Pianos and pastures

Settlement piano students Cary Zhang and Serim An and faculty member Sandra Carlock have journeyed to the Finchcocks Musical Museum in England. Here, the students offer some reflections on performing as part of receiving a prestigious award and on the countryside surrounding the Museum in the County of Kent.

4/1/12

We are staying in a beautiful, old cottage with a view across the fields. On the second day, we drove up to the museum and saw acres of fields scattered with sheep and little lambs, as this is lambing time in England.

English sheep - none were harmed in the writing of this blog post

Today was the first Open Day of the season at the museum. Open Days are an opportunity for visitors to walk around the house and see all the instruments. They then are able to hear a selection of them played during two hour-long concerts during the afternoon.

As recipients of the Muzio Clementi Award, we were featured on the second of the concerts this afternoon. We, including Ms. Carlock, each performed. After a practice session, we felt excited but very nervous. Throughout the concert, we heard some wonderful performances from all of the professional artists, including our teacher. Our performances went very well -- even better than expected! We now have a much better understanding of how we should approach the production of tone and color on instruments that date back to the time of Mozart.

Detail of the 1795 Broadwood Square Piano - courtesy of www.finchcocks.co.uk

We have been wonderfully supported and look forward to tomorrow's all day session with Steven Devine, Director of Development and Education at Finchcocks.  Steven is also an internationally recognized harpsichordist and conductor.  After dinner with the Burnetts and other friends we went back to our cottage and collapsed!  'Til tomorrow!