Are you missing the sun yet? Here’s a throwback to an outdoor piano recital we had over the summer. Our instructor Alex and 50 students overtook West Bay Park by the water in Downtown Olympia and had a picnic while listening to students perform songs from Frozen, Yiruma, Kyle Landry, How to Train Your Dragon, Beethoven, Star Trek: Into Darkness, and Taylor Swift – to name a few. In an effort to overcome nerves, Alex let her students go up and perform when they felt ready, giving the recital a more “live music in the park” feel.
“I remember too many of my own recitals where I felt like every student before me on the list was just one more countdown until my doom and my terror just increased as each kid finished performing. I wanted my students to be able to conquer their nerves, and then decide that they wanted to play. It worked really well, I noticed a marked difference in my students faces when they described it afterwards. They were able to have fun before and while performing, instead of just being glad it was over or happy they did it after the fact.”
