Christopher Norton Piano Festival Brisbane 27th September 2012

Christopher Norton Piano Festival at Masson Music, Brisbane, Australia, 27th September 2012

My last tour of Australia included a presentation at Masson Music in Brisbane (www.massonmusic.com) and this was the venue for the second Christopher Norton Piano Festival.

This Festival was a one-day event - this meant students from more than one Level working together for both improvisation groups and master-classes. This sounds like an awkward idea, but in fact it worked surprisingly well to have some students work on a Level 1 piece while Level 2 students watched and listened (and then the other way round...)

There were around 25 students spread across the day, so it was easy to give each student individual attention, especially during the improv group work. Every student played their 2 "improv" pieces with the rest of the group from their Level, with backing track, and every student also got to play both set rhythms and their own completely new ideas.

As the picture indicates, one teacher had her students smartly kitted out in yellow tops and by some strange co-incidence everyone else wore white tops, so a bit of friendly team rivalry developed! Fierce concentration was in evidence from some of the very young players, especially during their master-class:

There was a very impressive age-range in evidence – from as young as 7 to late teenage and we heard a number of very spirited and accurate performances during a very intense day. It was great to see quite a number of Level 8 students doing demanding pieces and Improv Etudes, as well as performing Latin and Rock Preludes to a very high standard.

The whole day was held upstairs at Masson Music, who were able to provide a very impressive array of keyboards for the event. And at the end of the afternoon the room was opened out and we gave a concert to an enthusiastic audience of parents and teachers. The Gala Concert featured confident solos, tight ensemble pieces and a demonstration of some of the improvisation ideas worked on during the day.

Brisbane, 30^th September 2012

Christopher Norton Piano Festival Sunshine Coast 28th Sept 2012

Christopher Norton Piano Festival Warana, Sunshine Coast, Australia, 28th September 2012

And so to the Sunshine Coast – what a great name for what is a lovely part of Queensland! I stayed at Mooloolaba, right on the beach (hey, someone has to do this stuff!) and found my way, via my trusty GPS, to Kerry’s Keyboards in Warana for another one-day Piano Festival.

Kerry’s Keyboards, as the name implies, is a keyboard shop, so all of the students had superb Yamaha pianos to play on.

Once again, I had “mixed” groups and once again it proved to be fine as an idea – improvisation group work can be quite intense, so students were quite pleased to be able to have a break to observe during their session. We had just one Prep Level player, who did very well and thoroughly enjoyed her place in the sun.

Students had also prepared pieces and Improv Etudes from all Levels (1 through 8) and we really created a fine sound in the store. Here are some more students from the intermediate Levels:

The master-classes were a delight, with many well-prepared students eager to learn and quick to respond to suggestions about technique or interpretation.

And some teachers who took part really enjoyed the improv and proved to be superb improvisers.

Having had a very enjoyable day making music and discovering their own musical “voices”, the students (and I) were amazed and delighted when we got to the venue for the Gala Concert, which was a beautiful private home with a room big enough to seat an entire audience. There’s a photo on my Facebook page (Christopher Norton – Composer) posted by the teacher whose home was the concert venue. Do check it out. It was a lovely end to a very positive day for me and for the students.

Brisbane, 30^th September 2012

Christopher Norton Piano Festival Adelaide 24th & 25th September 2012

Christopher Norton Piano Festival in Adelaide, Australia, 24th and 25^th September 2012

During my tour of Australia last January I promoted the Piano Festivals concept and as a result I returned in late September for my first Piano festivals tour of Australia. The organiser for the inaugural event, a 2-day Festival in Adelaide, was Lesley Beale, a local music teacher who has over 70 students! She was a calm, unflappable presence and everything about the event was well thought out.

Both days had the same pattern – I first worked with 12 students (all at the same Level) on improvisation for an hour, using 2 American Popular Piano pieces. I made sure that every student had a chance to create something distinctive to them and a chance to feel good about their own ideas. The students also enjoyed working in a keyboard “orchestra” and ended up playing and listening much better both as individuals and as a group.

After a short break, we then went to a master-class, where the same students got to play a prepared piece on a grand piano kindly lent by a local piano dealer. Sometimes with the rest of the group played along on their keyboards if a particular point needed emphasising in a practical way. I was at pains to be positive and affirming of the students’ efforts and we all saw some real progress in technical and musical terms.

Then the whole process started again with another group of students at a different Level. We had students at Preparatory Level, Levels 1-4 and Level 6.

During the master-classes, I made a quick note of performers who felt “secure” musically and technically, with a view to them being included in the concert at the end of day 2. There were quite a few duets on offer as well as lots of solos. Many students, particularly the younger ones (the youngest student was 5 years old) had chosen American Popular Piano pieces that had a teacher accompaniment, which I played.

By the end of day 2, we had a list of performers for the concert. We also invited every improv group to be part of the concert, playing an ensemble piece as an item, but also doing some improvisation on stage.

The large and enthusiastic audience was treated to a display of musicianship and piano playing that encompassed all of the Festival participants. A great time was had by all, even the performers!

 Go to Christopher Norton -Composer Facebook page to see Cynthia (5 years old) play Song of the Steppes from American Popular Piano Level 1 on video.

September 2012

Christopher Norton workshop in Nottingham, UK

Christopher Norton workshop in Nottingham, UK, 9^th September 2012

I recently did a workshop in York at The Musicroom – it went well and led to an invitation to present a workshop in Musicroom’s Nottingham store, a smart and modern store in the Victoria Centre in the centre of Nottingham. It was their first workshop and they had set up a splendid display of music and a brand-new Roland HPi-7 piano (http://www.roland.com/products/en/HPi-7) which has a “Christopher Norton” button.

The teachers who came to this workshop could well be described as hard-core Christopher Norton fans (yes, there are some!) One of the teachers was pleased to find Levels 6 to 8 of American Popular Piano displayed, a series only just becoming known in the UK (www.americanpopularpiano.com). He had already been using all of the earlier Levels for some years now, as well as the Connections series (www.christophernortonconnections.com), which is technically not available in the UK at all! He had students with him at the workshop. Another teacher was very familiar with Microjazz and uses it with her 50 or so pupils on a regular basis. She was so taken with the workshop she immediately set about arranging another, larger event in Nottingham, probably an official Christopher Norton Piano Festival.

Here’s a group photo:

Most striking of all perhaps was the presence of Rachel Jennings, who is primarily a violinist, with publications with Faber Music (Red Hot Violin) and has her own website (http://www.violin-tuition.co.uk) She was a fanatical player of Microjazz piano pieces as a child (and still is) and we decided to try a couple out on the spot, spontaneously arranged for violin and piano. As a result, she is going to do a number of arrangements of Microjazz piano pieces for violin and piano, which will be available through Microjazz Plus (www.christophernortonpublishing.com) Here’s Rachel, holding a postcard of a drawing she did as a child inspired by the original  Microjazz art-work.

My presentation was in 2 parts – an introduction to American Popular Piano with an emphasis on improvisation, then Microjazz and Beyond, which gave the teachers and students a quick overview of the series, including the recent books like MicroRock, MicroSwing and MicroChristmas.

I do hope to be back to do a large event in Nottingham in the new year. Thanks to Musicroom Nottingham for putting on this very enjoyable event.

CN London 16^th September 2012