The December 5 Holiday Recital will be taking place at Treehouse Hall, which is located at a private residence in the Northern Hillsboro countryside. Please do not use a mapping service to find the venue or you will get lost; use the map that you were emailed instead. Also, check your email to find out which recital time your child has been assigned to — either 2:30 p.m. or 4 p.m.

Give yourself plenty of time to find the venue, and plan on arriving about 10 minutes early. Performers should dress nicely … i.e. a button-up shirt or a nice sweater, nice shoes, and slacks for boys; perhaps a nice dress or skirt and top with dress shoes for girls. No tennis shoes or jeans, please. Flash photography is not allowed during the students’ performances. If you’d like a photo of your child at the piano, you may pose him/her there after the recital is over.

I’m looking forward to seeing you all there!

Summer Session has already started so if you want to take lessons in August, please contact me to book your time. From August 5 – September 2, lessons are available Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. I highly encourage all students who are planning to take the Fall Syllabus exam to take Summer Session lessons.

Fall Term begins on Tuesday, September 8 (after Labor Day). The regular lesson schedule will resume at that time. If you need to change your regular lesson time, please contact me ASAP because my schedule is filling up very quickly! I’m looking forward to welcoming all of you back!

The Spring Recital will take place at 3 p.m. Saturday, May 16, at Treehouse Hall in the Northern Hillsboro countryside. Please reference the map (on page 2 of the linked .pdf) for directions to the recital. Do not use Mapquest or any similar online mapping service, or you will get lost. If you are unfamiliar with this venue, you may wish to plan on leaving extra early to allow ample time to find the venue.

Please plan on arriving at least 10 minutes prior to the start of the performance. Students must dress nicely for their performance. Flash photography is not allowed during the students’ performances, but video is OK. If you would like a photo of your child at the piano, you may pose him/her there after the recital is over.

Happy New Year, Students & Parents! Winter Term begins (and the regular lesson schedule resumes) on Monday,
January 5. Please note the following holidays and events for Winter Term, 2009:

Monday, Jan. 19: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. No lessons.

Monday, Feb. 16: Presidents’ Day. No lessons.

March 6-9: Lower Division (Levels 1-6) Syllabus for participating students.

March 23-27: Spring Break. No lessons.

March 30: Spring Term begins. Regular lesson schedule resumes again.

Due to inclement weather, piano lessons for Thursday, December 18, are CANCELLED. You will receive a credit on your invoice toward January’s lessons. The weather man says that the temperature will continue to drop as the day goes on, and I fear that the roads will be icy by the time lessons roll around this afternoon and evening.

The regular lesson schedule will resume with the start of Winter Term on January 5, 2009. Enjoy your time off and
Happy Holidays!

The following students have the goal of taking their Syllabus exam March 6-9, 2009:

A. Birkeland
C. Castaneda
Y. Harrison
R. Howerton
A. Llamas
D. Llamas
J. Logan
K. Lyman
A. Parra
L. Schoening
S. Shuler

The following students have a goal of taking their Syllabus exam (Upper Division) on April 24-27:

C. Hamilton
M. Logan

If your child’s name is on either of these lists, I strongly encourage you to take piano lessons in December. There is plenty of material to cover for the Syllabus exam, which is comprehensive and quite challenging. Extra lesson time would be advantageous to your child. Note that taking lessons in December does not guarantee that you will be ready to take the test by March, but it is helpful. Please see the post below for info about taking lessons in December.

Fall Term ends November 28. Optional piano lessons will continue to be available through December 19. All students performing in the December 6 recital must attend their lesson during the first week of December. If you wish to continue taking piano lessons through December 19, please notify me as soon as possible. There will be NO piano lessons during the holiday break: December 20, 2008 - January 2, 2009. Winter Term begins (and the regular lesson schedule resumes) on January 5, 2009.

The Oregon Music Teachers Association will be using my studio to host local Syllabus evaluations on Friday, November 7, so there will be NO LESSONS that day.

As a result, I am holding make-up lessons for Friday students on Sunday, November 9 from 1 – 5 p.m. If you normally have lessons on Fridays, please contact me ASAP to schedule a make-up lesson time on Sunday, November 9. Thanks!

This year, my students will be divided into two holiday recitals, which will be held at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturday, December 6. The 1 p.m. recital will take place at Treehouse Hall (a map is on page 2) in Northern Hillsboro; the 3 p.m. recital will be held in the meeting room of the Hillsboro Public Library on Brookwood Avenue. Rehearsal for both recitals will be held November 22. See the September 8 post below for information about rehearsal.

I am holding two shows in order to stay within the 90-person capacity limit at each performance venue. Those who attended the Spring 2008 Recital at Treehouse Hall may recall that the space was packed to capacity, with a handful of people left standing. Because I would like all of you to feel free to bring as many friends/relatives as you wish, I am holding two small recitals instead of one large recital.

Your child(ren) will only be playing in one of the recitals, but if you would like to attend both, you are welcome to do so. I will be randomly assigning an equal number of students to perform at each recital venue so that each audience will have the opportunity to see a mix of skill levels perform, from beginning to advanced.

New students (those who have only been with me since August/September 2008) may opt to wait until the Spring 2009 recital to give their first performance. All other students may expect to perform.

Students must dress nicely for their performance. Flash photography is not allowed during the students’ performances, but video is OK. If you would like a photo of your child at the piano, you may pose him/her there after the recital is over.

Syllabus evaluations (for participating students) will be held Friday, November 7, at my piano studio. You will need to make arrangements to pull your child out of school in order to take the exam. Plan on arriving 10 minutes earlier than the time shown so that your evaluation may begin on time. Please dress nicely and bring all your Syllabus music with you.

See the list below for your child’s scheduled evaluation time:

9 a.m.          D. Wang

9:20 a.m.     E. Birkeland

9:50 a.m.     F. Rahman

10:35 a.m.   D. Wellappili

11:05 a.m.   K. Wellappili

11:35 a.m.   S. Rogers