Frankfurt and New York, March 2012

Two of the biggest events in my calendar are the annual Music Fair in Frankfurt – Musikmesse – and the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) conference in the USA – www.mtna.org. This year, these events overlapped, so I flew from Frankfurt to New York after 2 days at the Messe. 


In Frankfurt, I had my “own” stand as part of the huge Schott Music stand:

 The person on my right is Grace Chew, a distributor in Malaysia with whom I have worked a lot in the past. She is very keen to have me back in Malaysia in the not-too-distant future.


Apart from talking to music dealers and other industry people, I was asked to do 2 presentations on my German-language book Rock Pop Basics - Der Pop - Klavier - Workshop fur fortgeschrittene Anfanger.

 My demonstration was actually on the Schott stand and apart from people interested in hearing about it, I picked up quite a lot of passing traffic. One German dealer liked the sound and look of the book so much she asked me if I’d written anything else!
I was also asked to play for a reception at the end of the Thursday and was delighted to be joined by a Schott author, Ellen Mayer, who is a great percussionist. I played Level 6 of American Popular Piano with her, both the solo pieces and the duets with tracks and she picked up on the style and groove of each piece right away. The audience seemed to really enjoy the effect. Here is Ellen and yours truly after our performance:

 I was with my fellow-director of Novus Via, Clarke MacIntosh, for the 2 days of the Frankfurt fair and we had useful meetings with various people, including examination boards, technology companies and distributors.


On the Friday we both flew to New York, staying at a hotel on the Avenue of the Americas. After a set-up day, we had our usual very colourful stand displaying the entire APP series. Here’s Richard Holbrook, who’s been with us from the beginning, at the stand:

 The Novus Via presentation was at 8 am on the Sunday morning – not a great slot in the light of potential jet-lag! Scott McBride Smith, my co-presenter, was taken ill and I found out shortly before the presentation that I was flying solo. However, the presentation, emphasizing improvisation, went down well with the crowd and created quite a bit of activity at the stand. 


I met a number of people I know well while in New York – Marianne Fleming Bryan (a Words with Friends opponent!) Jovanni-Rey de Pedro, a fine pianist I met at the Australian conference, Peter Mack and Roxana Anklesaria-Doctor from the Indian event, Andrew Hisey, my Connections editor…the list goes on and on. And I met many teachers who are enthusiastically using American Popular Piano with their students. 


I played music on the stand much of the time and also gave sometimes quite in-depth one-to-one presentations on how to use the Improvisation Modules. Here I am with one of my “students”:

Traffic to the exhibition areas was slow this year – MTNA was in New York after all! And the market is imperceptibly changing, with digital platforms about to revolutionise sheet music in the way that e-readers have revolutionized the distribution of books. We had meetings with various people who are going down that route.


Christopher Norton Piano Festivals are gradually picking up pace. Apart from the Festivals in Toronto, Minneapolis and all points Australian already in place, I had fruitful discussions with teachers from Seattle and with Roxana in India about further Festivals before the end of January 2013. Do look at the details (from Australia) below if you’re interested in putting on a CN Piano Festival in your area. And check out www.TheChristopherNortonProject.com

Christopher Norton Piano Festivals 



Who is Christopher Norton? 
London based composer, arranger, educationalist and producer Christopher Norton is universally regarded as the leader in his field. 
World-famous for the Microjazz series, Christopher's other award-winning titles include the Concert Collections of original solo piano repertoire; the Essential Guides to pop styles; and the Piano Preludes. 
Christopher’s publications are represented on the AMEB, ANZCA, NZMEB and other examination syllabi widely used in Australia and New Zealand. 


What is a Christopher Norton Piano Festival? 
Over a 2 day period, Christopher Norton works with groups of students (Improvisation Workshops) and individuals (Master-classes).
At the end of the second day, there is a Gala Concert at which most of the students perform – either solo, duetting with the composer or in their improvisation groups. 


How many students are normally involved? 
Piano Festivals work best with between 48 and 100 students, over a two-day event, with students grouped for both the Improvisation Workshops and master-classes in appropriate Levels. The students can all be drawn from one music school or from a cluster of private studios or music schools. 


