MahlerBrass

Hello all, with summer almost in full swing, I've been thinking that it might be a good idea to work up some solo literature with my students and have them put on a studio recital at the end of the summer. My students are mostly Jr. High kids with three high school cats in the bunch, but I've never done this and was hoping to get some ideas as to how to go about doing it, I'm really at a loss as to where to even start with the planning of this, any suggestions will be forever greatful, thank a bunch!!

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trickg

Are your students cool with the idea?

If you don't already have music picked out, I would start there and asign each student a piece that showcases the best of their abilities. (actually, the first thing would be to have a recital day in mind and see who might already have a prior commitment so that you can plan around who can actually be there.) You might even be able to find a duet or trio to toss in and what would really be neat would be an ensemble piece where they could all play as sort of a finale thing.

The next thing I would do would be to find an able accompanist who is capable of accompanying everything. That way you don't have to depend on too many people because the more people you have in the mix, the greater the chance that someone is going to bail at the last minute. And also see if you can't have a backup accompanist on standby in case that the first one has to bail last minute.

The rest of it is going to be basic logistics of finding a recital venue, picking a date and time, making up flyers, diseminating of the flyers, setting up rehearsals and then doing the show.

Of course I have never done any of this stuff, so I might be missing a bunch of key things, but that's how I would approach it.

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Patrick Gleason
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Annie

My high school instructor did this - A good place for a recital is the fellowship hall in a Church, or if you can manage it, a school auditorium would be better.

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~Annie

*I may not be great yet, but I'm working hard on it and one day I'm gonna be there.*

sdgtpt

Edgar,

Here is how I've done mine, take any ideas if they're helpful....

Step 1 First and foremost, find a venue and a date. You can't have a recital without a place to play. Some places will cost you $$$, some places might not be much. Use places such as The Centrum, Churches, School auditorium, or maybe even a band hall if you can't afford to rent a place. I've got the Centrum for the end of the summer and it's not that expensive.

The longer you wait to find a place and date.... the less of a chance you'll have. Everyone gets married in the summer.... so get the church booked ASAP.



Step 2 Find an accompanist, if you use a church, maybe use their pianist/organist. If you use a band hall, use whoever you want.

Step 3 Find out the students intent (regularity of summer lessons/vacations/etc...) Let them play a solo they just played for contest, or if they choose to do something new.... then they should do that.

Step 4 Program a piece for yourself, a piece for your quintet, and a piece for each one of your students....