The holidays are over, and we are excited for a new year and some fun events (like a super cool competition) here at the Utah Piano Conservatory, including our upcoming piano recitals which will be held on February 16th. Recitals are a great time for students to showcase the skills they are learning in lessons and to have fun performing for their friends, family, and fellow students. It is also a wonderful way for students to gain important performance experience and to grow in their self-confidence.
We have another exciting event coming up as well. Many of you know that we use Piano Marvel a lot during our lessons here, and many of our students use Piano Marvel to help make their practicing more efficient at home. Piano Marvel often has fun challenges and competitions going on that help motivate students to learn new pieces and continue improving their piano skills. One of these events is coming up: the Piano Marvel YouTube Competition. To enter, students learn a piece from Piano Marvel, video themselves performing the piece, and upload it to YouTube by February 28th. Judges then watch each video and award the following prizes to the winners in each category:
Early Elementary (ages 5-7): $50
Late Elementary (ages 8-10): $50
Middle School (ages 11-13): $100
High School (ages 14-19): $150
Judges comment on each video, giving valuable feedback, and each entry into the competition also counts as an entry into a drawing for an iPad.
All week I have been helping students pick out pieces from Piano Marvel to learn for this competition. Many students eagerly set to work immediately and have already learned a good portion of their pieces. The thought of being on YouTube is exciting and motivating to many of our students, and I am excited for them to gain this very different type of performance experience, that of performing in front of a camera lens.