Mini Maestros

This is not a recital.

At a recital, everyone in the room came to hear you. Here you are the one who came, and the room was already full. That makes it a different thing entirely.

Nobody is being judged. Parents come along as chaperones, but the audience is somebody else. A student sits down, plays for half an hour, and then talks to whoever wants to talk — which is often the part that gets remembered.

What makes it work is coming back. One visit is a gesture. The fourth is a relationship — residents remember who plays the Chopin. How often that happens depends on the residence and how many students we have, and we would rather promise less and turn up.

And nothing beats live music. A recording is a fine thing, but it is not somebody in the room making the sound while you watch them do it.

Supervision

A parent or guardian chaperones every visit — students are never in a residence alone. Anyone under eighteen needs written consent on file before we can book them. These are care facilities; that step does not get skipped.

What we ask of students

• About a year of playing. No audition.
• Twenty minutes you can play comfortably. Comfortable beats difficult.
• Willingness to go back. Three visits a term is the shape.

What we ask of residences

• A room people already gather in. A piano if you have one; we bring a keyboard if not.
• Half an hour on a weekend afternoon.
• Someone to let us in.

That is the whole list. We handle transport, scheduling and the students, and it costs nothing.