Catherine Kautsky presents “Music in Context”

February 7th, 2020

The Forum was fortunate to have another outstanding and lively presentation by Catherine Kautsky from Lawrence University at our February meeting.

Catherine describes this topic the following way:

“Placing music into it’s historical and artistic context can make it come alive in new ways and help it to reach students who may respond more easily to visual images or the written word than to the composer they’re encountering for the first time at the piano. Any music can be placed into context, but some pieces lend themselves more easily than others.” As she discussed, two very literary composers were Schumann and Debussy.

All Star and Baroque Festival November 2019

The Forum and our students have completed another challenging and impressive Festival day. This year was a test on a joint All Star and Baroque event, both held on November 16th. The results and feedback will be discussed by the Festival Committee and the other Forum members before deciding if this will be our new format. There were 13 teachers participating, with 65 students in Baroque, and 60 in All Star.

Thank you students, for your hard work and dedication!

Joyce Grill on Romantic Music!

Joyce Grill

Our October meeting featured a wonderful presentation by Joyce Grill! Many Romantic pieces were played and discussed. A comparison of the Classical to Romantic was described as “the Classical period worshiped the sun, the Romantic worshiped the moon” – a clear visual to share with our students. We also had the honor of a preview of Grill’s new music, complete with a drawing for several pieces. The two hour long session was filled with teaching tips for beginners to more advanced students. What an honor and pleasure for all! Thank you Joyce!

Joyce Grill’s impressive bio
….An impromptu trio
Lunch at Greystone Ale House – delicious!