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Well, I held my Studio winter recital last night and for the most part I would say it was a success. My students played well and the food was gone by the end! However, I noticed two issues that are of my concern.

1.) Lots of little siblings and lots of noise! Unfortunately, I live in a small town and there is not a single theater or church that has a piano in it at which I can hold my recital. I have been holding the recital at a church hall which has a horrible piano, terrible acoustics, chairs that make scraping noises when they are moved, etc. On top of that, there was constant movement, whispering, kids crying and crawling on the floor, and parents saying "sshh!!" throughout. I am considering hiring a couple of teenagers to supervise a room where parents can take their little ones and they can watch a kids show with popped corn, etc.

2.) I have 30 students. Only 25 performed in this recital. The recital was 75 minutes with students going back to back, 2 short pieces each (in some cases I only allowed 1 piece if it was lengthy). I would love the opportunity to discuss student's pieces and achievements before they perform but that would bring it up to an hour and 45! Has anyone ever split up a recital into two nights? Or perhaps a morning and an afternoon show? Any other ideas?

Definitely split up the recitals. I don't let my recitals go over an hour, and parents like to socialize afterward, so I schedule one at 10:30 in the morning and the next one at 1 in the afternoon (I always do them on Saturdays).

Yes, I split mine today. Back to back, Mon-Wed students came at 2pm, Thurs - Sat students came at 3pm. Was worth it for a more intimate audience. I'm shattered though.

For socialising, most of the 3pm group arrived early while we were socialising after the 2pm group. A few went back, to play their pieces again, and catch up, as the piano was just sitting there.

If you want less shushting and less noisy toddlers, make it shorter, have everyone play one piece only. Just my tuppence.

Hi, for the first time I also split my students' recital into 2 programs, separated by an intermission. 2nd half was short compared to the first half. Next time I will keep it as one program, include a short intermission, and give people the opportunity to come and go during the break if they need to leave with small children, etc.
What I didn't like about splitting the recital was that I had a full hour intermission between the 2 programs. Some people wanted to stay to hear the second half, but the intermission was too long.

Due to several cancellations within a few days of the recital, I combined the kids into one long recital. Bad idea. It was almost two hours.

I will aim for 45-minute recitals next time.

What's difficult is they're so unpredictable. That's what I find hardest.

It's good to add an intermission or split them up. Parents generally like to chat afterwards; a reception (e.g. potluck) of sorts afterwards is nice too (but might take a bit of setup and clean up).

My winter recital is more of a party than a recital, although the children do play. Usually it's held at my home, but this year we had it at the church hall, and I set the room up with round tables for conversation and lots of candles. Potluck snacks and I provided drinks. The children played their pieces and duets as they felt ready (no program) and at the end, a couple of older students played while the others stood around the piano and sang along, all the while parents and others were talking and mingling at the other end of the hall. It was really quite spontaneous and fun!

What a lovely idea!