Piano Performance Opportunities | Piano Lessons London & Online

🎹 PIANO HOURS | NON-PUBLIC PERFORMANCES AT TEA TIME

Pupils' Successes

Pupils have performed non-competitively and earned distinctions, 1st prizes, gold medals as well as further top prizes in examinations, competitions and festivals such as:

🏆 ABRSM exams

🏆 Jugend musiziert (German national music competition)

🏆Leigh-On-Sea Competitive Festival of Music & Drama

🏆West London Pianoforte Festival

🏆Maidstone Music Festival

🏆Farnham Competitive Music Festival

🏆Sevenoaks Three Arts Festival Milton Keyned Music Festival

🏆Ealing Festival of Music Speech and Drama

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📮 contact@pianolessons-london.co.uk

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📖 "Instrumental music is the soul of music."
Anton Rubinstein Music and its Masters

📖 "Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn."
Charlie Parker

📖 ON EXAMINATIONS
"Don't allow your mind to wander. If you think only of the music (and the mind cannot do two things at once) it will naturally follow that you will be oblivious to external surroundings. It is lack of concentrations on the matter in hand that is responsible for nervousness.
Don't worry. If you are well prepared, there is no need to be apprehensive of the result."
Alec Rowley Do's and Don'ts for Musicians. A Handbook for Teachers and Performers

📖 "I never neglect an opportunity to improve, no matter how perfect a previous interpretation may have seemed to me. In fact, I often go directly from the concert and practise for hours upon the very pieces that I have been playing, because during the concert new ideas have come to me. These are very precious, and to neglect them … would be ridiculous in the extreme."
Busoni quoted in Alec Rowley Do's and Don'ts for Musicians. A Handbook for Teachers and Performers

📖 Alec Rowley's APHORISMS
"Think big and your outlook will be bigger; think small and you will limit your horizon."
"Some performers are musical announcers; they tell of events, but are not themselves the story."
"You can mould your audience to your thoughts."
"The work is in the key of C major; it is the artists and poets who explore all the other keys."
Alec Rowley Do's and Don'ts for Musicians. A Handbook for Teachers and Performers

📖 "Music … is the outward and audible signification of inward and spiritual realities."
Peter Warlock The Sackbut (1920)

📖 "The individuality of different virtuoso performers is very marked. Although the virtuoso aspires to encompass all styles—that is, to be what you would call an “all-around” player—it is, nevertheless, the individuality of the player that adds the additional charm to the pianorecital. You hear a great masterpiece executed by one virtuoso, and when you hear the same composition played by another you will detect a difference, not of technical ability or of artistic comprehension, but rather of individuality. Rembrandt, Rubens and Vandyke might have all painted from the same model, but the finished portrait would have been different, and that difference would have been a reflection of the individuality of the artist."
Teresa Carreno in James Francis Cooke's Great Pianists on Piano Playing

📖 "On one level, music serves as entertainment, of course, and is none the worse for it. On another level, it provides inowledge or, if not exactly knowledge, insight into human experience and feeling as they extend over time. How music manages to do this is a famous philosophical problam. The best short hypothesis is that music, which on a basic level is a strange and wonderful way of filling up time, vividly represents the way time feels as we actually live through it."
Joseph Kerman and Gary Tomlinson Listen (2008)

📖 "Every so often, one should let students play what they have learnt, in the presence of several, even unknown, persons who are knowledgable about music. This is of double value; it sustains the pupil's desire to a great degree when he has the opportunity to show his progress; at the same time he gains a proper boldness which many already experienced performers are lacking, much to their detriment. If the little virtuoso has so presented his pieces that one can be pleased with them, praises coupled with admonitions for further work will be more fruitful at such occasions than during the usual lessons time."
School of Clavier Playing, §39 (1789)

"When you play, always play as though a master listened to you." Robert Schumann

Piano Performance Opportunities for Pupils

Pupils with an interest in performance are offered many different types of performance opportunities at all levels.

Some questions and answers:

How often? The frequency varies from individual to individual and depends on pupils' goals and preparedness.

Exams? Yes, of course, when required, necessary or for self-imposed deadlines to improve practice.

What types of exams? ABRSM and Trinity College.

What levels? All graded examinations from the preliminary grade to grade 8 and all diplomas.

Competitions? Yes, for all levels of skill. A complete beginner might already be able to perform in a festival after 6 months of lessons at any age. Intermediate and advanced learners have even more opportunities to try out playing for others, practice performance and win prizes. There is an overabundance of competitive and non-competitive performance opportunities at festivals in the UK and pupils are encouraged to prepare.

Concerts? Yes, different types of concert opportunities can also be offered.

