David Dear Piano Tuition

A concert featuring pupils of mine and Donatella's with a few guest performers. It will be higher attainment pupils and students, a few of whom will be moving on to University next academic year, some of them to study music.

For anyone who might be interested, please come along. This is the third pupils concert organised by myself and Donatella. It is mainly for advanced pupils, who seldom have an opportunity to perform on a non-exam occasion. Apart from a couple of my own pupils playing Grade 6 pieces, nearly everything else is at higher level. We have an exceptional singer, who has a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy next year after completing her A Levels. It should be an enjoyable afternoon, and the concert should be last about I hour and 15-20 minutes, with refreshments afterwards.

A pupils concert is taking place at Allerton URC on Sunday 28th April at 3pm. This for mainly more advanced pupils because they get so few opportunities to perform, including not too much exam music. I've added a copy of the programme. Piano accompaniments by myself. Piano, violin, viola and cello performances, no singing this time.

Very successful pupils concert yesterday hosted by myself and Donatella Paiano at Allerton United Reform Church. The well attended concert was an opportunity for more advanced players to perform to an appreciative audience. Many thanks to Alan Humphreys for video and sound recording the event, and to Thalia O'Hanlon, Sue Humphreys and Jill Hyde for their help on the day.

'nuff said!

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Here's the current flyer for a short pupil's concert for higher level players (Grade 7 and above). A combination of some of my pupils, with Donatella's and a few invited pupils that we have worked with recently.

Zemlinsky- Fantasien Op.9 (1897) Four short pieces inspired by poems by of Richard Dehmel. Mainly recorded to try a new microphone placement, not for the quality of my performance!

Another year draws to a close, a difficult year for all and a another exam season comes to an end. I still have a few Performance exams to record, but the December ABRSM Exam Visit took place Thursday and Friday of last week. Our examiner was Kelvin Leslie, who enjoyed a day and a half of varied exams, Grade 1 to ARSM, piano, strings and woodwind. A very fair examiner with good positive comments directed to all candidates, even those who perhaps hoped for higher marks. He was unafraid to give high marks as well as low marks. There were two outstanding results in my opinion, one was Leo, achieving a Distinction of 48/50 for his violin performance ARSM; well done, and an absolute pleasure to accompany him with pieces by Beethoven, Smetana, de Falla and Kreisler. The other mention has to be Jakob from Frankfurt, who was in LIverpool on a three month exchange visit, (Brexit meaning a wall of bureacracy to overcome). He achieved a Distinction at Grade 8 on the Cello, despite having to learn Grade 8 scales and Aural from scratch, and was awarded full marks 30/30 for his playing of the Fauré Élégie. And well done to all candidates who have worked so hard to be ready to perform their exams.

Music and performance have been hit very hard by Covid and we have a Government that can only be described as 'anti-Arts' and an education authority that has over the years stripped music provision to the bare bones. We struggle on to keep music alive, both in this City and this country, music can only be passed on person to person, generation to generation. Our work is important but sadly undervalued by many. Best wishes for the coming New Year.

Exam results have been announced from the Private Visit last week, 14th/15th July, with Examiner Zoe Goode. David Li, Grade 8, achieved a Merit with 126 and Yufei Yang, Grade 7, achieved a Distinction with 131. Congratulations to both pupils, particularly as Yufei had to isolate for 14 days a month prior to her exam. Well done!!

Congratulations to Anna Chen for achieving a Distinction of 136/150 marks in her Performance Grade 5 exam. Well done, Anna!

I am very pleased to announce that my piano student Hannah Chiu, who is currently completing her A levels at Bluecoat School Liverpool, achieved a Distinction in the Performance DipABRSM that she took in December in Manchester. This is a wonderful achievement, in particular for someone studying in the State sector without the advantages of the resources available to students in Private Schools or indeed at Saturday Junior Conservatoires. Congratulations to Hannah, all her hard work and her intelligent approach to lessons and practise has been appreciated and rewarded, this distinction was well deserved. I have been teaching Hannah since she was eight years old, and for me, as you can imagine, this is a very pleasing outcome. Hannah will begin the next stage in her music education and development when she leaves school this summer. At the moment her intention is to continue her studies at Birmingham Conservatoire, although she has received offers from all the institutions she has applied to. Her complete programme was: Bach - Prelude and Fugue in F minor Bk1 WTC BWV857, Schubert - Piano Sonata in A major Op.120, Debussy - La plus que lente, Fauré - Impromptu in F minor Op.31, Shostakovich - Four preludes from Preludes Op.34.