An upcoming concert by Esther Marks - please plan to attend

Dear members,

Many of our colleagues are quite accomplished artists.  Attending their programs is a boost for you and the artist.  Please plan to attend.

How Exciting!!! Here are the competition Results for 2014

Suffolk Piano Teachers Foundation 9th Annual Competition

March 16, 2013 at Faust Harrison Piano

Official Results

·       Congratulations to all students, parents, and teachers!

·       Results are final.

·       All 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place winners must attend the Awards Ceremony held between the Honors Recitals to receive their awards and prizes.

·       Honors Recitals will be held on Thursday evening, June 5^th, 2014 at Staller Center Recital Hall, Stony Brook University (5:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.).

·       First Place winners should perform their winning pieces at one of the Honors Recitals.

·       First Place tie winners will each receive medals, and the total monetary prize for their division will be equally split.

Elementary Division (100s)

First Place: (Tie)

#121 Kate Parnell                5th grade, Mt. Sinai Middle School, Mt. Sinai

(Spooks, C. Poole)

–Johanna Kosak, Teacher

            #125 Zoe Marks                    3^rd grade, Boyle Elementary School, Port Jefferson Station

(Thunder on the Plains, J. Linn)

–Esther Chung Marks, Teacher

Second Place:

            #119 Maxim Pustovoit         3^rd grade, Minnesauke Elementary School, Setauket

(Reflections in the Moonlight, M. Springer)

–Daniel Fogel, Teacher

Third Place:

             #106 Fan Trinity                    4^th grade, Bowling Green Elementary School, Westbury

                                                            (Mystic Prelude, T. Brown)

                                                            –Wen Ling Cheng, Teacher

Early Intermediate Division (200s)

First Place: (Tie)

            #206 Dorothy Pierre                        6^th grade, Smithtown Christian School, Smithtown

(Sonatina Op. 55, No. 1, 1^st mvt. F. Kuhlau)

–Johanna Kosak, Teacher

            #209 Alicia Heintzelman      6^th grade, Nassakeag Middle School, Setauket

                                                             (Tokyo Twilight, by M. Bober)

                                                            –Esther Chung Marks, Teacher

Second Place:

#212 Sofia Stacchiola           5^th grade, W.S. Mount Elementary School, Stony Brook

                                                             (Gypsy Dance, H. Lichner)

                                                            –Tamara Slobodkin, Teacher

Third Place:

            #211 Abigail Walker             5th grade, Longwood Middle School, Coram

            (Dance of the Marionettes, M. Tarenghi)

            –Esther Chung Marks, Teacher

Late Intermediate Division (300s)

First Place: (Tie)

#312 Karen Xie         6^th grade, W.S. Mount Elementary School, Stony Brook

(Variations, Op. 40, No. 1, D. Kabalevsky)

–Esther Chung Marks, Teacher

            #314 Cole Hempel     7^th grade, WHB Middle School, West Hampton Beach

                                                (3-part Sinfonia in G minor, No. 11, J.S. Bach)

                                                –Tatiana Balepina, Teacher

Second Place:

            #305 Sarah Wong     5^th grade, Smithtown Christian School, Smithtown

(Le petit Negre, C. Debussy)

–Dan Fogel, Teacher

Third Place:

            #311 Francine Leung  7^th grade, Port Jefferson Middle School, Port Jefferson

(Le Petit âne blanc, J. Ibert)

–Esther Chung Marks, Teacher

                                   

Early Advanced Division (400s)

First Place:

            #415 Rebecca Nelsen  6^th grade, Eastport Elementary School, Eastport

                                                  (Children’s Corner Suite: Dr. Gradus ad Parnassum, C. Debussy)

                                                  –Esther Chung Marks, Teacher

Second Place:

#407 Gabrielle Lim     5^th grade, Northside Elementary School, Levittown

 (Sonatina in C Major, Op. 13, No. 1, 3^rd mvt., D. Kabalevsky )

 –Wen Ling Cheng, Teacher

Third Place:

            #408 Nathaniel Lim  7^th grade, Wisdom Lane Middle School, Levittown

(Impromptu in Ab Major, Op. 142, No. 2, F. Schubert)

–Wen Ling Cheng, Teacher

Advanced Division (500s)

First Place:

#505 Grace Cimaszewski     12^th grade, St. Anthony’s High School, South Huntington

(Scherzo in Bb minor, Op.31, No.2, F. Chopin)

–Teresa Dybvig, Teacher

Second Place:

            #512 Krista Olson     12^th grade, Ward Melville High School, Setauket

                                                (Libestraume, No. 3, F. Liszt)

                                                –Kathy Lee, Teacher

 Third Place:

            #517 Gabriel Downs 11^th grade, Ward Melville High School, East Setauket

(Rustles of Spring, C. Sinding)

–Esther Chung Marks, Teacher

How to View our Virtual Newsletter right in your email inbox....

