Piano Academy Parent Newsletter January 2016
To our wonderful Piano Academy parents,
Welcome back and Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful, relaxing, and music-filled Christmas break.
I just wanted to take a moment to thank each of your for your efforts this last fall. Being a “piano parent” is a big commitment and I am so blessed to work with families who recognize the immense value of music. Learning to play the piano can be a life-changing experience and I am grateful that you have allowed me to be a part of that experience for your children.
I also want to let you know that I am here to support you in that journey as a piano parent! While most of my time is spent helping, motivating, and encouraging your children, I am also here for you. I’m happy to answer any questions you have about practicing, assignments, or your child’s progress.
We’ve got some exciting things coming up in the next little bit! Our next recital is in just under 6 weeks (can that really be true??) and we’ll be preparing for that with a special practice competition that you can read more about below. These things couldn’t happen without your support!
Seeing your children grow, improve, and learn to love music is truly the best part of my job as a teacher. This past semester I saw so much growth – not only in playing the piano but in confidence, creativity, and testimony. What a beautiful gift music is to all of us! I can’t wait to see the new heights we can reach together this semester.
See you in the studio!
Lindsay
Announcing….the Piano Academy’s first-ever PRACTICE COMPETITION! 
Starting January 17
We’re excited to announce that to kick off the new year and prepare for our February recital, we’ll be holding our first annual Practice Competition! This is an exciting chance to re-light the fire under those little piano fingers… and did I mention there will be PRIZES?? Next week, we’ll be setting individual practice goals for each student, and every student who achieves their personal goal will receive a certificate and a treat. We’ll also be awarding grand prizes in multiple areas, such as “Highest Total Hours Practiced,” “Most Practice in One Day,” “Most Practice Over a Weekend,” and many more.
We’ll be sending home a special practice record and instructions sheet next week, and the competition will run from January 17th to the 30th. Please encourage your child to participate! Remember, every student who achieves their personal goal will receive a prize. While competing with other students can be a great motivator, we want our students to understand that the most important things is always just to be a little better than they were before – as President Hinckley said, to “stand a little taller.” We’re excited for this challenge and can’t wait to see the awesome results!
February Recitals
February 13 at 10:30 and 3:30
Our next recital is coming up quickly! Our formal Piano Academy recitals will be at 10:30 and 3:30 on February 13. Performing at these recitals is both an expectation and a privilege for students whose pieces are memorized and polished.
Our Community Outreach recital will be on January 30 at 3 PM at Jamestown Assisted Living in Provo. This recital is a service performance and is open to all students; if they do not have a polished and memorized piece they can play from music or only part of a piece.
Click here to sign up for either or both of these recitals! You will need to submit a separate response for each child who is performing (sorry, moms of big families!). We’re looking forward to this round of recitals!
Composer of the Month: Chopin
Polish pianist and composer extraordinaire
Frederic Chopin was born March 1, 1810, and the world has never been the same since! Chopin began writing music by the age of 8 and continued until his death in 1849. He was an incredible pianist, and well over half of his compositions were for solo piano – and, might I add, some of the most beautiful solo piano pieces ever written.
Help your family get to know Chopin this month! Check out the Chopin playlist here and help your children complete the Chopin worksheet they can get at their lessons next week for extra music bucks!
Virtues for Virtuosos: DISCIPLINE
Starting a new year is a great time to set new goals – in every area of our lives. Goals help us progress, learn, and make decisions about who we want to be. And as President Monson likes to say, “Decisions determine destiny.” But, as I think each of us knows, goals without the self-discipline to work towards them are just nice ideas.
Piano lessons are a great opportunity to teach your children the principle of discipline. It requires discipline to practice consistently, even when there are other things that seem more exciting. Remind your children that developing the self-discipline to practice will bless them in many areas of their lives, not just music! As Elder M. Russell Ballard quoted in this talk, “the quality which sets one man apart from another-the factor which lifts one man to every achievement to which he reasonably aspires while the other is caught in the slough of mediocrity for all the years of his life-is not talent, nor formal education, nor luck, nor intellectual brilliance, but is rather the successful man’s greater capacity for self-discipline.” I know that with that self-discipline and the help of our loving Father in Heaven, we can each achieve great things. Let’s start the new year off right and work hard this month!
Contact
Lindsay Bastian, Program Director
[email protected]
385.219.0774
Let us resolve to follow the Savior and work with diligence to become the person we were designed to become. Let us listen to and obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit. As we do so, Heavenly Father will reveal to us things we never knew about ourselves. He will illuminate the path ahead and open our eyes to see our unknown and perhaps unimagined talents.
– Dieter F. Uchtdorf