Do you know of piano events or festivals in which students with special needs can participate? Diversity and inclusion are becoming more important in our daily lives and I congratulate everyone in our profession for their courage and dedication in making music study available for all students.The Royal Conservatory of Music examination process...

The Celebrating the Spectrum Piano Festival at Michigan State University was a first-of-its-kind summer piano festival that first occurred from July 24-31, 2016. This festival immersed five pre-college piano students in a daily schedule meant to emulate a week in the life of a music major in a college setting. The event culminated with two concerts...

Colorado Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory Colorado Mountain College, Steamboat Springs.  Focuses on chamber music and solo repertoire in a mentoring environment. Curriculum includes conditioning, regular hikes, and leadership training. Enjoy interdisciplinary classes in art/photography/creative writing. Ages 11-21, 25-40 participants. June 1...

While routine can be valid and effective for piano students and teachers, sometimes a break from the usual can be refreshing. After nine months of the school-year schedule, the summer months provide an ideal time for the exploration of new approaches. The benefits of summer study include the freedom to try a different format for your teaching—if yo...

The Cincinnati Adaptive Music Camp (CAMC) was born out of a dream that violin teacher Jennifer Petry had to expand her teaching experience with her own children to other children with physical disabilities. Both Jennifer and I adopted children with limb differences. Jennifer's daughters have no arms, and my daughters have several physical differenc...

Can you imagine spending ten glorious days in a stunning country setting, surrounded by good food, good company, and thirty pianos? Many pianists have done just that by attending the Sonata camp, held in an antique-filled forty-two-room house set on two luscious acres of rolling hills in rural Vermont. The Sonata camp has b...

Moscow, Russia Dione Biondi Knowles lives in Tacoma, Washington, but she's traveled the world to find a good summer piano program. At 14, she studied at the Ecole Normal de Musique in Paris. Then last year, she moved into a dorm near Red Square to take lessons at the Moscow State Conservatory's program for very well prepared, advanced musicians. As...

Both writers for this issue's Music Reading Department take the view that summer is special for piano students. A good case can be made for discontinuing the regular curriculum and making sure that summer study is something that makes the coming autumn a thing to look forward to rather than a thing to dread.  I think that one of the most ...

Springtime is recital time!  Even though recitals are being held all through the year these days, springtime is still a special time for pianists of all ages.  For many students, the recital is the pay-off — the opportunity to show what those long practice sessions have produced.  For others, it is that dreaded time when th...