What instruments are needed? 
You will need access to a number of digital keyboards for the Improvisation Workshops. Ideally, there would also be a good-quality piano for the master-classes and for the Gala Concert. Grand pianos have been used for past Festivals, as well as better-quality digital pianos, or good-quality upright pianos. 


What sort of venue(s) work best? 
You will need: a venue large enough for up to 12 students, keyboards and stands, as well as room for teachers and interested observers. Local schools and churches, as well as music retailers, have been used successfully already. You may need a larger
venue for the Gala Concert, seating a minimum of 150 people. 


How is a Piano Festival structured? 
The Festivals are normally spread over 2 days. There are normally 5 or 6 sessions per day – morning and afternoon sessions, plus the Gala Concert on the evening of the second day. 
Students are put into level-appropriate groups. Each student takes part in one Improv Workshop session and one master-class session over the 2 days, and some perform at the Gala concert 


Example timetable of a 2-day Piano Festival: 
Day 1: 
9.00-10.00 10.15-11.15 11.30-12.30 
1.30-2.30 2.45-3.45 4.00-5.00 
Preparatory Level Improv sessions 8-12 students Preparatory Level Masterclasses
Level 1 Improv sessions 8-12 students 
Level 1 Masterclasses
Level 2 Improv sessions 8-12 students Level 2 Masterclasses 
If there are students at Levels 6 and above, their sessions could be at 6.00 and 7.00 (and even later if required) on Day 1. 
Day 2: 
9.00-10.00 10.15-11.15 11.30-12.30 
1.30-2.30 2.45-3.45 4.00-5.00 
5.00-6.00 6.30 -7.45 
Level 3 Improv sessions 8-12 students Level 3 Masterclasses
Level 4 Improv sessions 8-12 students 
Level 4 Masterclasses
Level 5 Improv sessions 8-12 students Level 5 Masterclasses 
Dinner and “Meet the Composer” event Gala concert 


What student preparation is needed? 
Once students are registered for a Piano Festival, their teachers are supplied, via Hal Leonard Australia, with appropriately leveled Repertoire Books and Etudes Books from Christopher Norton’s American Popular Piano series. 
Students are asked to prepare 2 pieces from the appropriate Repertoire Book and to work on the relevant Improv Etudes. 
Students will also prepare a solo piece by Christopher Norton to present in the Masterclass, if they choose to perform. The piece can come from any publication: graded examination repertoire, Microjazz, Connections and American Popular Piano etc. Naturally, original copies of the music must be used in the Master Class. 


What will the festival cost? 
The fee for a 2 day festival is $A2500. This fee is payable to the organiser. If your festival extends over 2 days, each subsequent day is $A1000. 
This fee covers: Chris’ daily fee and expenses, Chris’ flight and transfers, accommodation, admin cost, plus 2 books per student (valued at over $35). The organise will be responsible for all the bookings and payments of the expenses mentioned here. 
The organiser pays for Christopher’s international airfare. 


What other costs should I consider? 
A venue supplied with piano and keyboards for the Improvisation Groups and master- classes (and possibly a separate venue for the Gala Concert) 


What are my sources of revenue? 
• Student registration fees (you decide the fee)
• Auditing fees throughout the 2 days – observers of the sessions.
• Gala Concert ticket sales (you decide the ticket price)
• Sponsorship (eg local businesses, regional music teacher associations) 
If carefully planned, with the right number of students registered, revenue should comfortably exceed costs. You decide how much to charge. For example: 
$A60 registration fee for 72 students $A10 observers fee for 20 teachers/observers
$A Concert ticket fee for 50 concert attendee 
$A4770 – TOTAL POTENTIAL REVENUE 
$A50 registration fee for 36 students $A15 observers fee for 20 teachers/observers
$A10 Concert ticket fee for 50 concert attendee 
$A2600 – TOTAL POTENTIAL REVENUE 


