Russian virtuoso pianist performs in Taiwan

"The 25-year-old musician started learning the piano at the age of five and made her first public performance when she was six.

For the Chopin Piano Competition, Yulianna Adveeva said she had spent a year studying Chopin's life and work so that she would be able to interpret his work to the standard demanded by the contest."

http://english.rti.org.tw/Content/GetSingleNews.aspx?ContentID=117222

I thought it was interesting that she prepared 1 year intensely, studying the life of Chopin - I remember my days when I was in my twenties working towards my own competitions. It gives tremendous insight, reading up on the lives of composers and spending time with contemporaries who write about individual composers, their lives and observations. I highly encourage my students to read about the various composers, their lives, reprints of personal letters, so that composers can be understood and interpreted better. 

How I gave my family a digital detox

I came across this fantastic article and decided to share it. It is so important to included music, communication, reading and just being there together, rather than just staring at TV or some videos games - or computers. As I am recently saying more and more often:  If everyone would play piano, the world would be a better place!

Please, read the article:

The family dramatically increased their enjoyment of music, conversation . . . and sleep

The first day of The Experiment I wake up to a peaceful, almost Zen-like atmosphere in the house. No MTV blaring. No burst of computer- generated anti-aircraft fire from Bill’s room. No pinging, bleeping or — barring the birds outside — chirping of any kind to spoil the quiet.

The background buzz of technology in the household has gone. It feels good.

The only upset is that 14-year-old Sussy has left home. She’s not happy about the new regime and has packed up her gadgets and gone to stay with a friend.

Anni and her friend laugh when they come home at 8pm to find Bill and I eating supper together on the terrace (he’d usually be found hunched over a bowl of cereal or instant noodles in his room as he played his computer games). Anni says it’s ‘creepy’.

I wrote my newspaper column in longhand today. Painful to hand and head. How I miss MS Word and Google! I’m going to have to go to a local cafe to transpose everything on to my laptop then email it.

Had a fight with Anni about dirty dishes

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1343209/The-mother-banned-TV-internet-games-consoles-months-transformed-familys-lives.html#ixzz19uryVIC0

Play Piano Today – creative problem solving

Play Piano Today – creative problem solving

"As usual, I am reading through the various articles of interest. And there is one that stuck to my mind more than others: It described how children in America, nowadays were notably less creative in early childhood than other children. I’ll post the link to the study, shortly.

As a piano teacher, I have been diligently working on developing each piano student’s ability to make independent decisions. Most of my students are K12 and adult. Being able to evaluate on an ongoing basis what works and what does not work, in my opinion, is a great ability to develop and bring out more. It takes creativity to look at a situation from various angles and find solutions. This is one perspective that I am taking my students through. I want my students to have tools to evaluate, tools to understand how to improve and how to schedule and target to get from here to there..."

Please, follow the link to read the rest of my story... Happy New Year. Eva