Christopher
Norton Piano Festival Coomera, Gold Coast, Australia, 29th, 30th September
2012
Coomera is on Australia's Gold Coast (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coomera,_Queensland), where a large (over
70 students) 2-day Festival was very well organised by Ashleigh Miles, a local
teacher with over 80 students of her own! This Festival was held at Saint
Stephen’s College and I was amazed when I arrived to see 12 sparkling, new
Roland pianos set up on stage, supplied by Linda from Gold Coast Pianos (www.goldcoastpianos.com.au)
Over 2 days, I did 2-hour sessions for Preparatory Level students,
then Levels 1,2,3,4,5 and 8. Every group had a one hour improvisation group,
followed by a one-hour master-class.
There are so many highlights it’s difficult to know where to
begin! I managed to get every single student to come up with ideas of their own
(and repeat them) to play well in an ensemble and to think about what they
could do to make their piano playing more fluent, their phrasing more elegant
and their attitude to piano playing more positive.
I’ll put a picture gallery up on Facebook (the page to look
for is Christopher Norton - Composer) but here are some of the master-class
participants mid-flight, as it were:
And here is one of the improvisation groups – what a
magnificent sight!
Yes, that’s the composer in shorts! It was the Gold Coast
and it was pretty hot…
The Gala Concert was in the same magnificent venue and was thoroughly enjoyed by both performers and audience.
CN Christchurch, NZ 9th October 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment