Christopher Norton Back in Asia October 2013

Christopher Norton in Asia 24^th- 26^th October 2014

I spent most of October 2013 in New Zealand after the sad death of my wife. A projected tour of Australia had to be cancelled, but I decided to reinstate the dates in Asia that were originally in the diary. Ironically, the major event, the Music Learning Live Asia conference in  Singapore, was cancelled while I was in transit, but a fringe event was put together, which I participated in on 24^th October.

The fringe event was held at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music at Singapore University:

My redoubtable agents, Olive and Anthony Yau, were with me and had brought an excellent selection of music with them to display and sell:

See if you can identify the books in the picture.

My presentation was an introductory session to my music, so it encompassed Boosey & Hawkes material, particularly Microjazz, Preludes and Concert Collections, as well as the American Popular Piano series. About 100 teachers came to the presentation, representing many countries, including the Phillipines, India, Malaysia, Australia, even Canada. They seemed to like the music very much and sales of signed books were brisk afterwards. One student (and her teacher) bought lots of books and we gave her a chance to choose from one of my composer portraits – often hilarious pictures of famous composers with my face added. Here she is looking at the selection of portraits (she finally chose Debussy!)

My second presentation was at the Steinway showroom in Orchard Road in Singapore. This was the first presentation of what I hope will be a large number of special presentations in Steinway showrooms across Asia. Steinway Gallery Singapore helped a lot with marketing and organising the event. Their marketing department worked marvellously with Olive and Anthony, sending emails about the presentation, working on ticketing and indeed all details of the event. Numbers were surprisingly good, partly because Julie Tan, President of the Singapore Piano Teachers’ Association, helped to publicise the event. I toured with Julie last in 1990 and our association goes back even further than that. Here is a picture of Anthony Yau, CN, Chia Sinn Tech (a former distibutor of my books in Singapore) Julie Tan and Olive Yau.

A very good number of students and teachers came to the Steinway event and I talked about using contemporary styles to improve piano playing. Here’s the lovely poster that Steinway made to publicise the event:

I also had a number of students play for me and commented on their performances. Two girls played a selection of duets from Microjazz Collection 3 very expertly and with great verve. Here they are with their teacher:

There was food and drink after the presentation and I was able to talk to lots of the teachers and students who attended. Plenty of photo opportunities were taken! Here is a photo of the audience during the presentation:

Next we went to Malaysia, where an event had been put together by a very good friend, Lucy Loo, who is a very lively piano teacher as well as one of the leading lights in Christian music in Malaysia.

I visited Malaysia a number of times in the 80s and 90s and it was great to be back. We had a very good turnout for a presentation centred around the theme of Using Popular Styles. The last of the books we had available sold here. A return visit is assured!

Finally, we went to Hong Kong. I didn’t do any presentations, but we did meet with a representative of Tom Lee Music, who would like presentations in 2014.

Presentations in Asia are likely to take centre stage in 2014. This mini-tour, brief as it was, was an indication that there is an interest in my music in these territories and a desire to explore improvisation and popular styles.

Christopher Norton London, UK 6^th November 2013

Christopher Norton at the EPTA UK Conference 2013

Christopher Norton UK EPTA Conference August 29^th and 30^th 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

17^th October 2013

Christopher Norton North American Grand Tour June 21st - July 5th 2013

Christopher Norton Grand Tour June 21^st – July 5^th 2013

This tour came about because I had a request to attend the CFMTA (Canadian Federation of Music Teachers’ Associations - www.cfmta.org) in Halifax, Nova Scotia in late June/early July 2013. I suggested to the President of the Association, Lorna Wanzel, that I could attend if a Christopher Norton Piano Festival in Halifax preceded the conference. And she agreed! Working backwards from the convention, my energetic US agents, Olive and Anthony Yau (www.oliveland.com) set about arranging a number of pre-conference events in Kirkland, WA and in Victoria, Vancouver and Richmond, BC.