Can you supply more detail about how each session works? 
Improvisation Groups
With groups of between 8 and 12 students, all at the same level, either at separate keyboards or sharing, Christopher Norton first does improvisation sessions. These are fast-paced and entertaining and start with simple rhythm games but lead quite quickly to extended and sophisticated improvisation from every student in the group. 
Master-classes
Each participating student will have prepared a solo piece by Christopher Norton, from any publication: graded examination repertoire, Microjazz, Connections and American Popular Piano etc.
Students receive a “mini-lesson” on their piece, in public, and are given useful and applicable tips on how to play the piece better and how to play the piano better. 
Gala Concert
Christopher Norton chooses students from each master-class and from the Improvisation Groups to play at a final Gala Concert, to which all students and parents are invited. 


Quotes from recent organisers of Christopher Norton Piano Festivals: 


The Christopher Norton Event was tremendous! Christopher taught the students in a calm, yet innovative way. The closing concert was sold out and was a wonderful opportunity for the many students who performed. I’ve rarely seen such happy and confident young performers! Taking into account the $250 donation that the FMTA had pledged to the event, the Norton weekend earned approx. $1070 for our general fund! Margaret MacDonald, Fredericton Music Teachers Association, Canada 


It turns out Christopher Norton is not just a talented and prolific composer, he is truly a master teacher! From our youngest five-year-old to our most advanced adult, Mr. Norton made everyone feel at ease while achieving incredible results in their playing. I
watched in awe as our students responded to telling observations about technique and musicality. One mother said the difference in her 
child's playing was like "removing a screen" after hearing years of "timid" playing from her daughter. The improv camp was wonderful and we hope Mr. Norton will come visit again! Leslie Gereghty,
Recreational Music Center, San Diego, USA 


How to Book? 
Christopher is currently already booked for events in Toronto between 27th April and 6th May 2012, in Minneapolis between 3rd and 13th June, in Australia between September 25th and October 25th. Please note there is significant interest in these events and will Festivals  are booked on a first in first served basis. If you know the dates you are interested in having Chris work with your students, please contact:


Liselotte Jongedijk (Canada) musica88@rogers.com 
Jon Michael Iverson (USA mid-west) jon@jonmichaeliverson.com
Olive Yau (Pacific North-west) abrsmwashington@gmail.com
Gina Wake (Australia and New Zealand) gwake@halleonard.com.au 


Please also note that the information above is merely a guide as to how a festival with Christopher may run. 
You can choose the structure that best suits your school or teaching studio or business. You decide how much to charge each participant, observer and concert attendee.

Paris 2012 Workshop

France is a notoriously difficult market for writers of educational music like myself – methods in English are a non-non, there is no nationwide piano teacher organisation and there are no piano examination boards. You are trying to promote supplementary material to a fragmented audience. 

Nonetheless, individual music dealers are occasionally prepared to promote events from time to time and I found myself, courtesy of Eurostar, in Paris on a cold, clear day, trying to interest Parisians in Microjazz. My French-speaking Schott representative, Sabine Vranckx, was there, along with store managers Laura Mahé-Barichard and Philippe Lacroix. Here are Philippe and Sabine:

The store was Woodbrass, right next to the Paris Conservatoire. It’s a large store, with all instruments represented as well as sheet music. A mailing was done to promote the event and I ended up with about 12 people (and various people passing by stopping to listen as well) who were given a complete product presentation on Microjazz and all things Boosey & Hawkes. Copies of the Guide to Microjazz were given away as a further inducement. You can see one in the hands of one of the participants:

What was interesting was that there were relatively few piano teachers present and indeed a number of audience members didn’t play the piano at all! I was relying on people liking the pieces (which I think they did) and I also got the audience to clap and even sing, which they seemed to enjoy. Video clips of children playing my pieces were also well received. I covered from Absolute Beginners through to the Preludes and was warmly applauded for my efforts!


I got three people to come and play with me (none of them piano players) and, as always, I found that they did quite well playing by ear. Here is one of my “helpers” playing a duet with me:

I do hope to do more in France and we are looking into something which involves a French equivalent of Pianist magazine and perhaps Roland France combining forces to try to reach piano teachers more directly. This was a good start and taught me that there are lots of ways of presenting my material, to pianists and non-pianists alike.

