Q. I want to include some diverse literature for my intermediate students as we prepare for recitals, festivals, and competitions this spring. What are some collections or pieces that I might look into for their piano study?  A. Yours is a timely question since so much fresh solo piano literature at the intermediate level i...

 ARCANA: ALEX SHAPIRO Adam Marks, piano Innova 041 Total Time [79.58] innova.mu This album presents the collected piano works by composer Alex Shapiro. The music is perhaps best summarized in the liner notes to the pieces that give the album its title: "Arcana explores the painfully fragile and often perilous relationship betwee...

It is unfortunate that Cécile Chaminade's piano music has been swept under the proverbial carpet. She, among other female composers, provided a wealth of compositions for the budding pianist. Her music is pedagogically sound, musical, technically appropriate, and frankly, quite inviting in sound and style. Her compositional output for the piano num...

When I relocated to Melbourne, Australia, from the United States in June of 2019, I was immediately struck by the sense of tradition and cultural reverence that was deeply felt and clearly acknowledged by new colleagues, acquaintances, and students. Recurrent themes included the widely held belief that curricula related to music studies were consta...

Introducing intermediate piano students to twentieth-and twenty-first-century compositional techniques and styles is essential, especially as we move from Gen Z students to those in Generation Alpha (born in the early 2010s). In Star Light, Star Bright (1995),1 both generations will find an established, musically rich collection of nine pedagogical...

Practice may be readily defined by our elementary students as "playing the piano at home" and by intermediate students as "time spent learning my music." Advanced musicians acquire a nuanced definition of practice, which may include concepts like warming up, deep listening and analysis, artistic exploration, cultivating technical freedom, and rehea...

Winner of 18th Frederic Chopin International Piano Competition Announced On October 20, Canadian pianist Bruce (Xiaoyu) Lui won first prize at the 18th Frederic Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw. Delayed by one year due to the pandemic, Liu competed against twelve finalists, performing the Chopin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 11. Sec...

Arguably, facilitating student learning and performance during the intermediate-level years is where many teachers spend most of their teaching hours. Intermediate piano music takes years to work through and as the music becomes more demanding, these years coincide with activities that compete for students' attention. For some, the intermediate yea...