As usual our spring semesters get busier and busier. There is so much to report about the studio, students, and Lisa's activities. Stay tuned for another post later in spring about college announcements of our students and the SCMTA and Asheville Piano competition results.
In no particular order let's get started using pictures as my memory aid. Be sure to make it down to the bottom of the post.
We had two recent winners of Concerto Competitions from our studio playing with BOTH Youth Orchestras in town GCYO and CYS (Disclaimer: Mr. Kiser is the Executive Director of GCYO). We are proud of Henry Sun for his performance of Grieg's piano concerto with the Carolina Youth Symphony. We were so impressed by his improvisatory and mature-like playing. He was having fun with the interpretation and trying new things that we had not heard in lesson. No less this was a great accomplishment for the Sun family for a number of years ago his brother Nathan Sun (now a recent Harvard grad!) played the same concerto with the same youth orchestra as winner of the SAME competition. Go team SUN!
Andrew Ning is the keyboardist for Greenville County Youth Orchestra's Young Artist Orchestra. He recently played in their chamber orchestra concert. See him in the back of the picture and the following one is from the keyboardist's perspective. He will play the third movement of Grieg's piano concerto on May 31 with the Young Artist Orchestra. Purchase tickets here: https://www.peacecenter.org/events/detail/24-gcyo-spring-orchestras-concert
All of our large studio (with the exception of one student) received Outstanding at the SCMTA divisional and will go on to compete in the state wide competition on April 27 in Columbia, SC. We'll report back after that competition concludes.
Congratulations are also in order for the Crescent Music Club Scholarship Winners from our studio. Please see the full results below:
BESSIE CHEROS PIANO SCHOLARSHIP (Grade 3) First Place ($40)—Eleanor Kiser (Lisa Kiser) Second Place ($30)—Asher Barker (Gilda Hendricks)
BESSIE CHEROS PIANO SCHOLARSHIP (Grade 4) First Place ($40)—Victoria Staples (Lisa Kiser) Second Place ($30)—Sam Bishop (Gilda Hendricks)H.M. ($20)—Cosette Barker (Gilda Hendricks)
BESSIE CHEROS PIANO SCHOLARSHIP (Grade 5) First Place ($40)—Sonia Okunev (Lisa Kiser) Second Place ($30)—Noah Roberts (Gilda Hendricks) H.M. ($20)—James Ussery (Sally Ullom)
MARY JANE STEELE PIANO SCHOLARSHIP (Grade 6) First Place ($50)—Owen Ancona (Lisa Kiser) Second Place ($40)—Derek Batista (Sarah Gentry) H.M. ($30)—Ethan Bishop (Gilda Hendricks)
MARY JANE STEELE PIANO SCHOLARSHIP (Grade 7) First Place ($50)—Bryan Ouyang (Lisa Kiser)Second Place ($40)—Roger Luo (Lisa Kiser) H.M. ($30)—Roy Hu (Sally Ullom)
HINDA HONIGMAN PIANO SCHOLARSHIP (Grades 8-9) First Place ($300)—YuChen Lin (Lisa Kiser)Second Place ($200)—Amy Ding (Lisa Kiser) H.M. ($75)—Allyson Tan (Sally Ullom)H.M. ($75)—Marcus Valdez (Sarah Gentry)
RUTH YOUNG PIANO SCHOLARSHIP (Grades 10-11) First Place ($300)—Andrew Ning (Lisa Kiser)Second Place ($200)—Eric Shi (Fabio Parrini)H.M. ($75)—Alexander Stanchits (Lisa Kiser) H.M. ($75)—Benhamin Webb (Sally Ullom)
ERNESTINE SMITH PIANO SCHOLARSHIP (Grade 12) ($1,000)—Henry Sun (Lisa Kiser)
SHIRLEY SARLIN PIANO SCHOLARSHIP (Grade 12) ($1,200) Zhanshuo Zhang (Lisa Kiser)
ROBERT JONES PIANO DUET SCHOLARSHIP (Grades 6-12) (two $100)—Olyyvia Fan /Renée Wang (Lisa Kiser)
Lisa had a number of orchestral performances. She played piano for one of the great works of American music, Copland's Appalachian Spring with the Greenville Symphony in April (Sold Out!). She is also playing piano for the upcoming Asheville Symphony concert featuring Korngold's Violin Concerto.
Lisa also played for a few special concerts and even turned pages for Itzhak Perlman's Violin Recital at the Peace Center. These concerts include the singer Andrea Bocelli at Bon Secours Arena and Harry Potter at the Peace Center with the Greenville Symphony. These pics are paparazzi level and give an interesting look from the perspective of a professional musician.
David performed at the music club's scholarship fundraiser recital to help raise money for the very scholarships awarded to students. See part of Chopin's Ballade No. 1: https://crescentmusicclub.org/march-24-fundraiser
Also a big congratulations to Lisa's students who are the 2024 National NMFC Representatives:
We also had a student recital at Greenville's Steinway Gallery. We snapped a few pics. Find yourself.
As you can see if was a busy but musically fulfilling beginning of spring for our studio and teachers. As a bonus here is a paparazzi pic of one of our students Joseph at a Greenville Symphony Concert. (Photo by Jeremy Fleming). -Happy Practicing, Mr. Kiser.
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