Espressivo 2019 - What we did at Piano Camp!

The McPherson Area Piano Teachers' League hosted it's second annual Espressivo Piano Camp during the first week of June. Our camp consisted of almost 30 area piano students and area teachers Brett Janssen, Shulah Neff, Dan Masterson & Dawn Ivers who worked together on growing in our understanding of Music History, Performance, Music Theory, Improvisation & Composing in a fun summer day camp environment. This type of camp experience is so valuable to piano students because so much of the time piano is a solitary activity with practice at home & lesson time having to focus on individualized learning. This means that for piano students, having the opportunity to dig into some extra musical subjects and have fun with musical peers reinforces the value and the fun of what they are learning.

In addition to the classes, the camp featured a special session by guest teacher, Jean Kennedy all about the guitar, and THREE performances. The first performances on Thursday was a repertoire recital performed by the teachers to introduce classical repertoire the students could be learning in the coming years, and the week culminated on Friday with an ensemble recital from intermediate and advanced students in the morning and a solo recital by all in the afternoon.

Enjoy these photos & videos of what these students accomplished: 

Rhythm cups are a camp tradition where all our students, beginner through advanced, can participate together.
Beginning students working on writing their compositions
Advanced students working on notating their compositions.

Intermediate students in their Music History class, with teacher Shulah Neff.

Jean Kennedy, area music teacher, giving a presentation about the guitar to the campers
Students playing a favorite rhythm building game (using ping pong balls!), with teacher Brett Janssen

Intermediate students in their performance class with teacher, Dan Masterson

Beginning students giving peer performances in preparation for the recital on the final day of camp
Our collaborative recital allowed students to perform duets together

 
A clip of these advanced students providing a show-stopper with the trio "Triple Dip"

After our finale recital, students, families & teachers had a reception with refreshments and a photo booth to celebrate a wonderful week of Espressivo Piano Camp!

We had such a terrific time putting this camp together, and loved seeing the engagement from so many students. Thank you to my fellow teachers for helping make this great, and thank you to all of our terrific campers! 

To learn more about Espressivo Piano Camp, to see future updates about coming years, or to know when enrollment opens up for next year, be sure to like the Espressivo Facebook page, or follow @espressivopianocamp on Instagram