Dear members,

Did you know we still have a Newsletter?  But it is in a new format.   You can always visit our new virtual newsletter at
http://sptfnewsletter.blogspot.com/

and from there you can view EVERY article published at the blog.  Also included are pages that include:

Officers and committee jobs - who is doing what and where you can reach them.
A calendar showing dates of meetings, recitals and competitions
A repertoire list for SPTF piano competition

And more will be added as the blog develops.  This site is so flexible and so easy to add on.  I can add pictures, links and ANYTHING YOU WANT that relates to our organization.
Just email me, Ellen Johansen at ellenjoh217@gmail.com.  Once I review and agree it is relevant to our members I will edit  post the info or I may ask for a picture or two to liven it up.  Then I will post.  The information is published, an email goes out to all members FOLLOWING the blog and voila, you have communicated!

It's fun  and easy to view.

Just click on the link,

again:

http://sptfnewsletter.blogspot.com/


NOW,  you can even be lazier and just have the latest news come to your email inbox by following this blog.  To do this go to the link:

http://sptfnewsletter.blogspot.com/

and on the right is this little toy:

Just fill it in and submit and that's all there is to it.

It's fun and it's easy and you won't miss anything.  

Ellen Johansen

A Perspective of the piano pedagogy of Tamara Slobodkin by Fred Barnett

   Tami’s Pedagogy

As previously mentioned, after some three years of space in this column devoted to such renowned pedagogues as Heinrich Neuhaus, Ferruccio Busoni, etc, time is overdue to begin tapping into enlightening pedagogy from within our own SPTF member pool.

Meeting and being influenced by Tamara Slobodkin is, without question, one of the absolute highlights of SPTF membership. Tamara continues to genuinely be one of the most beloved individuals in my experience, beyond SPTF. As all teaching is basically an extension of the person, only some of Tami’s very special attributes were detailed during the recent Spring tribute.

Tammy was kind enough to share some of her pedagogical ideas. Here are a few --

- Teaching “aesthetics” is priority.  - Keeping what works, yet always being open for change and continued development.  - Loaning out books, videos, and CD’s to students. - On-going review and collection of the most beneficial teaching materials and pieces.  - Acknowledging the positive of student practicing and performance, prior to further guidance.  - Students to listen for a beautiful sound.  - “Never play faster than you can play beautifully.”  -  Sight reading hunting

expedition: students are asked to describe everything they see on a page.  - Looking ahead to the whole phrase contributes to sight reading ability, verses the horizontal approach. - Students guided to recognize the target/climax notes of each phrase.  - Placing more responsibility on students: listening carefully to their own playing, developing specific practice procedures on their own, etc.  - Beginning lessons with the most recent and perhaps most difficult sections of pieces.

- Developing suitable technical warm-up routines at the outsets of the lesson. - Occasional practice without pedal. - Assigning repertoire based on student needs and tastes, in addition to the standard progressive levels. - etc, etc.

Most important of all: “Making the love of music and learning contagious for a lifetime”   

-Fred Barnett

Concert TONIGHT! Student of Dan Fogel

Dear Fellow Piano Teachers,

It is with great pride that I invite you to a concert featuring my senior high school piano student, Eugene Iovine, with full orchestra!

He will be playing the Grieg Piano Concerto 1st movement - accompanied by the Stony Brook University Orchestra, on the Staller Center Main Concert Stage, on a 9-foot Steinway Concert Grand!

Eugene is the winner of the 2013 Stony Brook University Pre-College Concerto Competition, and will have the great honor to play the 1st movement of this beloved concerto with Stony Brook's undergraduate orchestra!  I couldn't be a prouder teacher :)  

Please help me honor this fine young musician and all his hard work by attending and joining me in the audience next Tuesday! 

  

• When: Next Tuesday, February 25th, 7:30pm
  
• Where: Stony Brook University's Staller Center of the Arts, Main Stage 
• General Directions 
• To find the campus via GPS, enter the address: 100 Nicolls Road, Stony Brook, NY 11790
  
• Cost: $5 (Tickets are on sale at the Box Office as you enter)
  
• Program and article: http://sb.cc.stonybrook.edu/happenings/arts/university-orchestra-presents-family-concert-february-25 
  
  Also on the Program:

• "British composer Benjamin Britten’s masterpiece The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, which will be narrated by Peter Winkler, a professor in Stony Brook’s Music Department.
• Music from China, performed with traditional Chinese flutist and Stony Brook graduate student, Zhedong Zhang, 
• and music from the Americas "

Been hallucinating piano melodies lately?

From: Lisa Mangano

http://nyti.ms/1eVxojE

Studying the brain of a woman who hallucinates piano melodies may help researchers understand how the mind make sense of the world.

Cool!

News from Esther Marks' Studio

Congratulation to Rebecca Nelsen, student of Esther Marks.  She has become a Grand Prix Winner of the Concert Festival International Competition and will be performing at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall on March 16th at 7:30 pm.  She will be performing Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum by Claude Debussy.  She has also been selected to receive a scholarship of $500 towards the Concert Festival International Tour "St. Petersburg, Russia this summer.