Asynchronous Junior Piano Recital

The kids enjoyed their Christmas recital so much that they immediately made plans to hold a spring recital. And then spring came and went but we didn't get around to holding a recital. And then we thought, perhaps, a mid-summer recital...but, here we are with fall rapidly approaching and obviously we still haven't done anything.

It was high time to retire some of these pieces but I simply don't have the wherewithal to put together a synchronous virtual recital right now, so we settled on an asynchronous virtual recital. Further, Rachel and Miriam weren't feeling quite ready for this (I think they had been ready earlier in the year, but then they moved on from those pieces and want to finish learning their current pieces) so they'll have a senior piano recital a little later.

We'll also be posting an encore junior recital in the near future because we learned that if the computer goes to sleep while we're recording the microphone (which is plugged into the computer) also goes to sleep, so we missed recording a duet by Benjamin and me, another of Benjamin's song, and Alexander pretending that he's also a part of things.

Without further ado, here are three of Benjamin's songs...

Bells of Great Britain:

Can-Can:

Barcarolle:

As I mentioned above, he'll have some more songs coming soon.

I think Zoë wanted to keep just about every single song she attempted this year for the recital. This is her pared-down repertoire...

Grandmother:

Yankee Doodle Went to Town (a duet with me):

Blue Bells of Scotland:

Surprise Symphony:

Swan Lake:

Lullaby (she and I disagree over how energetically this song should be played; she did her best to stay on (my definition of) tempo but in her heart I think she would like to do a remix version of this song that is much, much peppier, as you'll notice in the second half of the song):

And, finally, Country Gardens:

They did a great job and took their recording sessions very seriously. I think everyone (at our house, at least) will be happy to retire these pieces for a while so we can listen to something new! They're good kids and it's really been (mostly) a pleasure to teach them. Honestly, I never really pictured myself giving piano lessons to anyone, especially after I married Andrew, who is a beautiful piano player (I always figured he'd be the one to teach them, but it worked out at the beginning that I had more free time to teach them than he did (when we were poor and couldn't afford music teachers...and then at the beginning of the pandemic when we started living like hermits) and things kind of snowballed from there). 

My skills on the piano are rudimentary at best (I do wish I had been a better piano student when I was younger), but I find I'm improving right alongside my children, so that's a fun thing! I hope they'll have pleasant memories of piano lessons with me when they're older (even though I'm sure I don't always pass on the best technique (or instruct with the most angelic of patience)). I'll always appreciate the opportunity I had to teach them.