Grab your lunch and join us for our festival opening event, a Brown Bag Lunch concert with our Pianist in Residence, Alexa Stier, in partnership with the Monteverdi Music School! Alexa will be performing some of her favorite repertoire in a relaxing outdoor environment on the corner of State Street and Elm Street in Montpelier.

No tickets needed for this free community event, but you can still grab your festival access pass or donate to show your support.

Group Coaching is available for enrolled festival participants. Pianists of any age (recommended age 10+, minimum skill level late beginner or approx. 2-3 years of experience) prepare 10-15 minutes of repertoire to perform for a slate of world-class teaching artists. Teaching artists then provide 20-30 minutes of individualized feedback, working with the performer primarily on creative components, but also touching on technique, performance practice,

Other festival participants, community members, piano teachers and piano enthusiasts are welcome to observe the group coaching sessions, as valuable learning happens through the feedback provided all performers. Group Coaching will be scheduled in approximately 75-90 segments with breaks in between. Participants are encouraged to attend all segments, but must be present for the entire segment during which they are performing.

Group Coaching is available for enrolled festival participants. Pianists of any age (recommended age 10+, minimum skill level late beginner or approx. 2-3 years of experience) prepare 10-15 minutes of repertoire to perform for a slate of world-class teaching artists. Teaching artists then provide 20-30 minutes of individualized feedback, working with the performer primarily on creative components, but also touching on technique, performance practice,

Other festival participants, community members, piano teachers and piano enthusiasts are welcome to observe the group coaching sessions, as valuable learning happens through the feedback provided all performers. Group Coaching will be scheduled in approximately 75-90 segments with breaks in between. Participants are encouraged to attend all segments, but must be present for the entire segment during which they are performing.

We are setting aside some time on Thursday, August 6th for festival participants to sign up for private coaching with one of our amazing teaching artists (Wynn-Anne Rossi, Martha Hill Duncan, Ayumi Okada). You must be enrolled in the festival as a participant to engage in private coaching. Additional fee is required.

Please indicate your interest in private coaching when completing the Enrollment Form!

Join Luke Rackers with festival directors and performers from the community for a fun Thursday evening performance of 21st Century music!

Performance will feature local cellist, composer, and educator Michael Close performing 21st Century works, along with festival teaching artists, special guest performer Siena Rose! Full program details will be available closer to performance date.

Interested in enrolling in the festival as a participant?? Click here for more information and to enroll today! This Thursday evening concert is included in the festival pass for participants, and all community members are welcome to attend by purchasing a ticket. Tickets also available at the door. Sliding scale; all are welcome!

Program:

Cellist, Michael Close, joins Luke Rackers for a set of piano/cello works by Ayumi Okada and Ivan Božičević.

Dance artist, Alana Phinney, joins Luke Rackers to perform Nathan Hall’s24 Preludes.

Pianist, composer, and Baroque-Rock Singer-Songwriter, Siena Rose, closes out the evening with a set of original works.
Siena Rose’s sound is a lyrical, stripped-down, and intimate experience on piano and vocals, evoking Regina Spektor, Fiona Apple, and Claude Debussy. Siena's classical piano background informs her songs, creating a complex weave of chromaticism under masterful poetic lyrics - music that is fully accessible, even as it surprises the listener's ear. Juxtaposing gorgeous, soaring melodies with dissonance, Siena’s music is perfectly situated as both a balm and catharsis for our time. She is delighted to be back in her hometown for this special community concert!

Join us for an engage session on Developing Creative Habits of Mind, and learn how to infuse creativity into your practice, process, and everyday life.

This session is open to the community regardless of participation level in the festival. To attend, please enroll in the festival as a participant and grab your festival pass, or join us at the Montpelier Performing Arts Hub to make a donation in person (pay what you can) to engage in this session.

Group Coaching is available for enrolled festival participants. Pianists of any age (recommended age 10+, minimum skill level late beginner or approx. 2-3 years of experience) prepare 10-15 minutes of repertoire to perform for a slate of world-class teaching artists. Teaching artists then provide 20-30 minutes of individualized feedback, working with the performer primarily on creative components, but also touching on technique, performance practice,

Other festival participants, community members, piano teachers and piano enthusiasts are welcome to observe the group coaching sessions, as valuable learning happens through the feedback provided all performers. Group Coaching will be scheduled in approximately 75-90 segments with breaks in between. Participants are encouraged to attend all segments, but must be present for the entire segment during which they are performing.

Enroll to participate in the festival as an Adult Learner to share your creative work or performance in this special Adult Learner Session. Feedback from teaching artists and your fellow adult learners will be provided based on the Critical Response Process of Liz Lerman (crash course provided at beginning of the session). The session will be more informal than our other Group Coaching opportunities during the festival, and provide learners age 18+ with a more relaxed and communal environment for sharing their creativity.

Join us for an engaging array of workshops for piano students, teachers, and enthusiasts of all ages and levels!

Our workshop topics and presenters will include:

• Increase Your Creativity in the Studio: Pedagogical Composition for Beginner through Intermediate Pianists with Martha Hill Duncan, Wynn-Anne Rossi (including one-minute improv!), and Ayumi Okada

• Alexa Stier: The Lion Method: Visualizing Music Through Hindemith’s Ludus Tonalis
  Inspired by Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, Paul Hindemith’s Ludus Tonalis (1942) is a monumental cycle of interludes and fugues that traverses all twelve tones of the chromatic scale. At first glance, the work can appear highly intellectual and architecturally rigorous; yet hidden within its pages is a lighthearted and deeply human element. For his wife’s fiftieth birthday, Hindemith decorated a personal copy of the score with hundreds of hand-drawn lions, playfully adorning the margins and woven into the musical notation itself. Far from whimsical doodles, these illustrations serve as interpretive guides: some clarify the formal structure of the music, while others capture the character and humor of individual movements. This workshop presents illustration as a powerful pedagogical tool for pianists, offering a creative bridge between analytical understanding and musical imagination. Associating visual images with musical ideas can strengthen memory retention, clarify formal structure, and help performers characterize the emotional world of a piece. During the workshop, participants will explore Hindemith’s illustrations in relation to the score and create their own visual annotations for pieces they are currently studying. Participants are encouraged to bring a copy of their music and colored pencils or other drawing materials of their choice. All levels and ages are welcome!

• Siena Rose: From Sketch to Song: A Songwriting Toolkit. In this interactive workshop, professional singer-songwriter Siena Rose invites you to dig deep into the songwriting process: what really goes into writing a song? By guiding participants through seven essential tools for songwriting and hands-on musical explorations, Siena reveals the (not so secret) secret to bringing a song from sketchbook to stage.

These workshops are open to the community regardless of participation level in the festival. To attend, please enroll in the festival as a participant and grab your festival pass, or join us at the Montpelier Performing Arts Hub to make a donation in person (pay what you can) to engage in these workshops.

Join us for a joyous celebration of music-making at the piano! This Community Piano Recital is open to all ages and levels of performers, whether you are participating in other components of the festival or not. You can perform solo piano of any style or genre, including your own composition, or you can also bring an ensemble as long as the piano is featured (please email info@festivalforcreativepianists.org to approve your ensemble). This is an opportunity to perform for fun with like-minded creative pianists and lovers of piano music.

To perform, please enroll in the festival by clicking this link (you can choose Community Piano Recital only option if you wish), and show your support by grabbing a ticket to attend the recital and donating. Tickets also available at the door. Sliding scale; all are welcome!

Please signup to perform by August 1st to ensure your placement in the program.