Kirkland (www.kirklandwa.gov) is a lovely lakeside suburb of Seattle on the shores of Lake Washington. Olive Yau has a thriving piano teaching studio there, which also doubles as an examination centre for the ABRSM. Olive is originally from Hong Kong, where the ABRSM is "the" music examination system and she first became acquainted with my work because of pieces listed on the ABRSM piano syllabus.

As readers of my occasional reports may know, I have been to Kirkland twice before, once to introduce myself to teachers in the Seattle area and a second time to put on a Christopher Norton Piano Festival. This time Olive and Anthony, her businessman husband, decided to bill the event more like a Summer Camp, with an exciting array of activities available for selection in addition to a basic package of improvisation group, master class and Gala Concert. Here is the list of activities that were on offer:

A total of 138 Camp “slots” were booked and a terrific time was had by all. I had great support from various teachers/helpers and the participants enjoyed both improvising and performing. Here are some photographs of the event, including a picture from above, a group photo and a close-up of 2 young participants:

The event culminated in a lovely Gala Concert, which co-incided with my 60^th birthday! The entire audience sung Happy Birthday and a cake was produced and cut:

I then travelled to Victoria in British Columbia and did a mini-Festival at Tom Lee Music, with improvisation and master classes. Then 2 much larger events, one in Vancouver, the other in Richmond. In Vancouver I had 19 students at once, all with full-sized keyboards!

And here is a lovely shot with students during one of the workshops:

Here is one of the master classes in Richmond:

Tom Lee Music were very pleased with all three events and would like me to come back and do bigger events in 2014.

And so to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where I did a more standard Christopher Norton Festival, organized superbly by Shahien Hamza and Lexie Blackler:

Shahien and Lexie are keen to do a larger event next year as well! And so to the original reason for going to North America – the Conference in Halifax. Apart from 2 presentations, I spent quite a bit of time on the stand of the local music dealer, playing and chatting to teachers. The final dinner was a lovely chance to see my many Canadian friends, including the redoubtable Gunars Balodis, the co-founder of Music for Young Children:

This was a most enjoyable Grand Tour and I hope to do it all again on an even grander scale in 2014!

Christopher Norton

London 3^rd September 2013

Christopher Norton at Clement Pianos, Nottingham, UK April 21st 2013

Clement Pianos has been trading in Nottingham for 90 years. To quote from their website (www.clementpianos.com)

Established in 1919, Clement Pianos are now a third generation family business. Owners Mick & Andy Wilson, both of whom are piano technicians, trained by some of the world's finest, have spent many years carefully selecting what they consider to be the ultimate instruments in each class and price category.

Apart from their wonderful piano showroom and recording studio, they also run the Nottingham International Jazz Competition (http://nijpc.com) which was won in 2012 by Jeremy Siskind, who I know well from various conventions in America and who always comes and does a duet with me on the APP stand. Small world! Here’s Jeremy (www.jeremysiskind.com)

Clement Pianos has a selection of sheet music for sale in the showroom and decided to put on a Christopher Norton event, partly due to the enthusiasm of a teacher who came to my last Nottingham presentation (see the report on that workshop at http://christophernorton.blogspot.com/2012/09/v-behaviorurldefaultvmlo.html)

The presentation at Clement Pianos started with American Popular Piano, introducing the series but also immediately launching into simple improvisation. Students and teachers had a go at this and one of the teachers did particularly well:

The audience were very interested in both the Repertoire and the improvisation Etudes and looked at the books on sale with great interest in the interval:

The second half was all things Microjazz, with video clips of students from around the world as well as performances by me and by some students who had learned the pieces for examinations. This was also of great interest to the audience, especially the backing tracks for Microjazz and the wealth of online resources now available on Youtube and Facebook.

The idea came up of both another, longer workshop day and also of a Nottingham-based Piano Festival. I hope to see some or all of the teachers and students again sometime soon.

 Christopher Norton, London, UK 24^th April 2013