Category: 2012

Terrific read for pianists

12/8/2012

This has been last week's read, and what a good one it was! Not only is it informative and inspiring, it is written with a nice lively pace and humorous tone so rare in this specialized genre.

In case the photo is not good enough: Notes from the Pianist's Bench from Boris Berman.

It distils passion and love for music and piano in every single page, talking from his perspective as a performer and as a teacher. Whilst he goes "technical" at times, it is easy to follow, and I would recommend it even to younger students. I definitely wish I had read this ten years ago. :) (As we always do, wishing things were done by yesterday!)

Little blog post: check, diary update: check. Saturday piano practice.. here we go!

Hope you all have a nice weekend,
Maite

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Crisantemi

11/18/2012

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Finally I took the time to upload a little bit of the work done during the Young Conductors Development Programme with Milton Keynes City Orchestra led by Sian Edwards. It was a terrific weekend where we had the opportunity to work fantastic music with a great teacher and orchestra. And I made friends for life.
M

This is Crisantemi by G. Puccini, not one of his most famous works, but a truly beautiful one.

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Practice Yoga and you'll SOUND better

11/15/2012

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Yes indeed! You'll have more awareness, you'll be calmer, will breath better and with the music, and you'll play freer than you ever did before. You will sound better.

I didn't approach yoga as early as I should have and until very recently any sort of advice I received along those lines was more or less quickly rejected with the usual "I have no time for that", or "I rather practice [piano] more". I was sceptic, didn't believe it could affect my playing and didn't have time to waste.

It is another silly excuse, but probably the fact that such a recommendation would't come directly from a musician didn't help! Alas, we can be so blind sometimes...

Yoga has a profound effect both in your body and mind, and consequently it will show in the way you play. Yoga brings together mind and body in one, and is precisely that unity, that coherence in oneself that we need to have in order to truly let the music flow from us, and through us.

I could go on and on , but I want to keep it really brief and hopefully effective, the main message being, TRY IT! Moreover, you don't need to spend a fortune committing months in a studio or gym if you are not ready for it; there are plenty of fantastic tutorials online to awaken your curiosity and help doing the first and most important steps!

This is my little contribution. I have to thank my piano teacher Laura Roberts for having shown it to me.

I'll finish with some links: this is the Yoga Journal with plenty of info and here goes a Sun Salutation with Esther Ekhart. It can take as little as 10 minutes a day, but it will make such a difference! You can take my word for it!

As I said earlier.. Try it!

M.

Ps. I have no shares with either the Yoga Journal or Esther! They are two online resources that I like :)

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2012

2/2/2012

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Happy New Year!

... O month and a day late.. No excuse. Won't even try.

2012 has stared absolutely full of energy and music. Lots of work and fabulous projects!

We had the first run of our Seduction Recital with Sky Ingram at St Olave's Church a week ago. We had a lot of fun together, and have now even more ideas on how we could tailor the programe further in the future. From here, a big thanks to Tom Butler at St Olave's who invited us and whom is always a delight to work for.

What else? Oh yes! Tenorissimi concert at the Girdlers Hall for the Beadles' Guild! wow.. now THAT was an audience! I think that at Tenorissimi we are very privileged to encounter a very welcoming audience wherever we go (and touch wood it stays like that), but last Friday, that was something else. And I can't complement the Beadles and their guests enough for their amazing sing along! Bravi

Worth mentioning too is that the engine for the Anglo-Spanish Society Annual Concert is now on. We have a date 11th April, a venue St Peter's Church in Euston Square and amazing músicos who are already sending their concert proposals. This year's theme wants to celebrate Montsalvatge's, Escudero's 100th an Debussy's 150th year after their births. Works or these composers are dearly welcome. However, all other Spanish music will be well received, and we are hoping to have a fabulous event as in the previous years. (If you want to participate send me an email with your proposed programme, cv and contact details to maiagirre@gmail.com)

Quick mention to, to the big big project that the ILAMS is organising for May. I will post soon about that again. Very very promising!! So many fabulous things to come..

I will leave it here for today. If you have any questions or commets I'll try to answer them as soon as I can!

M.

Ps. .. Yes, I'm trying to ignore what is going on with the Liceo Theatre in Barcelona. Hopefully it's not the beginning of the end. As I said in my twitter.. SPAIN WAKE UP!

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Terrific read for pianists

Crisantemi

Practice Yoga and you'll SOUND better

2012

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