It was a real pleasure to be part of the organizing team for the first Piano recital at Renaissance. Almost one out of three of our pupils plays the piano. It only made sense to give the piano such a highlight.
My Anh is in year 9 and along with her piano teacher they planned a 20 minute recital. Prior to the recital I had a little chat with My Anh and she was looking and sounding very nervous. My Anh is no stranger to performing in front of an audience but this time she had to whip out a whole 20 minutes of music that is technically and emotionally very challenging. These challenges are many fold. One the one hand, she was alone on the stage. On the other hand, some composers write their pieces in terrible circumstances and often these pieces are a reflection of that circumstance or that period of time. For My Anh this meant getting into the composers heads and trying to interpret the intentions of the piece. At the same time there is an audience to please! Her program was varied and it featured pieces by Bach, Mozart, Liszt and Prokofiev. The latter 2 requiring considerably more interpretative insight than the first 2.
The personal and musical growth that this experience brings to a musician is very valuable. A big congratulations to My Anh and her teacher Nguyen Nhat Quỳ at Saigon Piano School.
