Time Change for Final Recital

The time for my 90-day recital on Thursday Sept 15th has been changed to 8pm. Hopefully this will allow you more time to get off work, eat something, and make your way over to CUA calmly. As calmly as possible considering you'll be driving through DC.

Also, more dates have been added for my pre-9/15 recitals: Please check them out and consider attending one of these concerts, especially if you can't make the final one.

See current concert schedule HERE.

If you are planning on attending the final recital on 9/15, please let me know. You can leave a comment at the very bottom of this page, or email me at fhurstpianist@gmail.com.

Upcoming Performances

Hello! There are 30 days to go til my 90-day DMA recital, and I'm feeling good about it. This weekend I performed my program three times for different people - this was the first time I'd played the entire program in front of anyone. Today it went really well (today is still my weekend.)

I've got some upcoming performances of my program, in preparation for the official recital:
Saturday, Sept 3, 7pm, Fairfax Christian Church, Fairfax, VA
Friday, Sept 9, Time TBA, St. Alban's Episcopal Church, Annandale, VA
Saturday, Sept 10, 7pm, Piano Company Showroom at White Flint Mall, Rockville, MD

for more info, CLICK HERE

PS All these concerts are FREE!

Running My Program Already!

Today was the 4th day that I've run my program through from beginning to end! (from memory)

Thursday when I did it, it took something like 90 minutes, but by today, it took 80. I'm hoping by the end of this week to have it down to 75! The program needs to be 70 minutes so I'm getting close.

I performed Chopin Mazurkas Op.17 Nos. 2 and 3 today at the church where I work, and it was a successful first performance. I'm thinking the next piece that I want to try out for the church will be the Liszt, since it has so much fancy and fast finger work. I think in two weeks it will definitely be ready to play for people.

Yesterday was the last day of the 3rd annual Washington International Piano Festival. What an amazing festival this was - I wasn't a participant, but I attended all of the evening concerts, and they were wonderful. Last night's concert featured Santiago Rodriguez, whose performance of Chopin's 2nd Sonata brought me to tears.

Well, technically there is one more concert for the festival this coming Wednesday at the Kennedy Center's Millenium Stage, 6pm, featuring participants of the festival. If you're in DC, I highly recommend attending this concert. You'll hear amazing young pianists, and it's FREE! Plus, you get an excuse to visit the Kennedy Center, which is just gorgeous. If you haven't already done so, be sure to take the elevator to the T (Terrace) level, and walk around on the terrace outside. You'll get some of the best views of Washington up there.

I'm starting to plan tryout performances of my program, and I will post the info here once they are confirmed. If you have any ideas for where I might play, send me a message!

100% Memorized!!!

As of a few days ago, my program is 100% MEMORIZED!!!

What a relief it is to know that it's all memorized, and what a great feeling to finally be able to play the Waltzes (Ravel) from beginning to end without the music. Hooray!

I'm thinking to celebrate I actually might paint my nails again. It's been several weeks and my fingers have been feeling a little sad.

Also, yesterday was the first day that the finger that I cut two weeks ago didn't hurt AT ALL. So that's finally healed too!

A note to piano lovers in the DC area - don't miss next week's 3rd annual Washington International Piano Festival. You can hear lots of great world-famous pianists playing concerts and teaching master classes and giving lectures, and hear some amazing young students too. Check it out at http://www.washingtonpianofest.com/

Stay cool!

A Slight Setback, but 97.5% Memorized!

Hello! So, just over a week ago, in a freak random accident, I cut my left index fingertip on the razor sharp lid of a can I had set in the sink. I always push the lid inside the can, but had left it open to rinse it, and forgetting it was there, I put my hand down in the sink, and the tip of my finger ran straight into the vertical can lid. Needless to say, I freaked out! I knew right away I had cut it, before I even saw it. Then the fact that it didn't want to stop bleeding made me even more worried. Crap! I was panicking!



But eventually it stopped bleeding, I calmed down, and accepted the fact that I was going to be taking a (left-hand) break for a few days. I guess it was "meant to be" because DC weather last week after I cut my finger was gorgeous for about 3 days. So I did some right hand practicing, and enjoyed some time outdoors. And about the time it started getting hot again, I was ready to sit down and return to some serious practicing.

This cut really threw a wrench in my progress and in my motivation. I'm including a photo (left) of my finger today to show where the cut is, ON the tip, exactly where I need to play. I'm still playing lightly and on a flat finger, but in a few days I think it'll be back to normal. The crusty stuff is liquid bandage which is starting to peel off.

