces to movie songs, Country, Musical Theater, Pop, and American Folk. We had accompaniment by guitar, ukulele, piano, karaoke (another first), and a couple students playing to Piano Maestro on the iPad. We embraced our digital world by live streaming this recital on Facebook so families all over the US could tune in and watch their musician.
When I talk to people about my “job”, I talk about creating a new generation of musicians who LOVE music the way I do. Ok, well maybe not exactly the way I do because everyone knows I’m literally moved to tears by a certain band who came from Liverpool but shall remain nameless.
Anyway, my job is empowering fearless performers who don’t bat an eyelash at recital announcements, musicians who have a broad appreciation for multiple genres of song. I want them to have a soundtrack to their lives that starts in my studio and bursts through the doors out into the world. I want them to to know that whatever song they suggest will be considered because they are empowered to choose their music.
Most of all, when they look back on their time in lessons at A Noteworthy Music Studio, I hope they remember the fun we have each week, and the joy that comes from making music together.