Holiday Musicians

Come the holidays, beautiful traditional music surrounds us and musicians are in great demand.  The Alameda Family Service League has again invited students from the studio to play for their Holiday Home Tour Dec. 9th.  Elizabeth D., Dylan L., Ayce M., and Taylan M. have volunteered their piano playing prowess to entertain the shoppers at the Gift Boutique in the basement of the Elks Club on that Saturday.  The proceeds help Alameda families.  Thank you students, for your community spirit and for sharing your talents with so many.

And all students, don't be shy about playing for your friends and family during this time.  You need not play holiday music, but any pieces you play well and like, can bring joy.  Some of you have even made programs with decorations.  What a great gift this can be.

Katy Stephan - Composer

The dance company requisitedance performed October 20, 21, 22 at the Dance Mission Theater in San Francisco and who composed the music?  Our own Katy Stephan!  Katy's talents go on and on.

New Monday Classes

Calling all 6 year olds (and everyone else too)!

There will be a new Music Preparation class, Mondays 3:15-3:45, starting Sept 11 with Katy Stephan teaching.  This is a great introductory course for 6 and 7 year olds to ready them for formal lessons in piano or other instruments.  The students do not have to practice at home, so no piano or keyboard is required.

Email Katy for more information: katyann7@yahoo.com.

Katy will also teach a Begnning Piano class, Mondays 5:00-6:00, starting Sept 11.  Students learn to read music and play the piano as simultaneous skills (unlike the Music Preparation class). The group setting makes the lessons fun, as well as non-threatening, while the teacher is shepherding the students through the challenges of music making.  Our studio is known for creating independent pianists for a lifetime of musical enjoyment.

Katy Stephan's Contact Info

Yes, Katy will be teaching ALL classes in September while Carolyn is having fun in Portugal.

Contact Katy about new classes, continuing classes and whatever else you want to ask her.
katyann7@yahoo.com.

The Long Hot Summer

Parents:  your kids are home, the weather is hot, and you need a break from their complaints of boredom.   It's a perfect time to take some piano lessons.  Especially when a student has two or more lessons/week for a couple of weeks, he or she sees tangible results.  The teachers also add some light and engaging pieces or activities during this time, so be sure to check out the on line sign-up sheet or call either Ms Q or Katy.

Summer for the teachers also brings a change of pace.  Katy Stephan is working at a theater camp in Lafayette where the children are putting on Chorus Line on July 7 and 8.  She also is teaching at the summer camp for Piedmont Children's Choir participants.

Katy is accompanying for an exceptional operatic baritone, Hadleigh Adams on July 23rd at 2 pm in Pleasanton.  Mr. Adams will be singing a Broadway program, which should be fun for everyone.

http://www.firehousearts.org/events/hadleigh-adams-classical-broadway/

Because of Katy's additional jobs, Ms Queener is currently lucky enough to a teach some of her students.  Of course, when Katy is in the studio, she gets to teach some of Ms Q's students!  It's fun for both teachers.

Ms. Q also is preparing for her trip to Portugal in mid August.  There, among many delights, she will enjoy hours of music from her nephew and his wife, who are professional jazz and classical pianists.  Also, the wife's father, a renowned guitarist in Portugal, will certainly perform.  These concerts are often in very exotic settings; a few years ago she heard the guitarist play in an under-ground cistern (don't worry, without the water) of an old fort.  The sound was heavenly!

Before we know it, summer will be ending and the regular piano classes will return to their set schedules.  Be on the look out in mid August for the calendars!

Happy 4th to all.

Secret Listener at March Recital

Yes, there was a special guest in the audience for the recital on March 26th.  Ms. Queener is fortunate to have a long time friend of Ute Puhst Freund, an opera singer who has performed in Europe and the United States and now teaches at the Universitaet der Kuenste Berlin.  Ms. Freund was visiting in Alameda just when the studio was having its spring recital and asked to attend.

Naturally, Ms. Queener wanted candid feedback from this top-tier musician and teacher, no consideration for the personal connection, please!  This is what Ms. Freund emailed to the studio: 

"I think the recital was well thought out, well paced and with 45-50 minutes just the right length for a student recital.  The pieces were absolutely adequate to the abilities of the students.  All of the 12 students seemed well rehearsed and seriously concentrating on the music.  Stage fright, that affects all performers more or less, seemed well under control by everyone as a result of excellent preparation.  They also had the routine down of taking a bow and acknowledging the applause of the very attentive audience, an important social skill.  I enjoyed very much being there.  Bravo and a big thank you to the teachers, Carolyn and Katy!!!"  

In addition, Ms. Queener and Ms. Freund discussed some individual students and there were special compliments for the expressive playing and technical abilities of those.  There were suggestions for moving some of the exceptional students to even higher levels.  All in all, every performer can be proud of their performance; the entire recital got high marks!

One piano, seven hour lay-over

One of my adult students who works for the Oakland Zoo just came back from a trip to Africa - Botswana, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.  Besides telling me of the many beautiful animals she saw, she told how she had a seven hour lay-over in London on both legs of her trip.

She beamed as she told me that she had discovered a piano at the airport that had a sign, "Play Me."  So she sat down, and did just that.  This woman is a beginner, and had not brought any music books with her, so she tried to remember some of the songs she knows, namely Ode to Joy, Marche Slav, and Old MacDonald.  She laughed as she described how all she could do was the first few lines of each song, but she kept trying and trying.  "The workers at the airport kept encouraging me, 'Keep practicing, you can get it.'  And when I played Old MacDonald, families would walk by and sing along with their kids."

There are several aspects of this story that struck me.  First, this young woman (not half my age) was not afraid to play when people could hear her.  Secondly, she didn't give up when at first she couldn't remember the pieces---she spent 2 hours at it!  And thirdly, she hadn't planned on playing the piano on her vacation, but when the opportunity presented itself, she practiced.

As you can imagine, this adult beginner is making great progress because of her attitude and her application.  What an inspiration.  And how she created a big smile across her teacher's face.

Thanks to the Student Volunteers

During Alameda Family Service's annual Home Tour, six students volunteered to play holiday music at their craft store.  Thank you Maddy K., Taylan M., Charlize S., Grace Z., Elizabeth D. and Cassie C. for your generosity, for the pleasure you gave to the shoppers, and to your contribution to all the families that the AFS helps.  May your music making always bring goodness to your community and to you!

New Beginners' Class

Happy New Year to All!

I hope you had a satisfying, delightful, musical and relaxing vacation.  I did!  It was a long one this year, and I am more than ready to restart the studio.

As many of you know, Katy Stephan will be starting a new class for beginners, ages 7+, which will meet Mondays, 5:30-6:30.  Remember, for every student you recommend, your child receives a month's free lessons.