Piano Recital #4

We were excited that my parents were able to join us for Kylen's fourth piano recital on Saturday.  The recitals are always held at the Steinway Piano Gallery.  His teacher schedules two each year, and he's been taking lessons for two years.  Last summer he continued lessons through the break, but this time we decided we're going to take a few months off.  It was sad saying goodbye at the end, knowing Mrs. Peters won't be stopping by each week!

Kylen was well prepared with all three songs memorized.  We didn't arrive early enough for him to practice a bit like usual, and playing on their big grand is very different from our digital.  He had some problems with the second song, which was the easiest of the three.  Funny how that can work!  It seemed to me that there was an echo and the sounds were mixing, especially on his first song.  The room is supposed to be acoustically designed, but sometimes I wonder about that.  Seems odd that it would sound so much better on our inferior instrument at home.  Or perhaps it was because we sat in a different area of the room?  Normally we are in the front row on the left, directly behind the players.  This time, we were a few rows back on the other side.

You can't tell from the picture below, but the room ended up having more people than usual by the time everyone took their seats.  They gave an extra hearty applause when Kylen finished, and a few people even came up and complimented him when the recital was over.  One man whipped out his tablet and showed him a video of a boy around the same age playing two different songs at once and told him Kylen's playing reminded him of that video!

I always enjoy taking a closer look at their beautiful grand afterwards.  This one had been signed by a famous pianist!  Turns out that Roger Williams was the first (and only?) artist to receive the Steinway Lifetime Achievement Award.  They even named a series of pianos after him.  No wonder he signed one of them!