First Jazz Gig

Monday, January 20, 2020 by Simon Larner | Pianist

At the end of this year's student recital, my Jazz Quartet reunited once more to give a workshop performance of some of the tunes we'd been working on. I believe it is important for all of my students to see themselves as active performers who take their work beyond the practice studio or exam room, so it was nice to be able to show them that I stick to this idea myself. This was our first performance in front of an audience and of course, it was great that this audience was made up not only of family and friends, but of young piano students too!

Student Recital, 2020

Sunday, January 19, 2020 by Simon Larner | Pianist and Teacher

For this year’s recital my students had the privilege of performing at the magnificent Croston Theatre in Blackburn. Each student was given the opportunity to perform both solo and ensemble pieces on the theatre’s Yamaha S6 grand piano on a tremendous proscenium arch stage. During the awards ceremony, three students received the High Achievement Award for passing their exam with a result of 93% and the prizes for Technique, Musicianship, Endeavour and Jazz were awarded to students who showed significant promise in these areas. Students who had taken an exam during 2019 were also presented with their certificates and so were those who had successfully taken part in music festivals. The event had an incredible atmosphere of celebration about it. I don’t know who was prouder: parents, families or me!