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Just came back from my sons' recital last night.

The recital was pretty successful, the teacher was very happy, and said some of her students put on their best performances ever on the recital, played better than what she heard during the classes. I believer her, my own boys also have played their best on the recitals, more than once.

I think something she did in the recital might have contributed to this.

She has students at different levels, for some little kids, this was the very first recital, some older students have been with her for 6-7 years. She put the cute little ones in between the advanced students. The anticipating and tensions didn't build up. The big contrast also helped the audience to relax and appreciate the progress the advanced students have made.

She also acted like an mc, giving genuine specific public praise to some of the students every now and then, and telling her personal stories throughout the recital.

After one of the girls finished playing, she asked the audience to raise their hand if they are left-handed, and the difficulty they have encountered, and then praise the girl, who was left-handed, to brought out the melody with her right hand, and play soft with her left hand.

After another student played, she praises the girl for playing melody parts and harmony parts in one hand and was able to make the melody standout by applying different strength on different fingers, she went so far to repeat what the student did and also played the incorrect ways to let the audience know the differences. Her comments were uplifting, educational to the audiences, and serve as a reminder for the next students.

The upbeat, exciting but relaxing atmosphere of the recital might have helped to bring the best out of the students.

Just wanted to share, and wish all the teachers, and students a great summer recital.

I'm glad it went well. I'd be hesitant to place the smaller kids between higher level kids. The reason is some kids feel very deflated playing a simple song after they've just heard a fast sonatina. They don't understand that the simple song can be played better than the sonatina.

Plus each year, they find themselves later in the program, so that acts as an incentive to continue.

It might have helped that the teacher spoke in between, but it depends how long the recital takes. Plus if you wax eloquent about one student's progress, and forget to mention anything about another person's progress it can backfire. In my recital, I generally comment if somebody has had an achievement related to piano. Occasionally I speak about the piece itself. But usually, it's hard to teach anything in that setting.

But it sounds like it went really well for her.

I think your son's teacher's approach was great. She seems to think out of the box and her explaining things to the audience not only provides very useful information to the audience but reinforces her support for students which they would appreciate and give them incentive. As a child I had recitals twice a year and my instructor always started with the newest students first and progressed to the advanced. Thinking about it, I like yours son's instructor's approach very much.

At one recital the boy in front of me forgot something and started freezing up and without continuing left the stage all red faced. That taught me a good lesson and I was glad my piece worked out fine. Under your son's instructor's approach if something like this happens to a new student, the more advanced student going next may help smooth things out better and get the recital back on track.

Was there a printed recital program? I wish my parents had saved them for me! I still have the related sheet music and today am thrilled my instructor wrote the details of the recital on the front of each recital piece. I did a recital recently and made a program for everyone and gave the audience a verbal introduction to each piece including discussion of the composer, an overview of the genre such as preludes, ballades, etc.

In these forums on Pianoworld there are those that don't believe in recitals and those that think they are very important like me. I had recitals from grade school though college and had stage fright but once on stage that always seemed to go away. I've taken master classes later in life that included recitals. Today when I'm in or give a recital I don't have any stage fright whatsoever and really feel that is due to the recitals earlier in life.

Steve

It was a 2-hour recital with a 10-minute intermission and a 15 minute social at the end. It has been that way for many years.

There was still an order, I think the second most advanced player play just before the intermission and the most advanced player play at the very end. I usually 3rd most advanced player plays the first piece after the intermission to bring people's attention back, but sometimes she played the first piece after the intermission herself, served as the announcement for start of the second part of the recital, people heard the music, quickly and quietly went back to their seats, I thought it worked very well.

Oh yes, fancy one.
We bring it home but we would misplace it.
However, I always scan it and save a digital copy, which I have not lost.

TWO-HOUR recital??????????

I hope you are not exaggerating. That sounds more painful than enjoyable. I've run dozens of recitals in my life, and the only marathon I ever had was a shade over an hour. Then I started splitting the recitals.

