A Rare Treat

It's that time of year again at Carousel Studios. All the kids are ramped with excitement about the end of the year recitals. Sunday was our biggest recital where all of our classes come together and play a series of duets. Everyone did a great job!! I'm so proud of the work they put into this music.

Tonight will be the biggest night for the seniors because it's their very last recital as a student of Mrs. Betty's. It's bittersweet. Watching all the kiddo's play takes me back to the time I was a student of Mrs. Betty's. She is hands down the best teacher of all time! She pushed me and challenged me in ways I never thought possible. She'd play a recording of a song for me and say "You're going to play this!" And I'd say "In your dreams!" But she always got her way. :)

One of the songs she was determined to get me to play was Chopin's Fantasy Impromtu. For those who don't know that song, it's roughly 12 pages of pure craziness! I seriously questioned whether or not Mrs. Betty was in her right mind when she gave this piece to me.

She knew what she was doing the whole time, though. In high school I was a huge performer. I played about 7+ recitals a semester. Something changed in the past couple of years and I have a hard time doing it now. My nerves get the best of me. So here's a rare treat:

This is my Sr. recital in 2005 playing Fantasy Impromtu by Chopin.

I wish I could say I can still play that piece. It was, hands down, the hardest piece I've ever played. It took about 8 months to learn and memorize. Since 2005 only one other student has managed to play that piece. Many have tried though.

I still get nervous when I watch it. I'm thinking "don't screw up, don't screw up." When I watch it I can hear all the little mistakes, and I'm critiquing my posture. Ugh. AND I apologize for not taking a bow at the end. That was really rude of my teenage self to do. But I should definitely be proud of the work I accomplished. Now that I've grown up more musically I should re-learn the piece and see what I can do.

Mrs. Betty is sad to be saying goodbye to the seniors she has now. They've been working hard on their pieces for several months and have made Mrs. Betty very proud. Good luck seniors!!!!