Another year of Piano Festival has come and gone. This particular year was Krystal's first! I have to admit, I am usually very stressed as a piano teacher and Mom of pianists every year just before festival. And this year seemed to be extra intense as the National Teacher's Federation has become more and more strict about specific guidelines and rules. Aaron has been fighting me like crazy with practicing GOOD - not just practicing - he's great to play through his songs twice a day, but I haven't had enough "Tiger Mom" in me to get him to really progress. Krystal has always done her own thing. She is so stubborn - and will tell me to "Go away so I can just play the song!" and "I already AM doing it right, Mom!" So, after confessing to Tyler that I might not send them to their festival time this year even though we already paid, we ended up going with a 'hope for the best' attitude.
Aaron was more nervous than he has ever been as a performer. Krystal had zero nerves and was just disgusted that she wasn't asked to perform first. (Aaron was on the schedule first!) Krystal was pretty much oozing cuteness.
... and the judges just could not resist her. She performed her little heart out - with plenty of mistakes and even leaving out several lines entirely of one of her songs - but, she played with flair and A.MAZ.ING. dynamics and beautiful posture and perfectly crisp staccatos - and earned herself TWO perfect scores (with comments like - "Oh my! She can barely reach the pedal - that is just the cutest thing I've ever seen!") The other judge gave her the lowest Superior marking one can get ... not to be distracted by charm. :)
Aaron played technically perfect -- seriously, absolutely no errors whatsoever. And he earned one perfect score - the other two judges told him that he played very "robotically" and needed to work on feeling the music. I agree with them, but only because I KNOW Aaron as a pianist. He puts SO much feeling into the music he plays - he just didn't for this particular performance, because he wasn't as confident as he should have been. He still played every note and detail perfectly, though.
Anyway - they are both very proud of themselves - and we are proud of them too! (And are now trying to keep piano learnin' moving forward). :)
It's hard work.
2 comments:
good for them for getting perfect scores even with mistakes
im always imprssed with people who play the piano i have taken lesseons 2 differnt times and have never stuck with it i really regretted it when on the mission we sang acapella alot
Hahaha! Charm goes a long way. They are both amazing kids - very talented. Good work. You are both HIGH superior in my book.
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