IRMT Conference, New Zealand

I have been a guest of the IRMT (Institute of Registered Music Teachers - www.irmt.org.nz) in New Zealand before. This time I was already in the country prior to the “Beyond Microjazz” tour of Australia but my invitation was originally via Rosemary Miller, a wonderful piano teacher and composer based in Christchurch who can safely claim to have been my first composition teacher.

I was very pleased to be sharing the billing at this conference with Graeme Humphrey. Graeme, a fellow New Zealander, has been a Professor of Piano at the Royal Academy of Music since 1974, and has been actively involved in adjudicating, examining and teaching around the world. He is also active in seminars for teachers in the United Kingdom and abroad, and maintains a substantial private teaching practice with pupils of all ages and stages. He has a particular interest in piano duets and we, along with typesetter Andrew Jones, have created a website called www.fourhandsplus.com, that predominantly features music for four hands. A number of excellent anthologies have been produced, some of which include new compositions of mine. Graeme did a session on duets before I arrived at the conference.

My first session was called Music for Ensemble and followed on from Graeme’s session quite naturally. I began by talking about Two at a Time, the series of duet anthologies that Graeme and I have helped to create. We played together and I also got a number of teachers to join us in an expanded keyboard ensemble. 

I then talked about the ensemble aspects of American Popular Piano, ranging from Preparatory pieces to Level 6. Finally, I presented Microjazz ensemble pieces, including an on-the-spot percussion ensemble (done by the audience divided into 10 parts) created to accompany a 6-hand arrangement of Tip Top from Microjazz Collection 1! I drew people’s attention to the Microjazz Trios Collection before we finished with an SA and piano version of Joshua fought the battle of Jericho from my new choral book In the need of prayer with the full group.


I think teachers felt that the session had a definite cumulative element, with more and more performers taking part as the afternoon progressed. It was a great way to involve everybody, including a violinist and cellist.


The second session was called Getting Started, Keeping Going and was exploring improvisation. I started by talking about why some students improvise before teachers try to teach them how to do it! The reasons for this include:


: They’ve heard (or seen) music they’d like to play and try to work it out
: They’ve started to write their own songs
: They play in church
: They have jazz-playing parents (the best reason!)


This is all great, but teachers can feel left out and may need to start to explore simple improvisation ideas themselves if they are going to be able to comment usefully. American Popular Piano is a good way to start this educative process. 


We all agreed that there are a number of reasons why teaching improvisation is a “good thing” for all students – encouraging listening skills, improving time playing, even discovering the individual “voice” of the student. 


I then took the teachers through the various steps we use in APP – learning a piece, identifying its key and which notes are used, clapping a beat, clapping a (given) rhythm, playing the rhythm on the key note, then on more notes….I was ably assisted by one of the teachers, who started off doing the simple tasks required of her and ended up improvising beautifully:

I used pieces from a number of APP levels and it was clear that the methodology was useful for a variety of situations, including group lessons and for instruments other than piano. As with the subsequent Australian tour, there was a hunger for an improvisation method that actually “works” and this seemed to be one that does!


I was also pleased to meet up with Richard Mapp, a very fine New Zealand pianist who I knew as an undergraduate at Otago University and with Roy Tankersley, who I taught with at Tawa College in the late 70s. And of course there were many familiar faces among the teachers as well.

Tour of Australia and New Zealand - January 2012

I toured Australia a number of times in the 1980s, initially introducing myself to Australian teachers, subsequently promoting and explaining List E, a popular music syllabus created by the AMEB (Australian Music Education Board – www.ameb.edu.au) that strongly featured Microjazz, Microstyles and the Rock Preludes and Latin Preludes. Having established my name and material in Australia, I left it until 2012 to return – yes, over 20 years! In the meantime, the AMEB had continued to use many of my pieces and other examination boards, notably ANZCA, NZMEB and the St Cecilia Music Examination Board, had also made extensive use of my compositions in the intervening years. So when I returned to Australia I was hardly an unknown quantity. The tour, masterminded by Gina Wake from Hal Leonard Australia, was grandly called “Beyond Microjazz”. It showcased American Popular Piano, a series new to most Australian teachers, Connections, the 8-part series originated by Frederick Harris Music in Canada in 2007 and Microjazz and other Boosey & Hawkes books written since around 1990.

