Hope you’ve had a super week and are looking forward to the weekend, which you can start on a positive note with Good Music News Friday. It’s our weekly summary of positive news about music, music education and anything else which captured our attention.
- Open for applications: The Arts Club – Sir Karl Jenkins Music Award 2019
- Christmas repertoire recommendations on Piano Teachers’ Hour
- 2798 LEGO bricks make a Concert Grand Piano
- The John Lewis Christmas ad celebrates music lessons and learning
- Musical inclusion celebrated by CBSO
- The ISM’s annual survey of teaching and accompanying rates
The Arts Club – Sir Karl Jenkins Music Award 2019 in association with Classic FM is now open for applications. The competition, now in its fifth year, seeks to find “the most talented instrumentalist in the UK, aged between 18-25.” This year’s contest was won by cellist, Abel Selaocoe.
The winner will be awarded a cash prize of £4,000. In addition, a short piece from the winner’s competition repertoire, as well as a composition especially written by Sir Karl, will be recorded in a London studio. The runner-up will receive a cash prize of £1,000. Full details are here.
This week’s Piano Teachers’ Hour discussion covered repertoire for Christmas, with plenty of recommended resources (new and old) for piano teachers and students to enjoy. The blog post summary of the discussion is here. Loads of great ideas! We enjoy it PTH when we can participate – it’s a wonderful weekly twitter chat (read more about it within our interview with Barbara Kennedy here).
On the theme of Christmas repertoire: it’s a bit like a pie sandwich, says YMTS’ Claire in this blog post.
A playable miniature Concert Grand piano has been built from 2798 LEGO bricks, featuring a keyboard with 25 independent working keys, a working damper and pedal function and strings. It was designed by a LEGO creator, SleepyCow, and you can watch a short (one minute) film about it here.
You’ve probably seen the John Lewis Christmas advert, featuring Elton John – and celebrating a lifetime of musical learning (and those formative music lessons).
There’s a good write-up of The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s Celebrating musical inclusion event here.
And don’t forget: The ISM’s annual survey of teaching and accompanying rates closes on 30 November – participate here.
This year’s survey focuses on fees paid to private teachers; fees paid to part-time instrumental and singing teachers in schools; and fees paid for accompanying work. It will take less than 10 minutes to complete.
What next?
- Read earlier editions of Good Music News.
- If there’s something you would like us to cover in Good Music News Friday, please email us.
- Here’s some good news for music teachers: our free 29 tips for a thriving music teaching business will give you things you can do immediately to boost your music teaching business. They’ll also make you smile.