Register for Adult Piano Camp today.
CASSA Contact information: CASSA office telephone 403.271.0418, CASSA fax 403.278.3236, or
2012 Adult Piano Camp (APC)
August 8 - 10, 2012
Musicale: Wednesday, August 10, 2:00 pm
St. Vladimir's Cultural Centre
404 Meredith Road NE (Memorial Drive and Edmonton Trail)
Calgary, Alberta
9 am - 5 daily
See the registration form or the fee summary for fee information.
The Adult Piano Camp is an exciting three-day experience for adult pianists to explore the many facets of piano playing in a supportive, fun atmosphere that promotes a positive attitude towards practising and performing. Students are coached in prepared solo repertoire and new ensemble pieces. There are classes in musical style, interpretation, memorization, technique and performance anxiety.
Camp dates have changed for 2012.
Thank you for the wonderful camp! I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed the Adult Piano Camp. It was a great joy to be among so many talented people who shared a passion for music and I believe the three day camp will have an ongoing impact on improving my piano playing. I learned new ways to practice and a better appreciation of the skills I have already developed. The instructors were so wonderful and very encouraging. I plan to return next year. — E. Gruninger
Are you an adult who is interested in the 2012 Adult Piano Camp but want to know more about what to expect —besides having fun? Look at the schedule for the 2011 APC:
Buy a Gift Certificate for Your Favourite Pianist
Download the form to buy a gift certificate for Adult Piano Camp or for any other program in 2011.
2012 Clinicians TBA
2011 Clinicians: Alberta is fortunate to have first-rate pianists and teachers who provided a highly successful piano camp for adults.
1. Dr. Lana Henchell
Performing: Controlling your Nerves, Conquering your Fears
This lecture will focus on ways to handle performance anxiety. Learn how to be in control of your nerves, instead of being controlled by them. Conquer your fears and relieve stress by preparing for what is expected, rather than fearing the unknown. Various performing situations will be covered, along with techniques that can be used to create comforting and successful performance regimes.
2. Gabriella Jonas
What are the different motivations for studying music as an adult?
Among other topics of interest to adult students, Ms. Jonas will talk about human relations in teaching as they affect adults.
3. Edwin Gnandt
Understanding Schumann’s Piano Style through “Album For The Young” Opus 68
(Be sure to bring your score or you may purchase one at the Camp.)
4. Joseph Fridman
Practical Suggestions for Mastering Arpeggios and Other Wide-Spaced Passages on the Piano
We wish to remind you that videotaping of CASSA productions and performances is not permitted. DVDs of performances are available through CASSA. Friends and relatives may take photographs, but to avoid distracting the performers, please do not use flash photography during the performance.
Mr. Fridman and Ms. Bryanskya 2010
2010 Teacher Profiles
Joseph Fridman
Joseph Fridman comes to us from Edmonton. He is an incredible musician who unreservedly loves, lives and breathes music. He has earned two master’s degrees, one as a pianist and one as an opera director. Both degrees are from the world-renowned St. Petersburg State Conservatory (Russia ). He is a concert pianist, teacher, vocal coach and accompanist. He taught at the Schools for Musically Gifted Children of St. Petersburg and Kiev and the Pskov Music College and performed with the St. Petersburg and Pskov Philharmonics.
Mr. Fridman served on the faculty of the Alberta College Conservatory of Music from 1991 till 2002 and taught in the Conservatory’s International Music Academy and the University of Alberta. Mr. Fridman is a director and teacher of the Alberta Music Academy. He lectures and gives masterclasses and workshops in Canada, Ukraine, Russia and the USA. He has taught in various summer schools: “Strings and Keys” (Bergen), Alberta College summer school (Edmonton) and now as a clinician with CASSA.
Mr. Fridman has adjudicated a number of festivals and competitions, including the prestigious Canadian Music Competition (2004). His piano students have received first class honors and medals in RCM Exams, first and second prizes in the Kiwanis Festival, Northern Alberta Concerto Competition and Fall Festival. Mr. Fridman performs in solo and chamber recitals and has been broadcast frequently on CBC Radio.
