Pamela Lewis

Summer – A Time to Relax and Develop Professionally

admin — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 18:25:29 +0000

The flurry of activity that begins with festival in April, theory exams in May, exam preparation in May & June and travelling for provincial competitions in June is over. My son, Brad, wrapped up my teaching year when he played his Level Six Contemporary exam through Conservatory Canada on June 17th, but two of my own children still had violin exams after that. Gregory played his Grade 10 RCM violin exam on the 24th of June. For me, everything went right up to Friday, June 25th when my nine year old daughter played her Grade 3 RCM violin exam. Although there are a few students that are taking piano lessons over the summer months, it really is a change in pace from the school year and I have more time to relax.

I’m teaching RCM History V (Modern) and RCM Harmony IV (Intermediate Harmony) this summer to two violin students. We are meeting each morning from 8:30-10:30 which still leaves the whole day to enjoy summer. I’m really enjoying the history and harmony and find that teaching higher levels of written subjects is one form of professional development. My own understanding of the material is deepening as I prepare lessons and answer questions from the students.

Another way to develop professionally is to get together with other piano teachers and share ideas. Each Wednesday morning, I am meeting with 4 other piano teachers to work through the Contemporary Idiom syllabus requirements for sight reading, lead sheets & improvisation. We are enjoying this new curriculum, but really feel the need to have more lead sheet materials on hand for our students. This past week we went through Real Books and started selecting appropriate lead sheets for Levels Four and Five. My son is going to enter the lead lines into Finale and transpose them into the required keys. We are hoping to have a very good resource book for Levels 4-7 done by the end of summer. I’m so thankful for the refreshing time of meeting with friends who share the same passion for teaching music!

Next week I’m heading to the 2010 ORMTA convention in London, Ontario to attend workshops by Scott McBride Smith, Jill Ball, John Hess and many more. Attending workshops is another great way to develop professionally. I’m really looking forward to this time to learn. During the convention, there is a student competition. Gregory will be competing for our local Thunder Bay Branch of ORMTA. I’ll post more about this later.

Musicophilia – Tales of Music and the Brain

admin — Tue, 18 May 2010 23:31:30 +0000

There is a very good reason why I haven’t blogged for six months. My oldest daughter, age 16, got a much awaited phone call in November from the Epilepsy Unit at University Hospital in London, Ontario saying that they had an opening for her to come and be assessed. She has experienced thousands of seizures since 15 months of age and has had little relief from seizures even while taking 100 plus pills (anti-convulsants) every week. After 4 weeks of observation, testing, and finally sub-dural implants, it was determined that her seizures were originating in her right temporal lobe and that she was a candidate for a temporal lobectomy. She had the surgery in early December, came back to Thunder Bay for a week at Christmas, was air-lifted back to London and came home to stay on January 9th. She hasn’t had a single seizure since the surgery and her EEG in April was NORMAL!

Have you read the book Musicophilia – Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks? It tells story after story of the relationship between music and unusual brain disorders. I read it on the plane flying back to Thunder Bay after my daughter’s surgery. During her testing, the psychologist was surprised at the way my daughter’s left side of the brain “took over” right brain activities while she was seizuring in her right temporal lobe. Oliver Sacks discusses this very idea. Music uses both sides of the brain. My daughter’s language center is on the left side of the brain. Music is a universal language. But what about the abstract in music and the analytical? This is more right side for her, but she had a decent portion of her right temporal lobe removed in surgery. I wondered right up until the first time she got back on the piano after surgery what was going to happen to her years of playing. I’m happy to report that the left side of her brain is compensating and she is going to finish the 2nd half of her grade 8 exam with Conservatory Canada in June, right on schedule. She won’t be playing from memory because her visual memory has been affected, but her pieces are sounding beautiful

Gregory’s Concert

admin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 01:41:29 +0000

I’m a proud mom….of all six of my children. From time to time, I’ll post something on this blog related to them. Gregory is in his 8th year of violin study and is having a concert this month. He has been working very hard to prepare for it and I wanted to promote it here.

November 2009

Silver Medal Award Ceremony

Toronto

Highest mark in Ontario & Quebec

Grade 9 violin, 2009

Olga Medvedeva, Gregory Lewis

Interview with CBC Radio

Type in Gregory Lewis for the link

Bernie Senensky

admin — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:19:28 +0000

Thursday night my family had the awesome privilege of attending a BOWFIRE concert at the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium. Most eyes were on the string players, but Bernie Senensky captured my one son’s attention more than any other performer.

Toronto keyboardist Bernie Senensky has earned the reputation of being one of Canada’s premier jazz artists. His playing has been featured internationally in many concerts & festivals, and he is recognized and respected as one of the foremost jazz pianists anywhere.

He was the only Canadian guest on “Oscar Peterson Presents”, a CTV National TV series. He has also been a guest on Marian McPartland’s renowned Public Radio show “Piano Jazz”. In addition, Senensky has been featured on CBC radio and TV, and many of his concerts have been recorded by CBC (Jazz Beat), CJRT-FM (The Jazz Scene, Sound Of Toronto Jazz), and Global-TV (Sounds Impressive) to name a few.

He was twice voted “Best Acoustic Pianist” in the Jazz Report Awards, and he won the SOCAN award for “Best Jazz Composition” for his “BLUES FOR CLIFFORD”, a tribute to saxophonist Clifford Jordan.

He has quietly compiled a track record of 12 albums as a leader (three of which have received Juno nominations), and a long list of performances alongside jazz’s biggest names, including Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Williams, Chet Baker, Zoot Sims, Art Pepper, George Coleman, Donald Byrd, Sonny Stitt, Art Farmer, Ernestine Anderson and Elvin Jones (who called Bernie “one of the finest pianists I have worked with in my career”). Clarinetist Buddy DeFranco described him as “The best of the best”, while Bill Evans once said: “I could just sit and listen to him play all day!”

Here’s a video of the Bernie Senensky Trio.

Changes

admin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:50:19 +0000

Change is a good thing. As we contemplate future goals, we sometimes find ourselves needing to change the way we have always done things. After exploring Philip Johnston’s website this past summer, I realized that I needed to actively promote my teaching studio. The result was the launch of my website, this blog, a brochure and so much more; I had to evaluate studio policy, my philosophy of teaching and that brought about change. I hope to update this blog regularly and will start with my first post on Canada Music Week.

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Music Week is fast approaching. Although the actual dates are November 22-28, music teachers began preparing students for this celebration of the best Canadian music, culture and creativity much sooner.

Live performances and events will be held across the country. Visit www.cfmta.org for more details on this.

Our local Thunder Bay branch of ORMTA is hosting a recital at the Jean McNulty Recital Hall located on campus at Lakehead University on November 22nd. This recital will feature compositions by Canadian composers and some original compositions by students in Thunder Bay.

Changes by Alexina Louie will be performed at this recital. Louie was awarded Composer of the Year in 1986, 1988 and 1998. The piece is full of challenging changes in time signatures, rhythms, accents & dynamics. A score of this piece can be found in Conservatory Canada’s New Millenium Series Grade 9 book.

Two pieces by Ontario composer, Andrew Harbridge will also be performed. The first piece is Got the Blues. This is a fun piece for beginning jazz/blues students. It follows the 12 bar blues pattern and features the blues scale. It can be found in the Contemporary Idioms Level One book. The second piece is Storm at Sea found in Harbridge’s new book Spectrum. My level 4 student is loving this piece! Andrew Harbridge is sending me his own recording of his composition to pass on to my student. This is such an incredible way to motivate students!

What exciting things are you doing to celebrate Canada Music Week?