Hi everyone:

My son, who just turned 7 and is in 1st grade, had a studio recital yesterday. I wanted to share it with the community for comments and feedback.

He had some rough spots during the performance, but overall, I think he did well. The Shostakovich "Dance" is quite difficult technically, especially at his age. Oddly, the rough spots he had were in the areas that he was most consistent during practice and rehearsal-funny how that happens on stage:)

And although he uncharacteristically got caught up on the middle section of "Little Story" by Maykapar, I thought his phrasing and musicality was quite beautiful. Looking forward to your opinions.

You will need a username and password to see this video. Please don't share it outside of the Piano World community as I'm very protective of my children's online identity. I will leave the video up over the weekend.

I'm looking forward to your feedback:) My son won't see the feedback directly, so you'll be commenting to Daddy.

http://gallery.me.com/philiphotchkiss#100007
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I tried to watch, but my internet is crapping out right now, so I couldn't watch all of it.

Hi Philip, I got to see the whole thing. And I fully understand your desire to protect your child's identity.

I'm not familiar with either of these pieces, and I did pick up his note flubs on the first piece (the "Dance" I assume?). But the flubs were really not that relevant. Much more interesting to me was his control of rhythm, and I was especially aware of his use of dynamics. It's so easy for children (and some adults, for that matter) to neglect or fail to control dynamics. I thought he did very well in that area, and I did like his musical phrasing as well.

Please tell him I thought he did very, very well. Can't wait to hear him when he can reach the pedals.

Thanks for the insight, feedback and the encouraging words - much appreciated as always Chris. I'll tell him:)

Phil

I still couldn't finish the video; it stops loading about 1/3 of the way through every time.