We had a wonderful Fall Sharing on Dec. 3rd! Since there were only 22 performers for the event, we were able to do one seating. I was worried the little ones wouldn't be able to sit through the whole event, but everyone was really attentive! Students were given a rose and bookmarks that I purchased from Korea as a gift for participating in the recital. I had many parents come up to me and comment how talented my kids were and what a treat it was to watch all of the students.
As I enter year 4 of teaching, I am really starting to see growth and change in some of my students. I wanted to share a video of Leah from the sharing. Leah is an 8th grader who has been my piano student for 3 years and voice student for the past year. Her has grown so much in the past year that I wanted to share Leah's musical journey with you. Last year, Leah auditioned for All-State choir and was not chosen. To be honest, as we prepared for the audition, I knew that she would not be chosen. She had no idea what breath control was and how to manage her lower register or head voice. Her voice was all over the place. But with each lesson, we slowly worked on the fundamentals of singing and technique. It's been very exciting to actually hear her voice change over the past year!
This year, Leah auditioned again for All-State choir...and was chosen! She told me that while recording her All-State choir audition, her teacher asked her who she was taking voice from. I knew this was a very good sign! This year, Leah is a section leader in her school choir and also made the audition-only select choir at her school. She also had a solo in her recent choir concert. And she's told me that her choir teacher at school also makes comments to other kids like, "Be more like Leah." Hah!
Leah's success at school this year didn't just come from taking private voice lessons. She took piano for two years prior to starting voice. I was hard on Leah when it came to piano for the first two years, more so than any of my other student because I could see the potential. Sometimes after her lesson, I would actually feel terrible that I was being hard on her...but she is now one of my most advanced piano students and is incredibly musical as a pianist and vocalist. And she can READ music. I encounter too many piano students uanble to actually read music. And Leah is still taking lessons from me, so maybe I wasn't that terrible. I would have to say that having the piano background has really helped Leah advance as a vocalist this year.
Here is Leah's peformance of Days of Plenty from Little Women. Even through nerves and having to wait 1.5 hrs during the recital for her turn, she did really well. I was impressed by how poised she was and her musical choices in phrasing for the song. After only a year of private voice, Leah is truly on her way as a vocalist!
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