Dear Editor:
On June 17 I attended the Spring Recital by the students of Perry Music Studio in Summerland, and was blown away by the performance.
I wanted to see if I heard the music differently after taking piano lessons myself for the past 10 months. I was 82 years old when I asked Anita Perry last September if she could teach me how to play the piano.
The first pianist to play Saturday appeared to be the youngest. Josh Gibbings played Celebration by Crosby, a piece that I had been practising the last few weeks. He played it well. Though I could not play it with his skill, I knew that at my last practice I was close. Anita was right. I could play the piano.
For now I prefer to listen, and the listening has become so much more meaningful knowing how things are put together to create music. I could follow Delaney and Annika’s fingers flying over the keyboard to Grill’s Sparklers and know when they did something remarkable. I could see Matea Schmidt flow into Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and become one with the music. I could watch Keegan Johnson’s face and feel the emotion he was pouring into Crosby’s The Stormy Sea. Then for the finale the students took up five kinds of instrument and brought the audience to its feet with O Canada.
Congratulations Anita Perry and your young students for a season of musical accomplishments.
Keith Dixon
Summerland