Ambuter piano students have been busy

VERNON — Piano students from the Vernon music studio of Cherwyn Ambuter have been busy recently with their own performances and field trips to piano concerts. On Feb. 11, Alexa L. of Wantage, age 10, participated in a music workshop at Brookdale Reformed Church in Bloomfield.
The workshop was organized and run by piano teacher Karen Sundquist, a fellow member of a statewide piano teachers' organization, Music Educators Assn. of New Jersey. Various students played the piano, sang, or danced, and even juggled, and there was audience participation in an educational manner. Alexa played two pieces of music in duet with Mrs. Ambuter: "London Bridge" and "River Road", an arrangement of the English horn solo from Dvorak's "New World Symphony".
Friday, Feb. 24 saw Kayla C. of Vernon, 14, participating in a school fundraiser for the Glen Meadow volleyball team. The school cafeteria was set up for a relaxed atmosphere in which students and their families could purchase food and, while eating, be entertained by students on the piano and guitar. Kayla and Mrs. Ambuter played a duet arrangement of "The Can-Can", which comes from composer Jacques Offenbach's opera, "Orpheus in the Underworld". Mrs. Ambuter was also invited to play and performed the rondo from the Mozart Piano Sonata in F, K. 332. Kayla is quite active musically at Glen Meadow, having played piano in the school’s Artstanding event last year, as did fellow GM student Kristen Iarkowski in the school jazz band at the keyboard. Both Kayla and Kristen play clarinet in their school bands.
On Sunday, Feb. 26, students Paul Riggio of Warwick and Alexa L. and their parents attended a studio field trip with Mrs. Ambuter to go see Dueling Pianists, a concert presented at Drew University by The Discovery Orchestra organization. Prizewinning pianists Ko-Eun Yi and Daniel Hsu presented two Chopin Scherzos as well as pieces by Debussy and R. Schumann. Orchestral maestro George Marriner Maull dissected the two Chopin pieces with the audience, providing a written listening guide and helping the audience in advance to auditorily recognize the themes and what would occur in the development of the pieces. His mission is for audiences to "discover" how to really listen to classical music and not just hear it travel past their ears, hence the name "Discovery Orchestra". Maestro Maull is charismatic, full of wit and humor, keeping the enjoyment level high enough to engage even the children present. Students and parents were able to each receive a 75 percent discount on their tickets through Mrs. Ambuter's MEA-NJ membership. Great camaraderie was felt amongst the concert attendees from the studio, and it was pleasant for all to get to know one another better.
The event was educational in a further way on the way home, as it had been noticed that the strong resonance of the venue caused rapid notes in one pianist's performance to "blur" together, prompting discussion in the car about how the pianist in concert plays not only the piano, but also, "plays the space". The space becomes an extended resonating chamber of the piano. A performer must listen carefully and respond nearly immediately to the resonance of the space around them, sometimes selecting a slower tempo which will permit the rapid passages to be heard cleanly if the space is reverberant. It is important for musicians to learn not only how to play their instrument, but how to become seasoned performers and aware of all the aspects involved with performing. The field trips taken by the studio provide for this type of sophisticated learning and discernment to take place.