Ten years and going strong
Celebrating its tenth anniversary this year is Piano Week (whose media partner is Pianist magazine), founded by pianist Samantha Ward, and now taking place at Rugby School. It’s on a more intimate scale than some of the other schools, with about 30 pianists attending (there are 35 practice rooms at Rugby). It’s also entirely non-selective, for both children and adults, and the aim is to be completely non-stressful, and as friendly as possible: but, as Ward explains, if you’d like it to be a rigorous boot-camp, it can be that too. Her aim in setting up the event was two-fold. ‘I’d been to several summer schools as a child, and they were great, but they were undoubtedly stressful too. You had to achieve certain things by the end of the course, and there was a certain level of anxiety. So I wanted to create something with no stress at all. And also I’d just turned 30, and had a feeling that I couldn’t just wait around for an agent to give me concert opportunities: I had to make them myself. So the festival part of the event is a platform for me and my amazing colleagues to perform.’ So successful has Ward’s project become, that in its first decade, Piano Week has already travelled to China, Italy, Germany and Japan, as well as keeping up its annual UK presence. On offer are lots of one-to-one lessons. The ‘intensive’ package includes nine lessons throughout the week, with 28 hours of other activities, such as classes in sight-reading, memorisation, and composition; the ‘light’ package is more gentle, with three lessons included. ‘It’s always a lot of fun, that’s what I want to emphasise,’ says Ward. This year it runs 16-30 July.
There are plenty more courses on offer – John Evans wrote about a few more of them in Pianist issue 125 – but I hope I’ve given a taster of what’s available, and how and why some of the schools were founded. So why not take the plunge? There’s something for everyone out there.
Looking for a course to attend outside of the UK? Various courses and summer festivals in Europe and the US are listed on the Pianist website: pianistmagazine.com
dartington.org pianosummerschool.co.uk (at Stowe) oxfordpianofestival.com pianosummerschool.com (Chetham’s) pianoweek.com finchcocks.com