October - November News and Reminders

Well Fall is finally here and we are busy preparing for many events, including Student Day examinations November 16th and our Christmas recital, December 16th. Below you will find the reminders for upcoming deadlines, theory classes and the above mentioned events. PLEASE make sure you check the calendar frequently on this website. Thank you!

STUDENT DAY

Please see the Student Day Aural theory schedule located to the right of this page, under the Student Day tab. Please plan to take the Aural exam first to avoid missing the scheduled test time. Students can take their time in the written exam room.

1. DEADLINE REMINDER: Students entering Federation Festival need to add $13.50 entry fee to your November tuition.

2. The schedule for the remaining two Theory Classes was emailed to you last week. If you cannot find the email,  email me and I will resend it to you

3. Please remember that there are Group Master classes in lieu of regularly scheduled classes the week of November 4-9. The boys classes will be from 5:00-6:30PM on Monday, November 4th. The girls classes will be either from 4:00-5:30PM  or 6:00-7:30PM

4. We will be having our Christmas recital at First Christian Church in Fort Lauderdale (where we held our Spring Recital this past year) on Monday evening, December 16th. More information will be on the Recitals link to the right of this page.

5. Regarding Recitals:  Students who do not have their pieces comfortably memorized by two weeks before the December 16th recital date, will not be permitted to perform. We will be playing at an area nursing home, so please plan to participate there as well. Details will follow closer to December.

Hello Everyone and Welcome Back!

Lessons begin the week of August 26th. Tuition will not be due until the first lesson in September.

The official calendar for the school year will be posted on the website by the time lessons begin. Please take the time in September to look it over and mark any deadlines and event dates on your calendars so that you won't miss any important musical opportunities.

Two important dates to make note of:

1. There are no lessons the week of September 9-14th. 

2. Saturday, October 19th, the wonderful cellist, Jonah Kim will be in concert at St. Mary Magdalene Church in Coral Springs as a part of the Coral Springs Friends of Music Concert Series. Please look him up on Youtube. I highly recommend attending with your whole family as he is a very passionate performer as well as technically brilliant. Reduced price tickets are offered to students ($5) and their parents ($15).

Here is a recent video of Jonah Kim that you may enjoy:

I am very excited to begin another year of making music together and have missed seeing you each week. I hope your summer was fun and filled with joy.

www.teacherfiles.com

HAPPY SUMMER!!!!

Happy Summer! When summer vacation begins, it can become easy to let your piano practicing go by the wayside. Summer can be a great opportunity to really grow as a musician. Below are some ideas to help keep up the skills that you developed over the past school year.

1. Since there is no homework and you will have more free time, how about upping the amount of time you spend at the piano. If you usually practice 20 minutes a day, amp it up to 30! If you practice and hour, try for 90 minutes.

2. Learn a new piece on your own. Select a piece from your piano lesson or repertoire books and teach it to yourself!

3. Set a scale challenge and work to get your scales smooth, even and FASTER (use the metronome and record your progress in your notebook)

4. Listen to a work by a classical composer every day. Youtube has so many wonderful videos of famous concert pianists playing all historical era works. Try Baroque (Vivaldi, JS Bach, Scarlatti, Purcell) one day, Classical (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Cimarosa) the next, Romantic (Chopin, Brahms, Beach, Tchaikovsky, Schumann, Schubert, Gottchalk), Impressionistic (Ravel, Debussey) and Contemporary (Kabalevsky, Tansman, Gershwin, Copland, Khachaturian, Bartok, and Joplin) can follow on successive days.

June Reminders

Dear Parents and Students,

Thank you to all students who participated in our end of the year recital. I am very proud of all that you have accomplished this year!

We would like to express our appreciation to First Christian Church for their wonderful facilities and to the Forman family for making it possible!

June Reminders:

•  This is the LAST lesson week of the year

•  June tuition is due by your last lesson

•  The schedule  for summer lessons is available, please come in during your child's lesson this week and sign up for one to six lessons. Lessons are on Tuesdays through the summer. 

•  Registration for the 2013-2014 school year is now open. The deadline for re-registration for the 2013-2014 school year is July 1, 2013. All the forms (Registration and Student/Parent Contract) are online at www.klassicallycool.com and must be filled out each year and submitted with the registration fee. When making your selection for days and times, please remember to give me at least three days and times that could work for your family. Please make sure that you re-read through the Studio Policies together with your child before signing the Student/Parent contract.

•  I will not be teaching on Mondays or Fridays this coming school year. Tuesday and Thursday, I will teach until 7:00 pm and Wednesdays until 6:00 pm

RECITAL INFO!!!!

Monday June 3, 2013

7:00 PM

First Christian Church - Main Sanctuary

201 SE13th Street - Ft. Lauderdale, Florida 33316

Dear Families: You may invite friends and family to attend the recital. You may video. Please arrive in plenty of time to set up. Be sure your battery is fully charged as I (or whoever is videoing for me) will be using the outlet to record the recital.

No flash photography will be permitted during performances. It can be detrimental for your child to have distracting flashes going off while they are trying to focus on their performance.

Dear Students: Please wear formal recital attire. Long dresses or skirts for young ladies and suits or dress pants, and dress shirts with a tie for young gentlemen. Absolutely no jeans, shorts, tee shirts, short skirts, sneakers, flip flops, clunky jewelry, long fingernails etc. Please plan to arrive at least 15 minutes prior to the recital and check in for seating with the other students.

Dear Parents: Please bring a tray of food for the reception table. Please bring a little more if you have a large group attending. Please bring it to the table in the choir room before the recital. I will provide the paper goods, coffee, cake and punch.

Also, please allow one and a half to two hours for the recital. Remember that many people will spend hours at a sporting event, yet have a hard time sitting through a shorter cultural event like a piano recital. I promise that we will move as quickly as possible through the evening and, hopefully, you will enjoy every minute. This is a celebration of all that your child has accomplished musically through out the year.