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YOU ALL WONDER....My dear readers!You all wonder, what are these paintings I put on a cover of our newsletter? Well, you, probably, noticed the last name of an artist is the same as the name I use for my company BRIMARTPROJECT. Georg Brim is my father-in-law and this is a way for me to pay a tribute to this wonderful person and one-of-a kind artist. Soon we are going to feature an exhibition of his works in a rather unique way and it will be a synthesis of different arts and media. You can ask me what is your School of Music has to do with all these? Well, everything, because my music school is a part of a bigger project and therefore it is connected to other events : the visual light performance with no actors on stage, an exhibition of art works accompanied by live music ,lectures about art for the young children and sessions where people gather to read and discuss poetry. The intention , though, is always the same: to awake the imagination of people, make them ask questions and soar above the mediocracy and sameness of everyday life. Yours, Ekaterina Melkamini

MELKAMINI SCHOOL OF MUSICBRIMARTPROJECT

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GEORG BRIM

Scenography design for the F. Schiller’s playMARIE STUART

MELKAMINI SCHOOL OF MUSIC November 2009

NOVEMBER’S SPOTLIGHT

DINA KOSYAGIN,9

WINNER OF THE PREVIOUS AND FUTURE SILVER STATE COMPETITIONS. REGULAR PERFORMER IN OUR RECITALS. AN EXCELLENT STUDENT AND A GOOD EXAMPLE FOR OTHERS IN OUR MUSIC APPRECIATION CLASS! BRAVO!

ANNA-MARIE BRIM,11

RANKED FIRST CELLIST IN HYDE PARK MIDDLE ORCHESTRA SHE AUDITIONED RECENTLY FOR THE HONOR SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA AND WAS ACCEPTED! SHE SURELY FEELS HERSELF AS A CELLIST IN DEMAND! GOOD JOB, MARIKA! COUNT WELL!

TIFFANY LEARD,9

RECEIVING 1ST PRIZE FOR SILVER STATE COMPETITION WAS EASY FOR HER. SHE ONLY HAD TO BE PASSIONATE WHEN SHE IS ON STAGE AND YOU DON’T NEED TO ASK HER THAT. SHE IS ONE OF MY MOST RESPONSIBLE STUDENTS . YOU MAKE ME PROUD, GIRL!

DINA KOSYAGIN AND TIFFANY LEARD AFTER SILVER STATE COMPETITION.

OCTOBER 17TH, 2009

ANONCE ! ! ! !

Artem Aleksanyan,14 Michelle Zheng,11 and Aida Badalian,14 (class of Tamara Saakyan) are flying to Reno on Friday, Nov. 6th to participate in MTNA State Piano Competition and I want to wish them to play their best! Read an article and their interviews in our December newsletter!

M Y S T U D E N T S

A N D

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Nov 6-8 MTNA Competition in Reno Nov 06 4:00 p.m. Madrigal Festival - Concert 1 (BMC) Nov 07 7:00 p.m. Madrigal Festival - Concert 2 (BMC) Nov 09 7:30 p.m. NEXTET Concert III (BMC) Nov 14 6:00 p.m. Honor Orchestra Concert (Ham Hall) Nov 15 7:30 p.m. Guest Organist: David Brock (BMC) Nov 18 7:30 p.m. PAC: Classical Guitar Series: William Kanengeiser Nov 21 8:00 p.m. Masterworks II Bartok, Gershwin - Las Vegas Philharmonic and Joel Fan (Piano) Ham Hall Nov 30 12:00 p.m. Piano Master class: Michael Lewin

Here I am going to announce names of my students who went to

the concerts last month

dina 1 tokenMarika 1 tokenmichelle 1 tokenMichael 1 tokenArtem 3 tokensKatya 2 tokensaida 2 tokens

Please, let me know what concerts or events you

attended and you will be on my list!

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Michael Lewin’s career was launched with victories in the Franz Liszt International Piano Competition in the Netherlands, the American Pianists Association Beethoven Fellowship and the William Kapell International Competition. He has also won prestigious career grants from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Aaron Copland Recording Fund.  Mr. Lewin made a notable New York recital debut in Lincoln Center in 1984, on which occasion the New York Times wrote that “his immense technique and ability qualify him eminently for success”.             

