For the Love of the Piano
Adam’s Music House was thrilled to host Hailu Studios‘ Spring 2019 Piano Recital. Thank you so much to Sarah Hailu Sheerin for bringing her talented students to Adam’s Music House.
The young people played works ranging from “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” to J. S. Bach’s first Two Part Invention. Every piece was greeted with well deserved enthusiastic applause!
Adam’s Music House is pleased to announce the recipient of our 2019 Fellowship, Valerie Groh, who will study and present a lecture recital about the piano music of Max Reger in December, 2019.
The fellowship winner receives lessons with Artistic Director Dr. Anthony Tobin, guidance toward the presentation of the lecture recital, and $3000. During September 2019 we will sponsor a meet and greet where Valerie will discuss the project and perform!
Valerie Groh is a classically-trained pianist and teacher whose love affair with the piano began with her first lesson at age 7, and whose love of teaching was born more than 20-years ago when student teaching pre-college students at Vanderbilt University.
A native Texan, Valerie was born in Spring, Texas but was raised in Fort Smith, Arkansas where she studied privately with a Russian piano teacher, Mrs. Tanya Ellezian.
She obtained a Bachelor of Music degree in Musical Arts, with a concentration in Piano Pedagogy from the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University in 2000. She spent one year of post-graduate study with Dr. Sandra Chucalo Turner, Chair of the Piano Department at Southern Seminary, taught piano and flute lessons for the Southern Seminary Academy of Music – now the Seminary School of the Arts, and helped manage the technology lab for a private piano studio in Louisville, Kentucky. She taught public school music and directed the honor choir at Northridge Middle School in Van Buren, Arkansas for two years before moving to Austin, Texas where she worked for the Austin Chamber Music Center and taught private and group piano lessons at Capital Music Center before branching out and establishing her own private studio, Valerie Groh’s Piano Garden. Her studio consists of 33-students raging in age from 5 to 17. Currently pursuing certification as a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music (NCTM) through the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), Valerie is committed to her own professional development and is delighted to be studying privately with Dr. Anthony Tobin in hopes of improving as a performing pianist as well as a teacher.
Valerie is an active member of the following local, and National teaching organizations:
Austin District Music Teachers Association (ADMTA)
Texas Music Teachers Association (TMTA)
Music Teachers National Association (MTNA)
Texas Federation of Music Clubs (TFMC)
National Guild of Piano Teachers
Teacher Division of The American College of Musicians
Her students participate in informal and formal recitals during the year, take piano and theory exams offered by the Associate Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM), perform in National Piano GuildAuditions, National Federation of Music Clubs Festivals, and Austin District Music Teachers Association festivals and exams.
Piano playing and teaching is very important to Valerie, but her greatest roles in life are those of wife to Matthew Groh and homeschooling mom to James, age 8 and John, age 5.
Steinway Artist Zoyo Shuhatovich gave a her Austin debut recital and master class at Adam’s Music House Saturday April 27th.
The audience greatly enjoyed her program and were impressed by her wonderful control of the piano:
Schubert Impromptu Opus 142 f minor
Beethoven Capriccio Rage Over the Lost penny Opus 129
Chopin Nocturne Opus 72# 1
Chopin Five Mazurkas:
Opus 6# 4 c# minor; Opus 24 # 4 f minor ;
Opus 63 c# minor; Opus 33# 4 b minor; Opus 50 # 3 c# minor
Chopin Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise Brilliante Opus 22
Following a reception, Zoya taught three students. We heard the first movement of the Mozart C Major Sonata, Fluttering Leaves by Carl Kolling, and the Rameau-Godowsky Tambourin.
Thanks to all who attended and participated!
Our next event will be a recital by our Artistic Director, Dr. Anthony Tobin. He will perform the Bach e minor Toccata, the Mozart c minor Sonata, and Book I of the Debussy Preludes Sunday May 12th at 4PM.
Saturday April 27th at 2PM Russian pianist and Steinway Artist Zoya Shuhatovich will perform a solo recital and give a master class. We look forward to having her! After the recital we will have a reception, the master class will follow.
https://www.facebook.com/events/339980359969579/
Program:
Schubert Impromptu op 142 F minor
Beethoven Capriccio Rage over the lost penny op 129
Chopin Nocturne op 72# 1
Chopin Five Mazurkas:
Op 6# 4 C# minor; Op 24 # 4 F minor ;
Op 63 C# minor; Op 33# 4 B minor; Op 50 # 3 C# minor
Chopin Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise Brilliante Op 22
Next week we will have auditions for the second Adam’s Music House Fellowship. We look forward to hearing and meeting with the applicants!
Sunday May 12th at 2PM our Artistic Director Dr. Anthony Tobin will give a performance of the Bach e minor toccata, the Mozart Sonata in c minor, and the Debussy Preludes Book I.
We had a great class today with four students despite the fact it is the end of spring break! The audience was wonderful and the students all played really well.
We heard a Mozart Sonata, a Haydn Sonata, “Fast Break” from Imaginations by Kevin Olson, and “The Nightingale” by Glinka.
Thanks to all who participated!
We were thrilled to have Sophia Gilmson return from UT Austin for a master class. She handled the range of students and repertoire wonderfully and gave technical and musical advice that is applicable at any time, not only relevant for the moment when the student played. We really appreciate her generosity with wisdom and time!
Artistic Director and Steinway Artist Dr. Anthony Tobin will give a master class Saturday March 23rd from 2-430PM.
Pianist Zoya Shuhatovich will give a recital followed by a master class Saturday April 27th from 2-445.
Dr. Anthony Tobin, Music Director of Adam’s Music House, gave a double treat to a full house this past Sunday. Not only did he perform the first book of Claude Debussy’s Preludes for Piano, he also screened his short film “Le piano du reve”.
Dr. Tobin’s playing brought to life the shimmering world of Debussy’s pieces. From the majestic opening Danseuses de Delphes (Dancers of Delphi) to the playful Minstrels his control of sound and clarity held us all spellbound. Indeed, it felt as if we were experiencing a only vague representation of our normal senses hearing La cathédrale engloutie (The Engulfed Cathedral) and the ethereal De pas sur la neige (Footsteps in the Snow). My personal favorite, La fille aux cheveux de lin (The Girl with Flaxen Hair), left me simply breathless. The sound of the seven foot Bösendorfer that was just recently returned to the performance space rang with a true, rich tone that Dr. Tobin took every advantage of.
In “Le piano du reve” Dr. Tobin demonstrates how the construction of Debussy’s Bleuthner piano inspired him to create the sound-scapes in the Preludes. Not merely theorizing about this possibility from a distance, Dr. Tobin gained access to the Bleuthner now housed in the Musee Labenche in Brive la-Gaillarde. The film frames the period in Debussy’s life when he married a second time, became a father, purchased the Bleuthner, and wrote both books of the Preludes. Playing on both a modern piano and Debussy’s, Dr. Tobin demonstrates the sound quality and keyboard response the Bleuthner opened for the composer. The film closes with Dr. Tobin’s performance of the virtuosic Feux d’artifice on the instrument it was imagined upon.
Thank you to all who came to our event and we look forward to seeing you again at Adam’s Music House.