Preparation? The preparation for public performances is planned well in advance. Meticulous planning ensures that pupils are well prepared, do well and remain at the lowest levels of stress possible.

Try out repertoire and performance in a safe, non-competitive, non-public environment? Since the very beginning there has been a tradition to organise non-public events for pupils giving them an opportunity to play new repertoire for each other and make friends. These events are called Piano Hours. There is tea and cake and no extra audience. The atmosphere is friendly and competition between pupils is strongly discouraged.

Competitive & Non-Competitive Piano Performance Opportunities at UK Music Festivals

There are hundreds of competitive and non-competitive music festivals for children and adult learners all over the UK. The British and International Federation of Festivals for Music, Dance & Speech offers several lists and abundant information: http://www.federationoffestivals.org.uk
Here are some of the annual festivals (from January to December):

January:

Cottingham Methodist Festival, East Riding of York Shire (January-February)

Oxford Music Festival (January-February)

February:

Chesham Arts Festival, Buckingham Shire

Colsterworth Festival, Lincolnshire

Cottingham Methodist Festival, East Riding of Yorkshire (January-February)

Milton Keynes Festival

Oxford Music Festival (January-February)

Portsmouth Music Festival

Stratford & East London Music Festival

Sudbury Festival - February - March, close to London

Watford Festival

Worthing Festival - next to Brighton, February - March

March:

Battersea Piano Festival

Bristol Festival

Bromley (Kent) Festival of Music and Speech

Burnley Festival, Birmingham

Carlisle and District Festival, Cumbria

Chichester Festival, Sussex

Chipping Norton Music Festival, Oxfordshire

Cornwall Festival

Devon Festival

Dudley Festival

Godalming Festival, Surrey

Hatfield & District Festival, Hertfordshire (March-April) - very close to London

Kettering & District Eisteddfod

Mid-Somerset Festival, Bath

Milton Keynes Festival

Richmond Upon Thames Performing Arts Festival

Ruislip-Northwood Festival

Southampton Festival of Music and Drama

Sudbury Festival - February - March, close to London

Tunbidge Wells Festival

Watford Festival

Woodley Festival - very close to London

Worthing Festival - next to Brighton

April:

Chester Festival, Cheshire

Croydon Festival, Greater London (April-June)

Ealing Festival

North London Festival (April-May)

May:

Blackburn Festival

Blackheath Music Festival

Buxton Festival

Croydon Festival, Greater London (April-June)

Fareham Festival - close to London

North London Festival (April-May)

Northfield Festival of Music & Speech

Nuneaton Festival of Arts

Reigate & Redhill Music & Drama Festival - very close to London

June:

Bournemouth Music Competitions Festival

Croydon Festival, Greater London (April-June)

Dulwich Piano Festival - SE22

Horsham Performers Platform, Sussex - close to London

Leigh-On-Sea Festival - next to Southend-on-Sea, very close to London

Sevenoaks Three Arts Festival

Wantage Music Festival - not too far from London

July:

Hornsea Festival - London

September:

October:

Longwell Green Eisteddfod (October-November)

Maidenhead Festival - very close to London

Suffolk Festival - not too far from London

November:

Beckenham Festival, Kent

Farnham Competitive Music Festival, Hampshire

Gosport Festival, Hampshire

Maidstone Festival, Kent

Marlow Music Festival

Mid Sussex Competitive Music Festival

Nailsea Festival of Music

Sutton Music Festival

West London Pianoforte Festival

Woking Music Festival

National and International Piano Competitions

Apart from regional festivals, there is also a variety of national and international competitions for young learners in the UK as well as overseas. Extensive information on international youth competitions can be found on the AAF (Alink Argerich Foundation) website: http://www.alink-argerich.org/

European Union of Music Competitions for Youth

BBC Young Musician

Concours International de Piano d'Ile-de-France

Moray Piano Competition

Young Pianist of the North

Evangelia Tjiarri Music Foundation Competition

Aarhus International Piano Competition

Ettlingen International Competition for Young Pianists

Rickmansworth Young Musician of the Year

Concours International de Piano / Conservatoire Russe de Alexandre Scriabine / Paris

Steinway Klavierspiel-Wettbewerb Hamburg

Steinway Klavierspiel-Wettbewerb Berlin

Astana Piano Passion, Kazakhstan

Sberbank Debut, Kiev, Ukraine

Krainev Competition, Kharkiv, Ukraine

International Competition for Young Pianists in Memory of Vladimir Horowitz

César Franck International Piano Competition

Merci, Maestro - International Competition for Young Pianists in Brussels

International Piano Competition „Memorijal Jurica Murai“ (Tribute to Jurica Murai) and „Murai Grand Prix“, Varazrin, Croatia

International Competition Young Virtuoso, Zagreb, Croatia