No, I was not.

Funny you said that. One story the teacher shared in this very recital was, she asked each student what they like the most of the recital, some said the food, some said the drinks.... and to her pleasant surprise, quite a few said they love to see and listen to people play, and one kid came to the recital as a guest love it so much and asked for piano lesson and became her student.

In retrospect, I think the selection of music was critical to the success of the recital, they were the music the students love to play and listen. (And the exam kids didn't play their exam pieces, they play their "fun" pieces)

Agreed 1 hour or less is perfect! FWIW- I'd also hate it if the teacher gave feedback after each person.

A teacher's occasional spoken comments between performers can soften the tension of a student recital, but as others note it's tricky: unless you say something about each student or each selection, it looks like favoritism. Or pandering. Or oversight. Or something. I don't know how to do it entirely successfully.

For the last 3 years my teacher has done a random order of performers. After playing, each performer draws a name from a hat, and that person plays next. Everyone seems to like it; I'm sure if there were any complaints he would quit doing it.

Here in Canada, or perhaps I should narrow down to Vancouver, 2-hour recitals with an intermission are pretty normal. We are old-fashioned, slower paced and have the patience to appreciate music for a longer time, I guess.

I did the same with my last student recital--changed things up and didn't go in order of beginning to advanced. Sometimes students with no prior recital experience are afraid to go first. (Although, that can also be true of experienced performers.)

I chose a boy with a few years' experience to lead off the recital with Tansman's Parade, to his utter delight. He loved the idea of getting the event started. (I didn't address the audience first, as I always have in the past, but let the opening be with music instead of words. Then I welcomed the audience, thanked them for being there, said a few other things, and we proceeded with the rest of the show.)

For the first-time players, the ice had already been broken. For the advanced players, there wasn't a sense of "Who's last [i.e. who's the best] this year, and why am I not...?"

For the audience, there was variety, not having to listen to a bunch of easy pieces all together, or several long works strung out at the end.

A random order could help older beginners feel less self-conscious, too, not being placed among half a dozen five- and six-year-olds, and seeing their peer group play much later in the recital.

Anyway, this last time I didn't get feedback one way or the other from the audience as to whether they liked this new format better (some did say they liked hearing students' original compositions interspersed among the other repertoire), but, IMO, there's more of a feeling of camaraderie, rather than competition, among the students, when going in a random order.

If students want to compete, there are opportunities for that. With a recital, though, I feel the spotlight is on students working in a cooperative endeavor to bring music to an audience.

Glad to hear someone else has tried this approach.

I'm not a teacher, but I've attended a number of student recitals.

I agree with The Monkeys that when the teacher acts as an MC and can give a bit of background either about the performer or the music piece, it makes the recital much more interesting.

I enjoy listening to piano music, and I enjoy recitals. But the recitals where the students just quietly go up one by one and perform one after the other without any introduction beforehand feel longer than the ones where the teacher makes an introduction.

I too, have attended numerous recitals. I also enjoy when the teacher acts as MC and shares information about the performer and the music. It makes it much more enjoyable, as a listener anyway.

Sounds like a great recital. Although I agree 2 hours can be long.

I have a violin teacher friend who has each student tell something about themselves and about the piece they are playing before they actually play. The parents enjoy this.

I think it is very appropriate for a student recital. Kudos to your teacher. Thanks for sharing.

My teacher always have students tell the name and the piece they are playing. But, I feel lost le that unnecessarily makes me more nervous. So far, for the ones I have to say something before I play，I always ended up messing up my pieces majorly sometimes to the point that I cannot continue. So, these day while my teacher will still have her other students introduce themselves but she will always introduce me. Since then, I am able to play my piece in whole without much mistakes. But let the audience know a bit about the background of the piece is good.

2-hour recital sounds like a long recital, but when it's broken up with an intermission with refreshments in between, it's not as long as it sounds.