Halloween Lessons

Just a food for thought post on Halloween.  Does your piano teacher offer lessons on Halloween?  Are the lessons interrupted by trick-or-treaters?  Do you wear a costume to your lesson?

Hopefully there are no scary lessons today!

Brunner Studios will have our piano, voice, or oboe lessons at the regularly schedule times today.  Students were offered the opportunity to choose a different time slot for this week if there was a conflicting event for this evening.  Hopefully everyone will stay safe and have fun this evening.

NFMC 2013

This is just a reminder that Brunner Studios will be participating in NFMC Festival and Scholarship Festival in February of 2013.  Piano, voice, and oboe students are welcome.  This is a great festival to learn the ropes or to participate in a competition.  Students will begin receiving music next week to reduce the stress of learning music over the winter holidays.

If you are interested in participating in this event or beginning music lessons please contact Brunner Studios.  It is not unreasonable to think that a student could begin lessons now and participate in this event in February.  National Federation of Music Clubs is a nationally recognized music organization.

For more information regarding piano, voice, or oboe lessons please contact Brunner Studios. 

New Christmas Books

As a piano teacher, I spend a lot of time playing music that isn’t mine.  It’s rare that I get to play the piano for pure enjoyment of the music and it not be a project of some variety.  Well, it’s that time of year again.  It’s time for Christmas music!  I love piano Christmas music.  If you saw my music library you would probably think I’m a little crazy.  So when I was at Music and Arts 2 weeks ago and saw new Christmas piano books, that was it.  I had to have some new books.

First up is Simply Christmas by Jerry Ray. Now you have to understand.  Christmas with Style by Jerry Ray is just about my favorite Christmas book to play from.  The arrangements are great and not overly difficult.  So when I was Simply Christmas it was meant to be. I was not disappointed.  This is a great book.

The second book I picked up was O Come, Let Us Adore Him by the publisher Lillenas.  Lillenas published my favorite hymn arrange book so I thought this was a pretty sure bet.  This book was obviously made for church pianists.  It includes transitions between every song.  The arrangements are pretty and very playable.

So there you go, I am already playing and teaching Christmas piano music.  The recital is only a month away. I should go practice.

Fall Recital

Brunner Studios is happy to announce that our fall concert has been scheduled.  We will be playing at Miller Piano on Independence Blvd on November 17 at 3:00.

Recitals provide an excellent opportunity for students to practice their performance skills and to show off what they have been working on.  Students will be able to perform up to 3 pieces.  Right now the studio is having a competition to help us memorize those recital pieces. 

I would love to see community members and other teachers in the audience.  The more the merrier!

UNCSA Piano Weekend- Part !

I just wanted to say good luck to the students from Charlotte who are participating in the UNCSA piano weekend/competition on Saturday.  From the roster it looks like Brunner Studios and Pamela Mullins are sending students to represent the Charlotte area. 

 

Good luck and I hope you all learn a great deal about music, performing, and yourselves.

What A Problem To Have

I am teaching a wonderful group of students piano lessons right now.  In fact, they are so great they aren’t giving me much material to write about on how to run a studio.  What a problem to have!  We are learning Halloween music and Christmas music started leaving the studio this week. 

I am so proud of my younger students.  I have 3 students who just started lessons last year and are about to move from 30 minute to 45 minute lessons.  These kids are really practicing and excelling in their art. 

More students are participating in the National Achievement Program and one will be playing in a Piano Sonata competition later this month. 

This group of students is working hard!