For the past couple of weeks, my students have heard me tell them to "jump ahead" or "fake it" (i.e., "make it up) when they do a run-through of their festival songs for me. Those are really a musician's two options on stage when we have a memory lapse.
Music Festival Time
The APTA Festival begins tomorrow. Visit their APTA Festival website for information and the performance program. The High River & District Lions Music Festival kicked off earlier this week. Information can be found at the Town of High River website.
Music and Med School
One of my piano parents inquired what makes music lessons so attractive to university faculties such as medicine and engineering. In the 1990s, Lewis Thomas, a physician and biologist conducted a study on undergraduate majors of medical school applicants. Of all successful applicants, 66% of them were music majors.
Getting Inspiration from Other Composers
One of the highlights of Monday's Calgary ARMTA Annual General Meeting was the lecture-recital by Canadian composer David McIntyre. I enjoyed hearing about what inspired him to write some of his works. For instance, he said that his work Better Days for solo piano was initially "Bitter Days" - written on a bad day. Another was nicknamed "Chuga" because of the rhythm.