APRIL 2021: ROMANTIC STYLE
Thank you to all students, teachers and parents for your participation. Videos are linked for Gold, Silver and Bronze Prize Recipients !
5-7 years old
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8-11 years old
Honorable Mention Clara Vignon-Villani
Honorable Mention Olivia Yu
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12-14 years old
Honorable Mention Ritvick Abrol
Honorable Mention Claire Chow
Honorable Mention Clayton Fong
Honorable Mention Effie Li
Honorable Mention Ella Li
15-17 years old
Honorable Mention Michael Peter Karshis
Honorable Mention Jie Liang
Honorable Mention Alyssa Xu
College (18-26 years old)
Honorable Mention Xingze Jiang
Honorable Mention Michael N Marquez
Honorable Mention Zixin Zhang
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Musicale Romantic Style Music Festival Prize Winners Concert 1
Musicale Romantic Style Music Festival Prize Winners Concert 2
2 times Gold Prize winner Masa shares about his deep love for music, and the ways it helps him to connect with the music and overcome challenges with his piano practice
Eric, Silver Prize winner shares his deep connection with Schumann's Carnaval, his process for learning the piece, and his unique experience as an international student.
Musicale Romantic Style Music Festival Concert 1
Musicale Romantic Style Music Festival Concert 4
Bronze Prize Winner at the Musicale Romantic Style Music Festival, Zhanglin opens up about his adjustment coming to study in the US and his unique perspectives on choosing a career in music.
Ethan, a silver prize winner in the Romantic Music Competition shares his passion for music and his big projects learning the Chopin Preludes and Nocturnes!
Sophia, a Silver prize winner at the Romantic Music festival talks about her new puppy, learning the Chopin Waltz and how she practices her piano.
Musicale Romantic Style Music Festival Concert 2
Musicale Romantic Style Music Festival Concert 5
Musicale Romantic Style Music Festival Concert 3
Musicale Romantic Style Music Festival Concert 6
MINI COURSES
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What defines the Romantic style? Passion, drama, energy, freedom, and virtuosity. Yet each individual composer’s own story and musical journey is uniquely responsible for shaping their music language. Our world class performing artists will take you on a journey to examine and discover the critical issues in understanding and performing four monumental Romantic composers’ music. You will discover the beauty of Chopin through his longing for his country and favorite instrument, the hero in Liszt, the intimacy in Brahms, and the dreamer and humanitarian behind Schumann’s massive emotions.
These 40 minutes sessions with Q&A will be packed with practical learning objectives and tips through repertoire like Chopin Nocturnes , Marzurkas, Waltzes, and Polonaise-Fantaisie, Liszt Sonnets, Brahms Ballads and Intermezzo, and Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes.
Bring your Romantic music questions and get them answered at these live events!
These courses are designed for intermediate to advanced level students, teachers and music lovers.
Beyond National Identity: Chopin's Longing for His Motherland
[Roberto Poli]
MAR 27
730-810pm EST
Q&A until 8:30pm
Can Chopin’s music be autobiographical? His works, from the immensity of large-scale pieces such as the Polonaise Fantaisie, Barcarolle, and Cello Sonata to the simplicity of some of the last mazurkas and waltzes, tell us much about his life in a way that is profoundly touching, intimate, and poetic.
Many of Chopin’s compositions have established a performance convention through years of aural tradition, as well as its evolution largely due to change of taste, development of piano making and increased capacity in performance venues. Pianists who love Chopin often find his tempo indications, pedal markings and slurs incomprehensible while learning his music. I will try to convey my understanding of these issues with the help of an 1835 Pleyel piano, a type of instrument Chopin loved during his lifetime as well as the newest urtext edition(s). I will perform and analyze Nocturne in F Major, Op. 15, No.1 and Mazurka in A Minor, Op. 17, No. 4, as examples.
Superwoman: The Unique Compositional Voice of Clara Schumann in Her Piano Sonata in G Minor
[Inna Faliks]
APR 10
730-810pm EST
Q&A until 8:30pm
We will delve into the unique compositional voice heard in Clara Schumann's unjustly forgotten Sonata in G minor. Written when she was twenty and unpublished until 1991, the four movement work gives us many layers - fiery contrapuntal complexity, open hearted lyricism, orchestral thinking and pianism that was Clara's alone.
If a lullaby is a love song to comfort a baby, there is something of the “lullaby” in much of Brahms’s music. From the famous Brahms lullaby itself, to the late Intermezzi, Opus 117, which Brahms himself called “lullabies for my sorrow”, a tenderness and intimacy permeates much of this composer’s music. Of course, tenderness is often the prelude to passion, and the music of Brahms exudes plenty of passion and drama as well. Although Brahms did not write “program music” per se (music that tells a particular narrative), his music does seem to speak to us with direct emotions, telling the experience of the human condition. These emotions will be explored as the key to understanding and performing the music of this great composer which is such a central, but too often overlooked, part of the pianist’s repertoire. (Examples will be drawn from the 1st Ballade, Opus 10, the Rhapsody Opus 79 No. 1, the Intermezzos, Opus 117 No. 1 and Opus 118, No. 2).
Liszt: The Artist as Romantic Hero
[Michael Lewin]
APR 24
730-810pm EST
Q&A until 8:30pm
Franz Liszt- his life and music epitomize the Romantic Era. A man of great contradictions. The greatest pianist of all time- who stopped concertizing in his thirties. Composer of over 1,500 piano pieces. Inspired by nature, art, literature, God, travel. Devoutly religious, yet famous for his many romantic liaisons. Inventor of impressionism, atonality, famed for pushing the boundaries of piano virtuosity and pianistic effects. Virtuoso, nationalist, writer, lifelong champion and transcriber of other composer's music. Let's take a look at this tremendously influential and charismatic figure, whose legacy is still felt by anyone who plays the piano. We will examine his famous Petrarch Sonnet No. 104, music of passion and poetry.