Minnesota June 2012

One of my earliest adopters in the US was Jon Michael Iverson, who teaches at the MacPhail Center for Music in central Minneapolis (www.macphail.org) Jon has recorded lots of my music, including superb videos of pieces from both American Popular Piano and Connections, with MacPhail students. I played at his wedding concert last year and also did some presentations at MacPhail and Jon decided to launch Christopher Norton Piano Festivals in the USA in Minnesota. Here’s Jon, standing next to the poster he created for the Festivals, and also Gayle Marcus, the Willmar teacher who found the excellent venue for the Willmar Festival:

 Jon also created an excellent website – www.thechristophernortonproject.com - that details how Festivals work and includes nice photos and video clips. Do check it out.
We started the proceedings in Minneapolis, with a showcase for teachers, held in a Schmitt Music store in the Brooklyn Center. There was a small but very appreciative audience and three of the teachers were so interested in the improvisation that they decided to come again the following Tuesday for a further hands-on session. This Minneapolis showcase was like my Australian presentations in January – featuring American Popular Piano, Connections and Microjazz.
On the Saturday and Sunday we had a large Piano Festival in Willmar, a city two hours west of Minneapolis. Two local teachers, Megan Gilles and Gayle Marcus, had done a fantastic job of getting students and their teachers organised for this event – there were nearly 70 participants. The event was held at a local college – we were on the main stage for improv groups:

 and in the college choir room, with a lovely grand piano, for the masterclasses:

 The combination of improv groups and masterclasses meant, as I have discovered before, that there was a very friendly and relaxed atmosphere when it came to the Gala Concert and the relaxed nature of the event was much appreciated by the many parents and friends who came along to support their children.

Jon and I drove back to Minneapolis on the Sunday night, through torrential rain and almost continuous lightning!

The Monday Piano Festival was held at St Thomas, a beautiful campus in Minneapolis. I know the head of the piano department, Vanessa Cornett-Mutada (we play Draw Something on line – she’s really good!) and the facilities include a great piano lab, which we used. I had a small number of students for this day event – 14 in total – so it felt more like a summer camp and was in fact very enjoyable for me and for the students as a result.

 I was able to provide almost one-on-one improv sessions, which were really fruitful, and we used a lovely grand piano for the masterclasses, which I was able to give without too much pressure of time per student. We got some truly spectacular results, all of which were in evidence at the Gala Concert, held in the gorgeous concert hall back at MacPhail.

 I attended a wonderful concert last evening. It was at Antonella Hall, MacPhail. Christopher Norton had conducted a clinic for piano students of teachers in the Twin Cities and MN. Students worked on improvisation with Chris. The Gala Concert consisted of students performing their pieces with Christopher. The music was, as many of you know, jazzy, uplifting, fun, and includes some difficult rhythms. For those of you with piano students, please consider this clinic next year when Christopher returns.

My final event was with three teachers in Minneapolis – a hands-on improv session using American Popular Piano. This proved to be a very fruitful session and I’m sure all three teachers will now incorporate improv into their teaching programme.

CMVR - Conservatório de Música de Vila Real, Portugal

Workshop report written by Victor Gomes

The acclaimed worldwide pedagogue and composer Christopher Norton has been last 19th May in Vila Real – Portugal, to hold a workshop in CMVR (http://www.conservatoriodemusicadevilareal.org/) dedicated to his own teaching methods and music improvisation. The event was specifically targeted to the conservatoire community and a massive participation took place among students and teachers. Chris Norton, presented his most popular method – The Microjazz – and also The American Popular Piano method, in which the interaction with the students was rather appreciated.

For the event, C.N. made his full presentation on a HPi-7, combined with a FP-7 and an acoustic grand piano, all property of the CMVR. In fact, Mr. Chris Norton strongly suggested the board to use an HPi series in his workshop, once he could use very easily the ‘Christopher Norton File’ and show many of his music files and the advantages of using it through the HPi-7. 
Besides those instruments, a personal laptop was used to show some informations and videos on a data show.

Most part of the tunes he played (or showed) included accompaniments on Midi File format and also Audio Tracks, some of them coming out from the HPi-7 itself. Besides that, it was shown the benefits of using the DigiScore system to display the scores.

As a result of the huge success achieved with this event, the board of the CMVR is considering to organise a 2nd event with Christopher Norton – a Piano Festival – which will be based, for sure on Roland digital pianos/keyboards.  
All the teachers present at the workshop were so surprised with C. Norton pedagogical suggestion and methods, that they felt the need to acquire some more skills regarding the endless pedagogical resources of the HPi-7. In this meeting not only piano teacher will be presented, but all the other instrumental teachers as well.

