Wow, what a great mini-concert this morning at Atwaters Musicworks at their Hobson Street premises! 
Murray Hancox, the Manager of the Keyboards Department, arranged for a music student to play for us and play she did! Jessica Kim had the audience spellbound for her concert on the Yamaha grand piano. Jessica played three classical pieces by: Beethoven; Chopin; and Rakmaninoff. Jessica started to learn piano at about 7 years of age but didn't start to learn to play 'seriously' until about 5 years ago at the age of 13. When asked how she learns to play by memory, Jessica said that she learns the pieces in sections and then recalls the sheet music in her head visually as she plays - photographic memory! Jessica has been accepted for the Auckland University School of Music 2009 intake. Later, Jessica is hoping to study at the Royal College of Music, London. Good luck with your music studies Jessica.
After the mini-concert, Murray arranged a keyboard clinic for the audience to ask hands-on questions about getting the best out of their Clavinova's or PSR keyboards. both Murray and other knowledgeable members of the audience offered assistance - very useful.
STOP PRESS! Exciting news. Murray announced to the audience that the next Saturday morning concert will not be on the last Saturday of the month of November as per usual, but instead an extra special Christmas concert will be arranged for Saturday 6th December 2008 at 10.00 am. We are promised the 'Full Monty' with nibbles, streamers and party hats! And now for the BIG NEWS... the guest artist will be a return visit to the Atwaters Keyboard Club by Deryn Trainer who you will recall won the grand final "Stars in their Eyes" contest earlier this year. The writer was privileged to be in the audience on 27th September 2008 on Deryn's last performance for Atwaters Keyboard Club and what a fantastic mini-concert that was. Deryn even answered our questions about his music background and playing techniques - wonderful and so informative. Best that you book this into your diaries now so you don't miss this very special event. Shortly after the December concert, Deryn is heading-off to Los Vegas for the prize he received for winning "Stars in their Eyes" earlier this year. I have added this event into the 'Other Events' section of our Web Page as an additional reminder (scroll-down to the bottom right of this window for details).
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