Adult students in my studio gather 2-3 times a year to share music with each other, learn new repertoire, share research on composers, and enjoy each other’s company.

On October 6, six students met to share music they had prepared. The theme was “Evil”, appropriate for the month of Halloween. Repertoire included Disney’s Cruella de Vil from Nicki, Brahms Op. 118 No. 6 from Terry, The Grey Crow by David Fern from Sheila, The Witch Op. 39 No. 20 by Tchaikovsky from Courtney, a trio “HoeDown Tonight” from Sheila, Sarah, and Terry, and a duet from Sarah and Rene. Payton, though present, was not able to play because of a finger injury. He had worked on Une Nuit Sur le Mont Chauve by Mussorgsky.

Additionally, everyone had studied a group of 26 pieces that had been on the MTNA Piano Competition program at the MTNA 2025 National Conference. Their task was to recognize and name the pieces within the first 10 seconds. It was an open note activity. Nicki got 19/19. Payton and Courtney tied for 17/19. Everyone was assigned two composers to report on and we learned new interesting information about the composers. (composers included Bach, Handel, Scarlatti, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Ravel, Prokofiev, Price, Enesco, Shostakovich, Bartok, R. Strauss). The listening link is here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyOIRXzWebHP7CLR8lz5vDVh8FJaFAH3S&si=NFdJGzTozDL8sqI2

Sheila Herrling prepared this beautiful piece of artwork to help categorize the music so she could recognize each piece.