Teacher numbers were strong throughout the tour, which started in Melbourne on January 17^th, in a striking old church in Hawthorn. 

Every presentation on this tour was a full day presentation, starting at 9.30 and finishing at 3.30. First up each day was a session called “Simply the easiest way to improvise”, featuring American Popular Piano. This was always the most challenging session for teachers in theory, but the amount of audience participation and the simplicity of approach meant that participants were hugely enthusiastic and anxious to give it all a try back home. Here is one of my many “students” braving it on stage, this time in Canberra:

The Sydney presentation was at The Kings School in North Parramatta. I was delighted to have not only Elissa Milne, my co-presenter on the July 2011 tour (and an excellent composer herself) in the audience, but also her mother, a first-rate Australian (but originally New Zealand!) piano teacher. Here’s a picture of me and Elissa at the Sydney workshop:

The next part of the tour was in Queensland – Brisbane, Cairns and Townsville. I must at this point pay tribute to the sterling work of the dealers who bravely and ably supported the “Beyond Microjazz” tour. In Brisbane, Masson Music was the host dealer – here I am with John Masson, the owner:

Cairns in Queensland is amazingly far north (look at a map of Australia and see what I mean!) I had a small but very enthusiastic audience here:

Next stop was Townsville, which proved to be a delightful city. I was reminded by a teacher there that I had come to Townsville in the late 80s. She had her notes from that presentation with her (!) and said “see you on the next one” as I was leaving! As with the other venues, I tried to find audience members who could participate on stage and was pleased to find an enthusiastic young student to act as a demonstrator, Daniel Kelso, who is also a budding composer:

As I mentioned, Part 1 of each presentation was dedicated to American Popular Piano and the teaching of improvisation. Part 2 was called “making the Connection” and showcased the Connections series. A number of Connections pieces have already been selected by both the AMEB and ANZCA examination boards, so teachers were already interested in the series. If a number of keyboards were available, I often got a group of teachers to come and play a chord each of Samba Band from Connections 3 before getting them to improvise simple rhythms to a backing track. Here is such a scene in Launceston (Tasmania)

Part 3 of the presentations was the springboard for the tour – “Beyond Microjazz”. This involved a whistle-stop tour through Boosey & Hawkes publications that have appeared since 1990, with a particular emphasis on the Preludes series, the Concert Collections, The Easiest Way To Improvise and the new Micro series. I had quite a few video clips from Youtube of performances by students of this repertoire, which proved to be a very effective way of demonstrating how accessible the material is.. 

In Adelaide I was honoured to have Keran Bailey in the audience – he’s an excellent Australian educational composer who is also well represented on examination lists. Check out www.kerinbailey.com.au.

Perth was HOT! Here’s the temperature indicator in the car on the way from the presentation to the airport:

I was amazed to hear that people had flown in from Darwin for the presentation, not to mention a dealer from Townsville. And I was delighted to meet Martin Lamb, a musician and mathematician who I knew from New Zealand in the early 70s (yes, folks, I’m that old!)

There was a nice postscript to the Australian tour – I did one final presentation in Auckland, New Zealand. This was hosted by KBB Music and I was pleased to meet, for the first time, my cousin Leith Milson’s daughter Catherine and her piano teacher mother:

Leith is a jazz player based in Tauranga – I spent all my summer holidays with his family when I was a child. So there is music in the family after all..

The big tour finally ended, but I’m back in both Australia and New Zealand in October 2012 to be at a conference in New South Wales, but also to run a number of Christopher Norton Piano Festivals in Australia and New Zealand. These will enable me to work with lots of students and teachers, doing both group improvisation and masterclasses, using the repertoire presented on this tour. See you all soon!