Piano recital
Saturday afternoon was my piano's teacher's annual recital for all her students who are foolish enough to show up. Being a natural exhibitionist (no, not that kind, you dirty, dirty person!), I though it might be fun to show off my (admittedly limited) stuff. There were 15 kids and three adults on the program, and one of the adults didn't show up due to flu. The kids were mostly dressed in their Sunday best and looked so adorable and grown up. Michelle, the little girl who played first, couldn't have been more than seven or so judging by her missing baby teeth. She was trying to play from memory but soon lost her way, and when she couldn't recover, she buried her face in her hands out of embarrassment. At that moment one of the adults in the front row (apparently the aunt of a young girl who played beautifully later in the program) started applauding, and the rest of us joined in, and Michelle was able to move on to the second piece and play it fairly well. She was clearly the youngest and least experienced student in the group, but you have to give her mad props for showing up and trying her best.
Another young girl of about 9-10, Isabella, played Spring from Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Pachelbel's Canon and did an amazing job. She probably has a future in classical music. Several other kids did pretty well, but there seemed to be a dividing line between ones who felt really comfortable around a piano and playing for an audience and others who were just there because their mothers made them take piano lessons and who would rather be playing outside on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
I played second to last. My teacher introduced me by saying that I had been playing only four months and was evidence that you can teach an old dog new tricks. This seemed to warm up the audience and lower expectations, but I was still more nervous than I had thought I would be. I had chosen Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu and Bach's Minuet in G. I played the Chopin pretty well but made one fairly noticeable error (playing a G instead of an A or vice versa, I forget) with my left hand while playing the correct note with my right hand. The Minuet started out okay, but about halfway through the second pass (one plays the first 10-12 measures twice, with a different two-measure ending each time) I got irretrievably lost and had to apologize and start again. Given that the whole piece isn't more than a minute long, no one seemed to mind, and the second time, I nailed it.
This was my first time playing on an actual stage in front of people other than Amy and a couple of close friends, and my first time playing on a baby grand (my teacher has a serviceable but unfancy upright, and I have a full-sized but low-end digital Casio), so it was an interesting experience. I definitely played better than the woman who came after me, but in all fairness she chose much more complex pieces. Then it was all over and Amy took me out to Ruth's Chris Steak House in Walnut Creek to celebrate. I'm already looking forward to next year's recital.