May Update: Recital recap and other end-of-year things!

 Whew! It's summer break over here at Songbird Piano Studios. I know, it's a month still before school lets out. But I like to take summer break early. After all, who wants to be indoors when the gorgeous weather will go by so fast here in Alberta?

   The month of May included one more round of group lessons, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed! And then there was Provincials. For those who don't know, the top students in the local festivals get recommended for Alberta Provincial Music Festival. None of my students received that honour this year (maybe in the future!), but over the course of the week, I accompanied for four Parkland vocalists who did receive that honour. It was quite the experience! 

   But, of course, the climax of the month and the school year was our recital! It was a joint recital again, this time between myself, one other piano teacher, and my own voice teacher. 



   Yes, you read that right. I started taking vocal lessons in January... which meant that, for the first time, I had to sing. In public. 

   It wasn't that bad. Actually, the worst part was that it took longer to change in and out of my costume than anticipated. Coming on stage, I actually held up my own performance because my voice teacher announced me before I was fully in costume. (I was doing "Through Heaven's Eyes" from Prince of Egypt.) Getting out of my costume also took longer than I thought, so my voice teacher kindly announced my next students for me while I was hurrying to get back into my regular dress. 

   In my last update I mentioned that many of my students were doing duets for the recital. I'm pleased to say that we had a successful round of duets! Everyone played really well. It was an all-around success, from the student who, after two years of piano lessons, finally worked up the courage to come up on stage and perform "Mary Had a Little Lamb" with her little sister, to the first-year student who successfully pulled off a piece from a second-year book, to the teen student who, though she started into "This is Berk" at the speed of a Night Fury, successfully made it through all eight pages without killing the piece or herself! 

   


Now that lessons are done, I'm hoping to have some focused time for working on my songwriting. Hopefully in a month or so, we'll have another music video up for you. Hopefully. 

   Two more recital pictures for you :). 








Location: Onoway, AB T0E 1V0, Canada

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