Today is the first day I really feel I'm back on track, which is I guess why I decided to blog. I have less than 2 pages left to memorize of the Ravel Waltzes, and for the first time I felt today like it is almost becoming a cohesive set of pieces. I am still learning waltzes #5 and 8, but after that, I will have this whole set learned and will feel a big sigh of relief.

A friend asked me what percentage I had memorized at this point, and I'm doing the calculation with the total number of pages. Out of a total of 80 pages, I have 78 pages memorized. So... that is 97.5% memorized!!!

Thanks for reading!

A New Approach to Ravel

So, I started thinking, WHY have I been learning the Ravel one waltz at a time, when I've been learning multiple Ginastera movements simultaneously (not to mention a bunch of other pieces)? So... I started learning Waltz #4 and #7 today. In general I seem to have the capacity to memorize about 3 lines of a piece at a time, so 3 lines of #4 and 2-3 lines of #7 make one whole page!

I also downloaded mp3's of the waltzes so that I could have a CD to listen to in my car. I realized that I really need to hear the waltzes a lot, since I don't really know them in and out, and that way it will be easier to memorize them since I'll know what they're supposed to sound like. My brilliant plan is already working.

Today I went to the dentist for a cleaning, and then to the grocery store (okay, two grocery stores) so I was out for most of the afternoon. That plus the fact that I only slept about 5 hours last night made tonight's practicing a struggle, but I did manage to get through everything, and memorize some Ravel and Chopin. Once again, I almost forgot Beethoven. I don't know what it is with that piece. Maybe it's the blue Henle book that just blends into the background.

I made fresh sea scallops and jumbo shrimp sauteed in olive oil with a bit of garlic and lemon, and ate them with a salad with mixed lettuce, sugar snap peas and peas. It was yum. I also bought pork chops which will need to be made tomorrow I guess. But this isn't my food blog so I'll stop there.

Tomorrow is another day, with lots more practicing and memorizing in store. And tomorrow night I'm attending a piano trio concert at St. Mark's Episcopal Church on Capitol Hill: the Modern Musick Fortepiano Trio premiere concert. I'm actually volunteering there before it starts. If you're interested, it's $15 ($10 students). On the program is:
Beethoven: Trio in c minor, op. 1, no. 3
Hewittt: Piano Sonata: “The Battle of Trenton”
Mozart: Violin Sonata in G major, K. 379
Haydn: Trio in G major, Hob. XV, no. 25

12 days until my 100% memorized goal...

Progress on Tuesday 7/5:
Beethoven 8.66/11 pages
Chopin #4 1.66/3 pages
Ravel Waltz #3 1.6/3 pages
Ginastera mvt 1 5.17/7

Progress Today, 7/6:

Beethoven: 9/11 pages or 82%
Ginastera mvt 1: 5.66/7 pages or 81%
Chopin #1: 0.8/1.6 or 50%
Chopin #4: 3/4 pages or 75%
Ravel Waltz #3: 100% MEMORIZED!!!

Today I think I practiced around 7 hours. That's on the long side for me, and I was tired, but pushed through and managed to practice every composer! Ludwig, I didn't forget you today.

Anyway, exciting update - I finally got my package with my Polish National edition of the Chopin Mazurkas and the Durand edition of the Ravel Waltzes! The Ekier (Polish) edition has already proved helpful, as the print is large (yay!) and there are performance notes for all the pieces. I guess I had forgotten that most ornaments and grace notes are to be played on the beat in Chopin. After comparing the Durand and Alfred editions of the Ravel Waltzes, I have to say, the Alfred edition really is basically exactly like the Durand, in terms of notes and articulation. However, the Durand does not have any pedal markings or finger numbers, so the page is much clearer, which can make the music a little less overwhelming.

I don't know why, but I have a mental block against these Ravel Waltzes. I am finding them so hard to memorize, but I just keep telling myself they aren't hard. haha. I freaked out today when I realized I have 16 pages of Ravel left to memorize, and only 12 days left until my memory goal, which means I'd need to memorize more than 1 page a day. I am going to try my hardest to do it. I think Ravel is going to be my main memory focus for the next week.

Luckily Chopin is pretty easy to memorize (most of them, #1 is a bit tricky) so I guess that balances out the Ravel.

Also, I've been too lazy to paint my nails this week. But I swear, I'll do it soon, because I know we need a new photo here!