Edwin Gnandt, Piano Teacher
Canadian pianist EDWIN GNANDT enjoys a successful career with over five hundred appearances as soloist, accompanist, adjudicator and workshop clinician. He has been praised by the San Francisco Examiner for his "consistently alluring sound," by the Oakland Tribune for his "ear for phrasing," and by the Los Angeles Times for his "distinct refinement." Mr Gnandt's performances have taken him throughout Canada and the United States as well as to Russia and Scotland. Recent appearances include St Petersburg, Russia; Denver, Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, and Vancouver. Recently, he was invited as a visiting Professor of Music at Azuza Pacific University in Los Angeles, California, where he collaborated with Polish pianist Roza Yoder in pursuing his continued interest in Chopin. He participates as a guest lecturer at the Point Loma Summer Keyboard Institute in San Diego and is a regular contributor to the Calgary Arts Summer School Association (CASSA).
Mr Gnandt has studied at a number of prestigious institutions including the University of Washington (Randolph Hokanson), University of Edinburgh, Scotland (Canada Council Grant), and the Juilliard School of Music (Adele Marcus). He has collaborated and recorded with various artists: Alan Monk (Metropolitan Opera); baritone Paul Berkholds (California Institute of the Arts); violinist Thomas Williams (McGill University); violinist Connie Gantsweg (Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra); violinist Dylana Jenson (Silver Medal Winner - International Tschaikowsky Competition); flautist Leslie Neuman (University of Toronto). His piano students have participated in national and international piano competitions and have gone on to graduate studies at recognized institutions such as Manhattan School of Music, McGill University, University of Toronto and University of Ottawa. He is listed in the Lexington's Who's Who of Professionals in North America. Mr Gnandt has served as faculty member at Ambrose University College since 1995.
Critical Reviews
“Edwin Gnandt is a pianist of sensitivity; he has about him that elusive but distinct refinement that a wine connoisseur or a horseman might refer to as breed. One gets the impression that at his worst, this pianist couldn’t offend one’s sensibilities, that a lapse of taste wouldn’t figure in his musical makeup.”
Benjamin Epstein, LOS ANGELES TIMES
“Gnandt seemed to have an endless variety of tonal weight at his command. He possesses a French style of coloration – like a painting that features 15 shades of light blue and 20 kinds of dark blue.”
Heuwell Tircuit, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
“He possesses a rare gift that few people have – he phrases from the heart”
Aldo Ciccolini, concert pianist
“The young Canadian polished this outgoing concerto nicely with a fine finger technique and an ear for phrasing.”
Charles Shere, OAKLAND TRIBUNE
“Gnandt made a most consistently alluring sound – his most impressive showing came with a sweeping romantic reading of the Chopin Ballade in F minor.”
Allan Ulrich, SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
“The Liszt was performed with flowing strength and magnificent phrasing, passing from strikingly clear attacks to romantic liquid legato phrases.”
Don Forsyth, PENTICTON HERALD
Discography
Piano Music of Chopin and Liszt (2006) A Beethoven Portrait (2007)
Prof. Edwin Gnandt
Associate Professor of Music
Ambrose University College
Email:
150 Ambrose Circle. S.W.
Calgary, AB T3H OL5
Dr. Lana Henchell, Piano Teacher
Calgary native Lana Henchell completed both her undergraduate and graduate degrees in piano performance at the University of Calgary under the tutelage of Marilyn Engle. She recently graduated in May 2010 with her Doctoral degree in piano performance from McGill University where she studied with Richard Raymond.
