Christopher Norton UK EPTA Conference August 29th
and 30th 2013
The European Piano Teachers Association is the European
association for professional piano teachers (www.epta.co.uk) It’s mission is “to raise the standard of piano teaching, piano
performance and general musicianship in the UK by providing opportunities for
piano teachers, pianists and other interested parties”. EPTA promotes
conferences, concerts, lectures, seminars, masterclasses, workshops and other
events. Each year the annual conference brings together a lively group of
dedicated professionals.
The conference was held in
Canterbury, Kent at the lovely St Gregory’s Music Centre:
I was due to assist my good
friend Graeme Humphrey
in the opening session of the conference, a presentation
about piano duet music, specifically music Graeme has selected and edited for
fourhandsplus, the publishing venture we have embarked on (www.fourhandsplus.com) Unfortunately,
Graeme suffered a medical emergency the day before the conference (thankfully
resolved quickly) so I gamely stepped in and offered a presentation on Music
for Ensembles. I have done this presentation in Australasia and it encompasses
fourhandsplus duets, American Popular Piano ensembles and Microjazz duets and
trios. The presentation references piano duets, piano 6 hands and 8 hands and
piano with backing tracks. The audience seemed to enjoy it and I involved
various teachers, including the fabulous and awesomely talented Murray
McLachlan.
After the session, Murray very kindly described me as “not
just a national treasure, but also an international treasure” Nice!
There was a dinner that night and it was great to catch up
with teachers from across the UK.
The next morning I did a second session on “Unlocking
Popular Styles”. This covered quite a few styles from a number of different
series and it was a bit more about audience participation as a drums and
percussion vocal ensemble, giving people a chance to feel what it is like to be
the bass drum and snare for a rock style or the claves for a bossa nova piece. Here
I am at the lovely piano provided for the conference:
The audience included Lana Thompson, one of the Schott team
who do such a good job promoting my music in Europe and Asia (on the left) and
Wendy Lampa, Schott’s indefatigable product development person (on the right)
This was a nice little conference and a good chance to see
UK teachers en masse after so much work overseas.
Christopher Norton
Wellington, New Zealand
17th October 2013