Deeply committed to guiding and nurturing gi6ed young pianists, Michael Lewin is one of America’s most sought-a6er teachers. He is on the Piano Faculty of The Boston Conservatory, where he maintains a select studio of prize-winning students and is the Artistic Director of the Piano Masters Series. A native of New York, he studied at the Juilliard School. His teachers included Leon Fleisher, Irwin Freundlich, Adele Marcus, and Yvonne Lefébure.  

Michael Lewin enjoys a distinguished international reputation as one of America’s most abundantly gi6ed and charismatic concert pianists, performing to acclaim in 30 countries as orchestral soloist and in recital.

Highlights of Mr. Lewin’s 2008-09 concert season include solo and orchestral engagements throughout the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Italy, Greece, Puerto Rico and Mexico. In England, he will make his London recital debut at Wigmore Hall, followed by a recital at Oxford University. Many of his recital programs will feature music spanning three centuries that is inspired by birds, from his upcoming recording “If I Were a Bird.”

M. Lewin’s recital is on Dec. 1 at 7:30 p.m. and he will perform Haydn’s f-minor variations, Chopin’s Sonata N2, Gershwin’ s “Three Preludes,” and works of Liszt.

Each time your children will attend a concert or an exhibition they will receive a token . By the end of the year they can choose a gift from me,

depending on a number of events. Of course, they have to be able to share their impressions with

FEATURED ARTIST - MICHAEL LEWIN, piano

THEORY & SOLFEGGIOM

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This is a class for my young girls and I am happy to have them in my class. They love this class and I feel we can accomplish a lot, even if we meet 2 times a month. Class consists of 2 parts.

First part is SOLFEGE - when they are developing their musical ears. We listen to dictations and try to name the notes I play on the piano. Soon we will be able to write them on the staff. Also, we sing short melodies, so called singing exercises.

Second part - THEORY, where we study the major musical concepts by learning types of chords, intervals and scales and writing them in our music book. HOMEWORK TIPSIn November we will start to write dictations at home. How? I found a website where you can listen to a melody and record it on a paper you will receive from me. There is going to be only one dictation a week, therefore you have to bring me 2 dictations every lesson. I will give you a link next time and explain you how to do it. The more you write dictations at home the better you will write them in class. Parents, please, remind your kids about this very important part of homework.

Next, our singing exercises. We will combine French book of exercises with Russian book and I would like you to have enough time studying them, not sight-singing them in class. I always sense it, you know me.Plus, you will be given one ( only one!) worksheet with various exercises in theory. It is not much for 2 weeks . Do you agree?

My class currently consists of 5 students whose ages range from 11 to 17. It challenges me since I have to bring everyone to a level where they all follow me without being confused.

HOMEWORK• Write at least 5 dictations a week

from the web site http://smu.edu/musictheory/melody/melody.htm

There are 30 dictations in level 5 for ARTEM, AIDA and TRACY. Print a page, where you will find the beginnings of these dictations and bring me the page once you finish 10 of them . Please, be honest, DO NOT USE PIANO and DO NOT LISTEN THE MELODY MORE THAN 3-4 TIMES! I will know if someone does it, because in this case, your dictations in class will not be better. For KATYA : try level 7 or 8. For DANIEL: We will choose the level together during the next class.

I will mark those who will finish 10 dictations first. If you are going to be ahead of others, you will be rewarded . ( How? It is a secret...)

Besides, read carefully your theory homework in your music books. We will have a small test in the middle of December and I plan to invite another teacher to be present during this test. No worries, it will be only about things we discussed during our class plus some ear training exercises. Do not forget to visit Dolmetsch website at http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory

CLASS 1 CLASS 2Dear Parents!This is a new column for my class of Theory & Solfege where I plan to remind my students about their homework and give them links to some useful resources. I only feel sorry I started this class so late (many reasons, of course) and some of my kids do not know things they already supposed to know at their age. Well, we have started and I will try to do everything I need to make them catch up. You might be asking “Whom they need to catch?”. I always go back in time and ask myself what I was doing in their age in my music school and that is how I draw an invisible line to mark the level I would like to take your kids. And, as you know, my years in school under guidance of the best teachers were very intensive and this fact enables me to teach this class without special degree in Musicology. They need this class even if music will not become their profession. This is a great help to me as a piano teacher and it leaves me more time to discuss musical ideas and piano technic instead of counting rhythms and figuring out the pure theoretical problems during my piano class. I would like again to thank you for your support! K.M.