Dr. Henchell has received several awards and grants from the Calgary Kiwanis Music Festival (Rose Bowl, 1994), the Canada Council for the Arts (2007-08), the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and the Max Stern Foundation (2006-09). She has taken prizes in competitions such as the International Stepping Stone of the CMC, the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto Piano Competition, the Stravinsky Awards International Piano Competition (Champagne-Urbana, IL), the CIBC National Music Festival (Montreal and Sackville, N.B.), the Shean Piano Competition (Edmonton, AB), and the Austrian-Canadian Society Mozart Competition (Calgary, AB).
After winning First Prize at the Eckhardt-Gramatté National Piano Competition in 2004 (Brandon, MB), Dr. Henchell traveled across Canada to perform a seventeen-concert tour. This included a performance of the Mozart C Major Piano Concerto, K. 503, with the Montreal Chamber Orchestra. She performed Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto in D Minor, Op. 30 in November 2008 with the McGill Symphony Orchestra, as a result of winning the McGill University Concerto Competition.
Dr. Henchell has participated in several festivals and music programs, including the Happening New Music Festival in Calgary, the “Barbara Krakauer” Academy in Vaison-la-Romaine, France, and the 2005 Alberta Scene Festival in Ottawa, which was broadcast live on CBC Radio Two.
Throughout her career, Dr. Henchell has played for international artists such as Janina Fialkowska, Sergei Babayan, Georgy Sebok, Nikolai Demidenko, John Perry, Anton Kuerti, Marc Durand, Dang Thai Son, Jean-Paul Sevilla, and Stéphane Lemelin; and during the 2003 Esther Honens Competition, for Ursula Oppens, Christopher Taylor and Emanuel Krasovsky.
Dr. Henchell currently resides in Calgary, Alberta, where she teaches piano, technique, theory and harmony lessons. She is also a sought after pianist for concerts and collaborations with amateur and professional musicians in the Calgary area. Her skills in performing, teaching, accompanying, coaching and adjudicating continue to contribute to the success of her students and those who perform for or with her.
Katrina Thompson Fost, Assistant
Ms. Thompson is a piano instructor with the Chinook Studio of Music and also teaches from her studio in Woodbine, Calgary. She has completed a bachelor of music (with honours) from Memorial University (Newfoundland) with a major in theory and composition and a masters of music education from the University of Oklahoma (Norman, OK) with a major in piano pedagogy.
Ms. Thompson enjoys working with students of all ages and levels. She has taught piano lessons, music theory, keyboard harmony, master classes, Music for Young Children, undergraduate level music appreciation courses, and music for early childhood specialists. In addition to teaching, she has worked as an accompanist, an adjudicator, an arts administrator, a music research assistant, and as an interpreter at the Cantos Music Foundation. She is currently a member of the Alberta Piano Teachers Association (APTA), an executive member with the Alberta Registered Music Teachers Association (ARMTA Calgary), and an administrator with the Calgary Arts Summer School Association (CASSA). Her favourite hobbies include cooking, hiking and rock climbing.
Accommodations
This is a B&B that was recommended for campers attending CASSA.Hughes' House Bed & Breakfast Calgary
315, 11 Ave NE
Calgary, AB T2E 0Z2
1.403.804.4431
Speak with Kelly for CASSA special rates: $60 per night if you bring your own breakfast, or $85 per night with breakfast.
This restored historic home is within walking distance to downtown, and is 12 minutes from the airport. It is in a quiet neighborhood, and is close to St. Vladimir's Cultural Centre. The home is decorated with elegant antiques, including a grand piano (and two keyboards), and cast iron tubs. This was highly recommended by one of our board members.
Other accommodations are also available.
“One of the best parts of the camp was being together with other adults who share this crazy passion of ours to play the piano! “
Robin Harrison, former clinician
“Encouraging the other members of the group, listening to their feedback, and observing how their playing developed over the three days, were three of my favorite experiences of piano camp.”
“The camp culminated on the third day with an afternoon ‘Musicale.’ As we shared great food afterward, I think many of us realized how close we had become in a few days.”
“You will be inspired and renewed in your love of playing the piano!”
Quotes from participants
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