I’ve gotten a lot more practice in the past year running graduation recitals in our studio. We’ve had three since summer!

I’m going to share our process for preparing a recital.

Setting Expectations

Students at Ithaca Talent Education know graduation recitals will happen. They get invited to them. They see them on the calendar. They ask me questions about the recitals.

I include a special note on recitals in our studio handbook that I’ll share below. It is important to me that I highlight the recital as both a celebration and a learning experience.

Occasionally students and parents will think of this as an optional add on. I completely disagree. The recital is one of their few experiences of presenting a solo program and performing more than one piece at a time.

If a student has concerns about performing that is exactly the reason we need to do this! As you can see, I do give a lot a flexibility in where and how the performance happens. The student can dial some comfort knobs as needed to make them feel more comfortable.

You can also see that I don’t do this after every book. Just 1, 4, 7 and 10.

Planning the Recital

When we are learning the last pieces of those books we start to plan the recital.

We determine our location, set aside possible days and times, and then discuss repertoire.

• In Book 1 I like to brush up everything (initialing off each pieces as ‘Book 2’ level), and then pick 10 pieces to present. I require Gossec and Twinkle and one Minuet, but the rest is completely their choice.
• In Book 4 they must perform Bach Double, one Vivaldi, and one Seitz. Then we backfill two pieces from Book 3 and Book 2. The whole performance should be about 20 minutes.
• In Book 7 they must perform Bach a minor and La Folia. They choose the other pieces from Book 5-7 (up to about 30 minutes of music).
• For a Book 10 graduation we present one of their Mozart concerti and then a completely tailored program that demonstrates musicality, virtuosity and tone (up to about 40 minutes of music).

We give ourselves about six to eight weeks to prepare. Remember that we start this discussion and planning process at the beginning of the learning process of the last piece in the book (Gossec, Bach Double, Corelli Allegro, and Mozart DM).

We invite a collaborative pianist. Pick any pieces that I or their parent will play a duet with them. And then set up a dress rehearsal one week out. I also schedule them to play at the one or two solo recitals that the school presents each month.

Practice

On that note, it becomes imperative that we move from practicing the pieces to practicing the performance of the pieces.

Once we’ve done a brush up to make sure all of the notes, bowings, tone, and musicality are in shape we add virtuosic details and map out some performance architecture.

In lessons make sure you hear the full performance front to back four weeks out. Give them a copy of your performance prep plan (more on this in another post).

Materials

Teachers have very few touch points to develop culture. Students are only in our world, in the studio, for one hour out of the 168 hours in their week.

For that reason I take physical environment, print materials, and gifts really seriously.

Right now I’ve been presenting the following at recitals.

• Unique programs
• Certificate that parent/teacher/and student sign
• A gift bag with new music and materials for the student
• A book in the bag for the teacher
• I usually have another person in the studio decorate and write a message to that graduate. I’ve thought about commissioning artists to decorate the books, too.

Load Management

I realized that if I was prepping and attending every recital of our 35 person studio that would be at least 14 a year (140 recitals in the next 10 years).

Because the recital and reception often take at the least an hour, I’m bringing gifts, and prepped materials I needed to make sure this is sustainable for the business and my own energy.

I charge $100 per graduation recital which covers the cost of my time, invitations, and a gift. In the future, when I have more say over my fee structuring and billing, I would absorb this into the cost of tuition.

I also try to only schedule recitals on Saturday afternoon (already a teaching day) so I still have all Sundays free.

Finally, the systemization of the recital process (as outlined above) allows the highest quality of experience with the lowest amount of decision making and time spent working.

I don’t reinvent the wheel every time. That is on purpose.