At Senior House Assembly, we welcomed Stephen Dickinson, who is a professional pianist. Stephen began by talking to pupils about his musical journey. He started to learn the piano at the age of seven and made rapid progress. On leaving school, he moved from his native Leeds to London and studied for five years at the Royal College of Music in South Kensington. His musical career has spanned a wide variety of areas. In addition to performing as a soloist, he has been in great demand as an accompanist and as a chamber musician. He has also worked in musical theatre and for twenty-five years taught in a drama school.
Stephen then treated pupils to a selection of piano repertoire through the ages. He began with a performance of a piano transcription of J.S.Bach's Aria Sheep May Safely Graze. It was explained to pupils that the piano is an ideal instrument for transcriptions because of its ability to sustain notes. It was also pointed out that pianos did not exist in Bach's day, so when playing his keyboard works on the piano the decision has to be taken on whether or not to use the sustaining pedal. From Bach we moved on to Beethoven, more specifically the second movement of his famous Moonlight Sonata. The first movement is reasonably accessible for those new to the instrument, provided they can play double octaves, the third movement is well-known as a virtuoso piece but the second movement is less well known, so it was good to have a live performance of it. We then moved on to Schubert, a contemporary of Beethoven, who died very young and who, during the course of his short life, produced a vast amount of truly outstanding compositions. We were treated to one of his marches for piano. Moving further into the 19th Century, we learnt about Chopin, and took in the political background to Chopin's life. Chopin was Polish, but Poland during his lifetime was under Russian occupation. Following a failed uprising against Russian rule in 1830, Chopin, along with many of his countrymen, chose to live in exile in Paris. Stephen played two of the more accessible preludes from the collection of twenty-four preludes. Budding pianists in the audience were informed that these preludes were very much in their reach once they were able to play octaves. We finished with a piece by the French 20th Century composer Francis Poulenc, which was certainly very characterful.
Pupils were then able to ask questions, such as how much practice was needed to make progress on the instrument. With one of our piano teachers sitting at the organ, the point was made that teachers appreciated it if pupils practised every day! This was a very successful assembly indeed and built on assemblies last academic year on singing and chamber repertoire. Our pupils are receiving a very comprehensive musical education!
