I love our annual Little Fingers recital! I’ve run a version of it every year since I started teaching and it remains my very favorite. It’s a first recital for young beginners preceded by a workshop where the students and I do warm-up activities, play a game or two, get to know each other, and talk about what to expect at a recital. I find it goes a long way toward helping first-time performers relax and approach the recital the following week with a little less trepidation.
But even though the children leave the workshop feeling much less nervous than when they walked in, when recital day comes and they enter the big church, all dressed up and with family and friends in attendance, of course the nervousness returns. I feel for them. It’s a big deal to get up by yourself in front of a room of people, most of whom you don’t know, and play a piece of music. Since the students have only been taking lessons for a few months, their pieces are short and simple, but that doesn’t make it any easier than if they were playing three-movement sonatas.
As each student comes in I encourage them to try out the grand piano, just a few notes, while the audience gathers and chats. A grand piano looks and feels different than what they play on at their lessons and probably at home. Getting up there just for a minute or two is helpful. Then we start our recital. Each performer comes up, introduces themselves and their piece, plays it, and bows. The audience goes wild. And then, when everyone’s had a turn, they do it again. The second time through the children are more at ease, smiley, almost enjoying it. And in half an hour start to finish, we’re done.
Afterward everyone mills about so pleased, so proud, the church and courtyard buzzing with pleasure at what has just been accomplished. And I am just as thrilled as I was the very first time I hosted a Little Fingers. No matter how many of them I do, I can’t wait for the next one.