The Piano Shop Bath has continued its sponsorship of student recitals with local piano teachers Susanna Downes and Edward Bettella. The quarterly recitals give students the chance to hone their performance skills, with family and friends invited to enjoy and support their playing. Edward Bettella, who works for The Piano Shop Bath, gives this insight on the recital,
“In music exams, a large part of the marks are given to performance, and yet there is little guidance on how to work on this. This is because performing is something you have to do regularly in order to gain experience; you learn how to deal with the inevitable nerves and demands of concentration.
Creating a performance environment is not a simple task. With family and friends at home, you inevitably get used to their presence and quickly feel comfortable. However, when you play to an audience outside of the home, everything changes. Nothing can quite imitate the adrenaline you feel when performing to a room of mostly strangers. This is where the student recitals come in, to provide that environment on a regular basis.
A performance on the Yamaha C7 grand piano
St John’s church provided the setting; located conveniently just round the corner from the Piano Shop Bath, this medium size hall, with excellent acoustics, provided the perfect setting for the recital. And the piano. Delivered by the Piano Shop Bath’s professional delivery team, the Yamaha C7 concert grand was swiftly unloaded and placed centre stage for the concert. This is a beautiful instrument, with an exceptionally balanced action and tone. This kind of an instrument enables better playing simply because you have more control of all the possible nuances you want to put into your music. In addition, playing such a powerful and beautiful instrument can provide inspiration to even the shyest of pianists!
As performers and families arrived, it quickly became clear that this event was going to be a sell- out! A fantastic turnout ensured rapturous applause for all the players, all of whom excelled in their performances. The occasion was clearly motivating everyone to play their best performances, making parents and teachers proud. All the players were awarded a certificate for their efforts and the question soon being asked was, ‘When is the next one?’ We look forward to organising the next recital in the summer and continuing our collaboration with the Piano Shop Bath, which has done a great deal to ensure that the students had a superb instrument to play on.”
Certificates being awarded at the Spring Recital, sponsored by the Piano Shop Bath
The Piano Shop Bath welcomes opportunities for collaboration with all piano teachers. As the only piano showroom in Bath and one of only a handful in the South West region, we are always looking at ways to promote piano playing and learning. If you have an idea that could work in our showroom, please get in touch as we are very willing to discuss new projects.