Event Files

  Month of May has marched in with more sunshine, I see happier faces ready to enjoy extra recess time at school. Past two weeks have been very busy, please see results:

Kayleigh and Raelyn

NVMTA Piano Ensemble Competition:

Level 2:

Sophia and Nicole- 1^st place

Level 3A:

Raelyn and Kayleigh- 3^rd place

Level 3B:

Maggie and Eli- 1^st place

Eli and Maggie

WMTA Hartman Piano Awards

Nicole-2^nd place

Raelyn-3^rd place

Sophia- Honorable Mention

NVMTA Piano Achievement Awards

This year, Elementary level had record number of 35 entrants for grades K-6 group.  We are very proud of Raelyn and Nicole!

Raelyn and Nicole- Honorable Mention

NVMTA Judged Recital:

Helen-HM

One more performance on studio event calendar and we are officially ready to finish school year. Everyone will be playing Sonatina or Sonata next weekend at GMU. Please check back for more information about it.

Note-able News

 

Spring break is in full bloom along with delicate cherry blossoms, I hope everyone is taking this opportunity to enjoy family time. Despite chilly morning temperatures, long awaited sunshine is greeting us every morning. Last part of the season will be quite busy for everyone. Please mark your calendars for upcoming SMC Honors Recitals on May 15th and May 22th, and Sonata Festival at GMU on May 18th. 

Latest in our studio:

Nicole and Maggie participated at WMTA Judged Recital. Congratulations to Nicole!

 Nicole- Honors

Helen, Lucy, Yvette, Charlotte and Angus attended last studio recital at "Woodlands". In addition to piano pieces, program included a guest artist,  Cindy. 

                              Cindy(violin) accompanied by Lucy

Jacqui, Sophia, Katherine, Nicole and Raelyn attended NVMTA General recital.

Sophia, Nicole and Jacqui after NVMTA Recital

     Raelyn was featured on the program of the Young Artist Musicale at GMU. She was selected as a young artist after receiving Honors at the NVMTA Judged Recital. Young Artists Musicals are presented in conjunction with Jeffrey Siegel's "Keyboard Conversations" performances at GMU. 

                                                     Raelyn with Jeffrey Siegal

I will post maps and other information about Hartman Awards and Sonata Festival very soon.

Raelyn at ODU Competition

Past weekend Raelyn Hoang participated in Old Dominion University Harold Protsman Classical Period Piano Competition. In this competition students ages pre-school to college were divided in 5 levels and required to perform two contrasting movements from Classical Sonata. Raelyn won the First place for her level. She also received a Helen and Warren Aleck Special Award of $500 for the most promising overall performance in levels 1 to 3! 

  After being chosen for finals, Raelyn wrote:

 "When the final competition started, I told myself not to worry, just do my best. That is what my mommy always says before competition. I was the third one to play. When they called my name, my legs started to shake. I know there were so many eyes looking at me. I tried not to look down  and then I thought about the music and I started to play. I felt very good afterward.

  After everyone in level 1 to 3 played, Mrs. Cardin came up the stage to announce results. Wow! I  got the first place in level 1. I could not believe what I heard, but I was so proud to walk up the stage to receive the prize. After all awards were given, Mrs. Cardin called my name again for the Helen and Warren Aleck Special award and gave me a medal. I didn't know know what is was at the moment, but I was happy to receive it. Later when I saw my mommy, she told me that I just got the award of $500 for the most promising overall performance in levels 1to3. I was so happy and could not wait to let Ms. Silva know."

                                             Raelyn with Lambert Orkis

Spring Forward

Sun is shining brighter and days are becoming longer as we flip calendar pages to March. 

Take a look at the latest accomplishments:

NVMTA Judged- Charlotte HM

SMC Honors-Sophia, Jacqui, Angus, Maggie and Eli 

 Nicole at work!

NVMTA Concerto Festival

Grades k-3

Nicole- 1^st place

Sophia-2^nd place

Grades 6-7

Angus-2^nd place

  Sophia and Ms. Silva

Students have worked hard, and I cannot say enough how grateful I am to all parents for all the support and dedication they have shown to make each event a success! Katherine and Jacqui played beautiful programs at the Concerto Festival. Sophia served as an accompanist for the first time to make her sister's debut more memorable, what a fantastic job you did together!

 On the other note, several students start preparing for different upcoming events, including important English Writing SOL for fifth graders in Fairfax County. After showing fast qualifying times, Charlotte and Lucy will be heading to Junior Olympics in swimming at the end of this week, swim fast!

Baroque Festival, 2014

   Snow storm failed to interfere with Baroque Festival/Competition this year. I am thrilled to report that everyone performed beautifully and received "Superior" in addition to collecting points towards medals and trophies. 

Competition winners, Katherine and Nicole, attended a beautiful Honors Concert held in Arlington. Both students received lovely medals.

Group Winners:

Nicole-Intermediate Level

Katherine- Intermediate Level

Raelyn- 15 point trophy

Superior- Helen, Lucy, Eli, Sophia, Jacqui, Nicole, Katherine, Charlotte and Raelyn

February News, 2014

Despite numerous school cancellations and delayed starts, we successfully managed to accomplish all planned events on a calendar.

Record low temperatures didn’t stop us from holding two studio mini-recitals at the "Woodlands".

 It was great to see everyone at our Group Class. We worked sincerely on improving listening skills for theory exam and spent time getting more familiar with the long list of signs and terms for the Theory Mastery Day. Later, everyone performed Baroque Festival pieces for the class. We had fun drawing numbers to determine the order of performances. Some students came up with a clever way of “trading” numbers for more favorable spots!

NVMTA held two Judged Recitals, please see fantastic results:

Raelyn- Honors (January)

 Eli- Honors (January)

 Nicole- Honors(February)

In addition to receiving Honors,  Raelyn was selected to perform at the young Artist Musicale at George Mason University in March.

SMC Honors:

Nicole

Charlotte

VMTA Theory Exam was attended by all, well done! Top scores go to Jacqui, Sophia, Lucy and Eileen (level X).

Happy New Year!

  Happy New Year! Year 2014 promises to be busy for everyone in our studio, just take a look at the calendar in the previous post. December Group class was canceled due to massive power outage in our area; ice storm did noticeable damage to power lines on our street. Three days in a cold house without electricity tested my optimism and endurance of freezing temperatures, it also made my holiday preparation a bit more chaotic.

 Nevertheless, we were able to enjoy Mini-Studio Recital at the “Woodlands”. It was so lovely to see everyone festively dressed for the holidays.

Latest studio news:

NVMTA Judged Recital:

Lucy- Honors

SMC Student Recital:

Raelyn- Honors

Charlotte- Honors

 I hope winter break was long enough to warm up and have some family time. Next, everyone is sharpening pencils and flipping through music dictionary pages as we are getting ready for the annual VMTA Theory Exam.