The 75th Birthday Recital

I grew up playing piano since my mother was a piano and voice teacher. Music was the center of my life.  Many evenings we gathered around the piano and we sang – my sister was a soprano, I was a second soprano and my mother was an alto and we sometimes sang trios and duets. My sister and I also entered high school piano solo and duet contests. During much of high school we had two pianos in the home – one a Steinway Concert Grand.

(in future website blogs, I’ll tell the story of the piano.) We played two piano duets and performed in a few places around Wisconsin. Then, I took piano lessons for one semester in college. And when I lived in Los Angeles, I had a piano duet partner for about 6 years – we played little house recitals three times a year.

I went back to piano about three years ago after not taking a lesson for 50 years! I had not been playing piano at all for about eight years because I have a neurological disorder called dystonia (a result of a small automobile accident 11 years ago) and I wasn’t able to play. With the help of a doctor in Houston, I am about 95% better. With her help, I was able to return to piano about three years ago. When I had my 50th college reunion in 2017, our drama group decided they wanted to get together and also have a drama reunion. We decided we wanted to sing some of the music from Kismet, which we had performed in 1965. (I was a harem girl in the Chorus.) I volunteered to accompany them, not knowing the amount of practice it would take. I started practicing in April for our October sing-along and realized I could go back to playing – at last!

I found an excellent piano teacher – Abe, and then when he went on vacation, he recommended Sara to me. I liked both of them and decided “why have one great piano teacher when you could have two?”

In April, 2018, I bought an Estonia Grand Piano after looking at pianos for about four months. I expected I would buy a Steinway or maybe a Yamaha but I fell in love with a piano I had never heard – an Estonia Piano. This was the one! (Yes, you can fall in love with a piano. We visited the piano factory in Estonia in November where they made my piano.)

 

I play duets with several people, including my teachers and I’m currently also playing piano duets with Maryann and have a new duet partner, Jan. Maryann and I and Jan and I are planning on entering an International Two Piano Competition this fall. I have amazing joy from doing this!

I usually start my day practicing 4 difficult measures for 3 to 5 minutes. I am never at a loss to find difficult measures to practice since there are many in many of the pieces I am playing.

Now that I am retired, I try to practice some in the morning and also some in the afternoon – 30 to 60 minutes each time.

My teachers don’t exactly know how to define me because I am an intermediate pianist that plays some advanced music. I make up for the challenges by being very disciplined at how I practice. My musicality is at a higher level than my technique is.

August 27th is my 75th Birthday. The original plan was a Birthday Dinner for about 35 people, followed by a 30-40 minute Two Piano Birthday Recital at a Recital Hall.

Since I don’t expect social distancing to be over with by August 27th, I am having the recital videotaped without an audience at the recital hall. (The dinner and recital will happen when everything is safe again!) There will be two Grand Pianos on the stage – and six or seven cameras. Then I will have it edited. In early September, you will get another email announcement with a place to click if you choose to watch the recital. And I will be wearing a red ball gown!

I will be playing some fun numbers such as All That Jazz and Rainy-Day Rag (a bit of ragtime) and some beautiful and lush and dramatic pieces. And then I will be playing the solo that my mother played at an international piano contest when she was 18 – and she won! (Caprice Viennois by Fritz Kreisler in case you wanted to listen to the piano solo on YouTube. This was originally a violin piece but look for the piano solo!) You might also enjoy listening to the Danse Macabre by Saint Saens – which I will be playing as a two piano duet and which is 10 minutes long!

I am known for my interesting and unique birthday parties. So, you are invited! You can RSVP by signing up for the monthly newsletter.  It would be great fun for me to know that many people are celebrating with me!