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MUSIC APPRECIATION NOVEMBER CLASSES• ITALIAN MUSIC AND MUSICAL TEXTURE• MUSIC OF THE LOWLANDS. CHOPIN AND LISZT.• HUNGARIAN AND CZECH MUSIC

Frederic Chopin Franz Liszt

HOMEWORK & BOOKS

Dear Parents! I rely greatly on your help with this class. Therefore, please, find some time during the week to discuss with your child lives of all composers we study in class, listen to music I record for them and help them find necessary books in the library. I know it takes a lot of time, but I think it is as important as to prepare your child to a math test. You will be amazed to find out how this knowledge can change their lives and make them culturally aware people. It can enrich your life as well, since you will learn something you didn’t know about. It is rarely a case, when kids who find no support in the family still listen and love classical music, because classical music is the music you need to understand to like it and it is a lot of work. And I feel myself very sad, (if not depressed ), when I talk to the bright, excelling in school kids, who are on the other hand emotionally illiterate. I want to see my students to experience the music of the past and appreciate it with all their hearts. And who will help me but you? E.M.

Antonin DvorakBela Bartok

Don’t forget!!!For the next class ( Nov. 15th)

you have to cut and paste pictures in your book, listen to you Italy CD and draw a picture

a6er listening your favorite piece of this CD. It depends on

you if you want to receive status F or A.

PARENTS! LIBRARY!! BOOKS!!! If you will be able to go to

the library during next 2 weeks, get some books

about the composers we are going to study next time ( Chopin,Liszt). You know

how pleasant to speak with educated people!

MUS IC H I S TORY C L A S S

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This is a new page in our newsletter, designed for those, who come to my Friday class of Music History and for those, who wants to know what we are doing here. First of all, my dear students, I want to remind you that you have to be a little more serious about this class. Because I am.

We started this class in September and I hope since then you learned something you didn’t know before. We were trying to match historical events with events in music and I cannot say it was easy for me to deliver thousands of years of history for you. I tell you why. Apparently, some of you have “blind spots” in history ( who doesn’t nowadays?), therefore, the purpose of this class is not only to discuss with you the most important musical events but also to help you build an understanding the chronology of historical events. Below you will find topics of our discussions and related literature to help you review what we learned. You have to be able to answer my questions about these events and compare cultures.

1. MUSIC OF MESOPOTAMIA AND ANCIENT EGYPT

• Why do we start to explore the History of Western music going so many centuries back?

• You need to be able to explain in details what these cultures gave us.

• 4 main historical traces that allow us to discuss music of the past.

• Few facts about musical life during that time: instruments, purpose of music, and writings about music.

Recommended Literature:Homer. Iliad. Odyssey.Plato. Republic 3.4.10. Dialogue “Timaeus”. Laws 2.3.7.Aristotle. Politics 8. Poetics 1.Greek mythsSt. Augustine . Confessions 10:33 p.133St. Basil. Homily on the First Psalm. pp. 121-22

2. ANCIENT GREECE AND ROME

• Beliefs of Ancient Greeks.• Instruments of Greeks and

description of their music.• Greek musical thought. (Pythagoras, Aristotle, Plato, etc.). Idea of Ethos.

• Beginning of Music Theory. ( I need you to know Greek theorists and what they wrote about music ).

3. CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 4. ROMAN LITURGY AND CHANTS.5. SONG AND DANCE MUSIC IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

These are 3 topics that we MUST learn during the month of November.

• Diffusion of Christianity. Timeline of events. Role of music.

• Different chants. Gregorian Chant. Notation. Transmission of Greek Music Theory. Boethius.

• Guido d’Arezzo and the “Guidonian hand”.

• Roman liturgy.• Music in Medieval times outside

the church. Troubadours and trouveres.

http://homoecumenicus.com/ioannidis_ancient_greek_texts.htm

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/love-in-the-arts/medieval.html

http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/welcome.htm

Few of my favorite web sites, where you will find a lot of information. Bookmark it!