Russian Wins the Honens International Piano Competition

Congratulations to Russian Georgy Tchaidze (21) of Russia who clinched the First Laureate title at the Honens International Piano Competition.

Kudos also to his compatriot Evgeny Starodubtsev (27) and Swiss pianist Gilles Vonsattel (28) who won Second and Third Laureate respectively.

All three receive a three-year career development program in addition to prize money. We can all look forward to hearing more from these three promising stars. Check out their quarterfinal and semifinal performances on www.honens.com . CBC Radio will air the finals sometime in the future.

Here's a short video clip of Georgy Tchaidze, the First Laureate.

(c) 2009 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Honens Piano Competition Finals November 5 & 6

The Honens International Piano Competition seeks to find the "complete artist". Competitors perform solo recitals as well as ensemble recitals. Five finalists: Evgeny Starodubtsev, Natacha Kudritskaya, Gilles Vonsattel, Kirill Zwegintsov and Georgy Tchaidze shall perform with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Christoph Campestrini.

Both performances are at 7:30 pm at the Jack Singer Concert Hall. Limited tickets are available at www.honens.com .

(c) 2009 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Listen to World Class Playing Online at Esther 2.0

My inbox greeted me with an announcement of the finalists to perform at the Honens International Piano Competition, held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to catch any of the it, save for one community concert. I am grateful that Honens and its generous sponsors have made audio recordings of each performance available online for the second competition in a row through Esther 2.0.

I was just listening to our lone Canadian competitor, Daniel Wnukowski. Beautiful playing.

The Honens International Piano Competition is unique in that there is a collaborative pianist component built in as well as career and professional development assistants for the laureates.

(c) 2009 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Using Video Tutorials in Your Studio, Starring Your Students

In my entry, Piano Pedagogy & Technology Musings, I unveiled my grand plan to create an online audio/visual library for my students to use to assist with their at-home practicing.

So far, my students have enjoyed laughing at my How to Sit at the Piano video, in which I use one of Maestro's giant stuffed dogs to demonstrate. Likewise with my Troubleshooting video, which showed that even teachers need to drill trouble spots repeatedly to iron them out. A few of them actually ask, "Can we make a video clip of that?" so they can watch us working on one of their pieces at a later time.

I initially set out to make 12 videos but it looks like there will be at least 15 in all as I or my students get ideas of what else to shoot. However, I am sure that my students don't want to watch just me for all 15, so I've gone recruiting.

If this is something that you're thinking of trying your studio, I highly recommend having your students star in some of your video tutorials. Six students have eagerly stepped up to the plate to date with several more waiting for their turn. One student demonstrated how he practices his memory stations, one shared how she started learning a song in lead sheet form, while four shared stories they made up to go with their pieces. They're finding the whole experience a blast, while I am getting my share of laughs of smiles.

All you need is your digital camera (if it takes video) or a video recorder. Make sure you have at least 4 GB on your SD card (I have 8 GB). As far as movie editing software goes, I've just been using Windows Movie Maker, which has lots of tutorials and help menus. A tripod is a bonus.

As an alternative to posting them on your website, you could burn your videos onto a DVD-R or DVD/RW or share them with your students via memory stick or ftp. Mind you, if you and your students are on Facebook, all you'd have to do is create a group for your studio and post your videos to the group.

Next on the horizon are the videos on Outstanding Openings and Fabulous Photo Finishes. I think I'll go recruiting again to get students to demonstrate each of these.

(c) 2009 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

More Exercises for Music through the Ages Exploration

This is becoming more and more enjoyable as the days go by. I stumbled upon a new approach towards the end of the week for the Music through the Ages Exploration: comparing and contrasting the evolution of a genre through the decades.

Angie, a high school student, decided to explore pop at her lesson. She picked Kalafina, a Japanese band formed in 2007. She contrasted and compared that to ABBA, the 70s pop/disco group from Sweden. Finally, we came back to North America with Celine Dion, the pop sensation from the 80s - today. We had a great discussion about music texture, timbre and compared and contrasted pop not just from the 70s to today, but from one continent to the next.

Today, some of my students explored Bee Gees, ABBA, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Elise Estrada, UVERWorld, The Eagles, Billy Ray Cyrus, Miley Cyrus and Merle Haggard. Regardless whether it was young Mia or elementary student Emma, we were able to have intelligent conversations on:

• instrumentation/timbre: My students dutifully reported that country music still uses primarily voice, guitar and percussion and that there are more crossover artists these days. Those crossover artists have more electronic music sounds and "sugar pop" drum grooves. They added that pop/rock has gone more electronic.
• the development of the music videos: They express a great appreciation for Michael Jackson's and Madonna's pioneering contributions.
  
• the evolution of dance in live performances: "They just stood there and sang in the 70s. There's more dancing and acting now."
• the deterioration of melodic shape, dynamic contrast and rhythmic variance: Some were quick to notice that the melodies are getting flatter and that the rhythms are getting more basic. Ostinato seems to be the modus operandi. As for dynamics, "everything's louder", "it's just one level" and "they yell more" were popular comments.
  

As for me, I'm happy to report that I sill know the lyrics to Billie Jean, Material Girl, Dancing Queen and most of Desperado.

[October 29, 2009 update]
My singing teacher recently said that today's country is yesterday's rock. Check this out:

Carrie Underwood's Cowboy Cassanova (intro)



compared to



Listen to the drum groove and the guitar rhythm and chords around the 0:48 mark.


(c) 2009 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.