21st Century Piano Repertoire Workshops

excerpt from Sketches, “Daydream” for solo piano by Yours Truly

As promised, I am going to discuss the highlights of this we weeks workshops that Marvin and I both presented.  Okay, so it was Marvin’s workshops and I was more like his wacky side kick.  I say this because Marvin is a pro at this stuff and is like a walking encyclopedia when it comes to 21st century music.  I, on the other hand, am just getting started in terms of “getting out there” and still have lots to learn.  However, both workshops went extremely well and were a success.

Just to recap, Marvin and I presented two workshops: one was on Monday for his musical styles piano pedagogy class at Westminster Conservatory of Music in Princeton, NJ and the other was for The Bucks County Association of piano Teachers at Jacobs Music in Willow Grove, PA.  Marvin presented some selections of 21st century piano repertoire, which he intends to record on CD in the future.  The pieces he presented were intended to serve as an introduction to the vast amount of music that is available for both piano students as well as professionals.  He did a great job and gave some useful resources where piano teachers could find and learn more about the available repertoire.  Marvin introduced me as a living composers and his piano partner.  I had the opportunity to present a few selections of my original piano works and to discuss the importance of color in my music.  Marvin even opened both workshops with his performance of one of my early works, The Castle at Sunrise.  He uses the opening of this piece as his music theme for Classical Discoveries.  Furthermore, Marvin and I also presented some 20th/21st piano literature for one piano four hands.

We got a lot of positive feedback and had a great turn out on both workshops, especially the one we did in Pennsylvania.  I had the pleasure of finally meeting Joe Barron of Mongomery News in person.  After we finished our workshop for The Bucks County Association of Piano Teachers, Joe, Marvin, Beata (Marvin’s wife), and I all went out for a nice lunch together.  It was a great day and it was my first time ever visiting Philadelphia.  I was pretty excited about that.

I owe a lot to Marvin for helping me share my story with people.  Opportunities like that don’t come around that often in life.  He truly holds great esteem for what I do and I am very lucky to know him both as a music professional and friend.