High school students got a glimpse of what it's like to study piano at the university level at Piano Academy, held at John Brown University last week.
Piano Academy is the first of two summer camps that are held on the university campus, designed to give high school students a college experience. Next month JBU will host Engineering Academy, where students will learn about topics such as robotics, programming, solar cells, computer aided design and 3D printing.
The week-long Piano Academy was led by Paul Whitley, professor of piano at JBU, and William Phemister, professor emeritus at Wheaton College in Illinois.
The Piano Academy was designed for intermediate to advanced piano students and the number of participants was capped at 10 to allow more intensive work, Whitley said.
Students receive five lessons in five days, two from Phemister and three from Whitley. They also go to daily workshops to fine tune their skills. At the end of the week the students will perform one solo piece and one duet.
In real life outside of camp, students have one lesson a week and then have a week to practice before they go to the next lesson, Whitley said. Because the camp is so condensed, students spend most of their free time practicing, he said. In the evenings they go back to the dorms and have fun.
Emily Tillman, 16, of Little Rock, said she came to the Piano Academy with a friend to expand her skills and knowledge. Tillman has been playing the piano since she was nine and enjoys playing classical music and jazz. She is considering a career in music or art therapy, she said.
The most interesting thing she learned at the academy was how to transform hymn music into piano music, she said.
"It has to be quick and automatic," she said.
Tillman said she is enjoying being around the group of fellow musicians.
Phemister said he was alternating between teaching students technical approaches, such as fingering and posture, and helping them learn to play hymns for congregational singing.
He explained that the hymn book is more of a vocal score than piano music and pianists must make up an accompaniment to go with the vocal music. The pianist's purpose is to help singers have a very clear purpose and feel supported and encouraged to sing.
"Our goal is to get (students) to think about things they've never thought about before," Phemister said.
Phemister said his college level piano students have used their skills for a diverse range of careers. For example, one writes commercial jingles, while others do collaborative performance or music therapy.
"Many people do two or three things," he said.
General News on 07/01/2015