Recital Time Again

      Last Thursday, September 19, my four remaining piano students, a couple of former students, several guest performers, and and audience of parents, grandparents, siblings,  and other assorted friends and family members met once again at Graves Recital Hall,

...for our Fall recital.
      For my students and myself the recitals are a goal, a reason to keep on practicing, practicing, practicing,

...and polishing, polishing, polishing our pieces,

...until our pieces are performance-ready to play on Graves' nine-foot Steinway concert grand. 

      Recitals are always a mix of excitement and nerves, for me as well as for my students - in fact, I'd venture to say, probably even more so for me than for my students, especially in the nerves department.
      That is to say, I'm always nervous on recital nights,

...at least until the playing begins.

     Then it becomes wonderful for me to watch my students play,

...or to play with them,

...and to observe with satisfaction, or sometimes even marvel at, the progress they've made.

      And it does my heart good to see former students who've grown into accomplished pianists now playing for love and willing to come back and perform at our recitals,

...and sometimes even tell us a little about their piece, in this performer's case the beautiful Chopin Prelude in D Flat Major, also called the "Raindrop Prelude,"

...because the plinking of the keys evokes falling rain.

     This time we had a couple of guest performers, as we do from time to time, and so we were treated to - and inspired by - a lively rendition of Chopin's "Minute Waltz"  

...and a very entertaining duo who played some wonderful traditional Irish tunes.

       Then after it was over we all basked in that great feeling of post-performance relief and jubilation,

...and my hubby Tom, my Irish fiddler friend and I headed to our perennial post-recital destination,

...where I, for one, basked some more.