Fall Piano Recital 2012

Our kids recently participated in the fall Suzuki piano recital.  They got to play in a lovely little concert hall on a fabulous Bosendorfer grand piano.  Our daughter's attitude toward playing piano has improved tremendously after completing her volume one Suzuki solo recital this past September.  We had heard that getting through the first book is the most challenging emotionally.  One of our kids' piano teacher's former students wrote a letter to her current students encouraging them to press on through the challenges of book one.  He majored in music and composes pieces for musicals and other venues.  He added in his letter that piano playing is a great way for boys to impress girls, too.

Now that our daughter has the basic technical skills mastered, she is more free to play pieces she really enjoys in addition to her volume two Suzuki pieces.  She really plays well under pressure and is getting to the point where she has acquired skill she can always enjoy instead of losing that skill had she quit when she first considered it.

I love the top photo and the reflection in the piano lid.

Our son's attitude has consistently been great toward piano playing, and his teacher thinks he's on his way to becoming an excellent pianist some day.  I love watching him practice with such fierce concentration for a little boy.  He really seems to love playing and often wakes me up with his early morning practicing.   When he reaches the more challenging parts of book one, I hope he will persevere.

We initially learned about this piano teacher from some friends we met through our home school co-op.  Their youngest daughter is close in age to our son.  She started taking lessons at age three and has already completed her book one recital.  She's a natural and makes playing piano look so easy.  At each semiannual recital since our daughter began taking lessons, we have taken a photo of their youngest daughter and our son together.  He did not start taking lessons (albeit short 15 minute lessons) until just a few weeks before the fall 2011 recital, but he has attended all of his sister's recitals.  Here are some photos from those recitals over the years.