The event was widely broadcast throughout the local media, but the echoes of such event will spread all over many other official music schools in the country. It was the very first time that an official Portuguese music school organised an event like the one. 


Christopher Norton was, as always, very supportive, highly professional, but also very happy with the success of it. He put on his website and Facebook an extensive report of the event.

Vila Real, Portugal May 2012

I’ve had a major fan in Portugal for probably 25 years – Victor Gomes, formerly education specialist at Roland Portugal:

He has always loved the Microjazz series and the midi files that accompanied the books and promoted both very effectively for many years. He now teaches at Conservatories in both Porto and Vila Real and was very keen to get me to visit them, initially the Conservatory in Vila Real. This is no easy task in the present economic climate. As Victor put it:


It has not been easy for them, as the economic situation in Portugal - especially with what concerns educational policy - has been very, very severe. Schools are striving hard to get doors open, because the government simply cut the funds to the conservatoires and music academies. 


After quite a bit of to-ing and fro-ing we got it together and I flew from London to Porto on a very late flight (air traffic controllers in Portugal decided to strike on the day I was travelling) So late that we arrived in Vila Real, by car from Porto, at 3.45 am!


By 9.30 the next day I was speaking to nearly 200 students. Most of them had never heard of Microjazz or me, so it was a chance to introduce them to the sound of Struttin’, Intercity Stomp etc. I got various students to come and play with me, which the audience loved. Here’s one of my Portuguese students, concentrating hard:

You can see it’s quite a large audience and also that the facilities were very good – a grand piano in a lovely concert hall, along with a Roland HPi-7 (which contains a Microjazz selection) 


I introduced students to the Microjazz series, to Microstyles, the Concert Collections and Preludes and the new Micro series. They saw video clips of students playing pieces and were happy to take part with clapping and vocal percussion and singing. And quite a few students played for me, not just on piano:

The Microjazz books for instruments with piano were described and in some cases illustrated with off-the-cuff performances, along with Concet Collection pieces for flute, clarinet etc.


I finished by doing a quick overview of American popular piano, going straight to improvisation, using the Preparatory book. This was of great interest to both students and teachers and before the end of the day I had done some work with teachers on improvisation. Here’s a teacher having a go at simple improv:

Vila Real is a delightful town and we were able to sample some of the excellent local food (especially little savoury pies – a return visit is definitely in order!) and wine on this brief visit. 


Victor and the Conservatory are keen to put ona series of Christopher Norton Piano Festivals in northern Portugal, which would be wonderful. My thanks to the Conservatory for being prepared to have a foreign visitor in these straitened times. I hope to see you all again soon!

Toronto, Canada, May 2012

My very first Piano Festival was in Canada, in Fort McMurray, but Toronto has become an annual fixture on my calendar and this was the 5^th Christopher Norton Toronto Piano Festival, organised by the indefatigable Liselotte Jongedijk.

Day One was in Richmond Hill and was hosted by Miss Linda’s Music Studio and sponsored by Cosmo Music, a large music dealer with amazing facilities, including a first-rate concert hall.

I began with an improv group, using one of the rooms at Cosmo Music that accommodate lots of keyboards. The children enjoyed playing together and also seemed to enjoy the chance to come up with their own ideas (as long as they could repeat them!) Here are some of the students hard at work:

The day involved masterclasses as well as improv groups and both teachers and parents sat in on the sessions. The performers were well prepared and were also open to suggestions from me, especially if it made the piece easier to play! Here’s a master class student trying to concentrate while I demonstrate a point:

We moved to the concert hall later in the day and proceedings were rounded off by a Gala Concert, where students played for a very appreciative audience, with me busking along as required.

On Day 2 I went to The Toronto Montessori School, where a group of very well-prepared students took part in an afternoon masterclass. A number of the students also attended the main Piano Festival later the same day and were able to take part in another masterclass as well as an improv group. The piano teacher at the school, Lori Cotton, has used my material for many years and the performers were among the best I’ve heard in Canada. I hope to see them and their teacher again in 2013.

And so to the main event, the Toronto Piano Festival organized by Liselotte. Spread across 2 days and featuring over 50 students, this was a chance to work in some detail on improv with children as young as 7 and as old as 15. It was also a chance to make helpful adjustments to solo performances. We achieved some spectacular results and also had a lot of fun. Here are some pictures of students at work:

The Gala Concert was a wonderful end to the Festival – a large and very appreciative audience were treated to some breathtaking performances by solo performers as well as tight playing from the improv groups and some amazing improvisation from the older students. It really was a special occasion for everyone concerned. Roll on the next 5 years!