Texas Piano Students Play Clavinovas to Packed House at the Keyboard Ensemble Youth Symphony Festival
BUENA PARK, Calif. This past February, 150 students and teachers from the Richardson, Garland, Plano, Lake Highlands, Sulphur Springs and Emory, Texas area played to a packed crowd of 800 at the fifth annual Keyboard Ensemble Youth Symphony (KEYS) festival held at Lake Highlands Junior High School in Dallas, Texas. The event was sponsored by the Greater Dallas Group Music Teachers Association and Yamaha's new Dallas retailer, Grand Staff Piano Centers, which provided 16 Clavinova CVP-300 Series digital pianos for this special performance.
Led by Yamaha Keyboard Specialist Susan Ogilvy, the children and teachers used the vast selection of instrument voices on the Clavinova CVPs to create vibrant percussion, jazz and brass bands, as well as full string orchestras. To prepare for the KEYS concert, the students, ranging in ages from five to 16, learned about orchestra and band registrations, and how to play the Clavinova to "make it sound" like strings, woodwinds, brass and various percussion instruments.
"Young piano students seldom get the experience to participate in an ensemble performance until they are in middle school," said Dellana Cook, a Dallas-based music teacher and coordinator of the KEYS event. "At KEYS, our youngest symphony participant was five-years-old and a first year piano student. It's a memorable experience to see this talented group of children working together to share such rich tone, harmony and rhythm. At the end of the performance we presented all of the students with trophies. They really felt like they were a part of something truly dynamic."
At the Texas Music Teachers Association convention to be held in June, Ms. Ogilvy will lead the "Digital Keyboard Orchestra," where roughly 52 students and teachers from all over the state will perform a host of original band and orchestral ensemble arrangements. Grand Staff Piano Centers will again provide Clavinova CVPs for the ensemble performances.
"Learning to play in an ensemble poses a great opportunity for these piano students to hone their skills in terms of listening, counting and following a conductor," notes Debbie Beach, education specialist at the Grand Staff Piano Centers in Dallas. "Most important, the students and teachers had a lot of fun playing with each other, and we anticipate many more participants next year."
Grand Staff Piano Centers is the exclusive Yamaha Clavinova dealership in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
For more information, write Yamaha Corporation of America, Piano Division, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622, telephone (714) 522-9011, or e-mail infostation@yamaha.com.
 To prepare for the KEYS concert, the students, ranging in ages from five to 16, learned about orchestra and band registrations, and how to play the Clavinova to "make it sound" like strings, woodwinds, brass and various percussion instruments. |
"Young piano students seldom get the experience to participate in an ensemble performance until they are in middle school," said Dellana Cook, a Dallas-based music teacher and coordinator of the KEYS event. "At KEYS, our youngest symphony participant was five-years-old and a first year piano student. It's a memorable experience to see this talented group of children working together to share such rich tone, harmony and rhythm. At the end of the performance we presented all of the students with trophies. They really felt like they were a part of something truly dynamic."
At the Texas Music Teachers Association convention to be held in June, Ms. Ogilvy will lead the "Digital Keyboard Orchestra," where roughly 52 students and teachers from all over the state will perform a host of original band and orchestral ensemble arrangements. Grand Staff Piano Centers will again provide Clavinova CVPs for the ensemble performances.
"Learning to play in an ensemble poses a great opportunity for these piano students to hone their skills in terms of listening, counting and following a conductor," notes Debbie Beach, education specialist at the Grand Staff Piano Centers in Dallas. "Most important, the students and teachers had a lot of fun playing with each other, and we anticipate many more participants next year."
Grand Staff Piano Centers is the exclusive Yamaha Clavinova dealership in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
For more information, write Yamaha Corporation of America, Piano Division, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622, telephone (714) 522-9011, or e-mail infostation@yamaha.com.