SE22 Piano School teacher Lorraine Liyanage performs at the first Hear It Live! event at the Horniman Museum & Gardens on Tuesday 29 April. Entry is free – do come along!
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To celebrate the arrival of our new At Home With Music display, we are hosting a live performance on our 1772 Kirckman harpsichord in the Music Gallery, on the last Tuesday of each month.
On Tuesday 29 April Lorraine Liyanage will perform selected movements from JS Bach’s French Suite no.1, and selected sections of the Württemberg sonata in A minor by Carl Philip Emanuel Bach. The programme includes music to commemorate the 300th anniversary of CPE Bach.
When I am not teaching, I have lots of musical ventures on the go – performing as a harpsichordist, organising the Dulwich Piano Festival and curating the South London Concert Series (SLCS) with my piano teaching colleague Frances Wilson. SLCS is a series of concert mixing contemporary classical music with socialising in unique and unusual venues in London. Here are a few photos and videos from the event so you can get an idea of what we do!
Lorraine Liyanage
SE22 Piano School Spring Recital at Lassco Brunswick House
This write-up of the event is courtesy of Frances Wilson and originally appeared on her blog, The Cross-Eyed Pianist.
A stag with an impressive set of antlers surveys the room, while a white-tuxedo’d Tony Curtis keeps watch over the proceedings from his niche in a corner near the piano, a John Hopkinson baby grand with a rosewood case. Glittering chandeliers hang from the ceiling, illuminating the exposed brickwork on two walls of the room and highlighting the colours of the stained glass panels in the elegant sash windows. Exotic oriental rugs are draped over vintage British Rail first class seats, and at the back of the room, a glass cabinet is filled with antique pharmacy jars. Welcome to Brunswick House, part of the London Architectural Salvage and Supply Co, a Georgian mansion just five minutes from London’s Vauxhall Station, flanked by the brand new 5-star hotel and luxury apartments of One Nine Elms. Brunswick House is a treasure trove of antiques and salvaged curiosities, and on Thursday night last week, it provided a wonderful and eclectic venue for a fine evening of music making and conviviality.
Lorraine Banning, Frances Wilson & Lorraine Liyanage (and Tony Curtis) at Brunswick House
“A superb evening – huge fun was had with a mix of musical genres in a delightfully decrepit and stylish Georgian mansion. Best of luck promoting these salon recitals, the way music is meant to be played and heard.”
Rosalind, audience member
The concert was part of the South London Concert Series, and featured a recital by BBC Music Magazine’s “rising star” Emmanuel Vass, together with supporting performances by three talented members of the London Piano Meetup Group, who despite not being “professional” pianists, played with equal poise, musical sensitivity and professionalism. The diverse programme matched the unusual setting, with music by Bach, Chopin, Turina, and Mozart together with Emmanuel’s own transcriptions of pop songs by Queen and The Prodigy. In keeping with the SLCS ethos of recreating the nineteenth-century musical salon, an hour of music was followed by much conversation and socialising in the ante-room next to the Saloon, and continued downstairs in the restaurant adjacent to the house.
“The South London Concert Series is both innovative and traditional. Events blend an appreciation of fine music and music making with conviviality, and blur the artificial distinctions between professional and amateur”
James Lisney, international concert pianist
The final SLCS concert of the 2013/14 season is on Friday 16th May at the 1901 Arts Club. Entitled ‘Eastern Accents’, the concert includes music from Russia and Japan, and features a performance by guest artist Vatche Jambazian. Further details/tickets here
Here is lots of information for students that are starting a graded ABRSM exam. We hope you find it useful!
1) How Long To Prepare
Once you have successful completed the Prep Test, you will be ready to start working towards Grade 1. It takes around one year (minimum) to prepare fully for each level of examination. This is presuming you are putting in 30 minutes practice a day (see below).
2) Recommended Daily Practice time
Around 30 minutes for Grade 1, increasing to 2 hours a day for Grade 8. This is the time required to cover the three pieces, scales, sight-reading and aural.
3) Scale Practice Charts
These are available for Grade 1 to 4. Please ask your teacher if you have not already received these.
4) Online Aural Tests
These can be practised from the first lesson and are part of your 30 minutes a day practice session. You can even start working on these whilst you are on the Prep Test.
6) Beat the Nerves and Perform in Public
Many students lots of marks on exam day because they are too nervous and not used to performing under pressure. We offer the yearly student recital around Christmas for our pianists and also the Dulwich Piano Festival in June. This allows you to try out some or all of your pieces in readiness for your exam. You receive exam-style feedback and with each performance, you feel more confident and ready for the exam. Students that have not played at least once in public will not be advised as ready for an exam as past experience shows significantly lower results for students that struggle with nerves. We also have our annual student piano recital that takes place in December. You should be able to learn one graded exam piece per term so we advise all students working on graded exams to participate and play one exam piece at least.
7) Read all about the Exam process
This is a comprehensive document about exams. All parents must read this before embarking on the exam process:
We have two exam sessions in March and November. The deadlines for entry are the beginning or January and September.
11) When Will I Enter?
It is your teacher’s decision to enter you when you are ready. If you are aiming for an exam session but not well prepared, we will not enter you. It is our decision to enter students when we feel they well-prepared and playing to the best of their ability. Here is the criteria we use to assess readiness:
12) Mock Exam
All students must sit a Mock Exam before the deadline for entry which is approximately 6 weeks before the dates in section 10. If you do not pass, then we will not process your exam entry and you will wait until the next session. We do not consider it reasonable to enter students that may fail an exam.
13) Where are the Exams?
The exams are held in Camberwell near King’s College Hospital.
14) Choosing a New Exam Date
You can call the Exam Board and see if there is an alternative date available if the one given is not suitable. 020 7636 5400
15) When is the Exam?
During the day on weekdays during school hours usually. Weekends are not offered.
16) Making the Entry
You can enter yourself online using the SE22 Piano School account. Details of this will be given to you at the time of passing your mock exam including a step-by-step guide. This allows you to log on and check your allocated exam date and also your result.
17) Allocation of Dates
These are allocated approximately 2 weeks before your actual exam date. Your teacher will pass this on as soon as it is received, or you can log onto the exam control panel and check.
18) Results
These are allocated approximately 2 weeks after your exam date. You can log onto the exam control panel and check for results any time after your exam. We do not know when they will be posted online. View our latest results online: http://www.se22piano.co.uk/exam-results/
19) Starting the Next Grade
If you receive a low mark such as 100 – 115 out of 150, we will not consider you ready for the next grade and consolidation will be required on the areas marked as the examiner as needing attention. Once you can improve these areas, we are happy to move you onto the next grade. Ask your teacher for details of books required. We always advise learning fun pieces inbetween grades to build up sight-reading skills.
20) Syllabus Validity
The new syllabus has just been published and is valid until March 2017.
SE22 Piano School teacher Lorraine Liyanage performs at the first Hear It Live! event at the Horniman Museum & Gardens on Tuesday 29 April. Entry is free – do come along!
