Meet and Greet
Hi everyone,
Noah and Dominic here!
We’re so excited to start welcoming everyone to this year’s Adamant Piano Camp.
Whether you’re already signed up, seriously considering joining us, or just curious about what the experience is like, we’d love for this thread to be a place to connect, ask questions, and start building excitement for the summer ahead.
Adamant is a really special place. Incredible music-making, lots of practice, inspiring conversations, late-night performances, nature, community, and a chance to fully immerse yourself in music for an extended period of time.
We honestly can’t wait for everything coming up.
A few things we’d love to hear from you:
- What pieces are you currently working on?
- What are you most excited about this summer?
- Have you been to Adamant before?
- Any questions about the experience, schedule, lodging, practicing, repertoire, or anything else?
And even if you just want to say hello and introduce yourself, please do!
We’ll also be sharing updates, announcements, practice inspiration, and more here as we get closer.
Can’t wait to see this year’s community come together!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZLzFFnzFvg&t=7s
64 replies
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Hey Everyone!
I will kick things off:
1. Working on alot of chamber music right now, with some solo stuff too:
Rachmaninoff Cello Sonata, Brahms D minor Violin Sonata, Arthur Foote Piano Trio no.1, Dvorak Dumky Trio, but also some new music like: Saint-Saens 2nd piano concerto, Schumann's Carnaval, and more!
I hope to play some 4 hands/2 piano music with campers this year at Adamant too!
2. Definitely excited to see everyone in person, it is such a cool experience to go from being online, to real life.
3. I have been to Adamant a few times now :)
4. Let us know if you have any questions!
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Hi Dominic and fellow "campers." I am working on three pieces; Grieg's Wedding Day at Troldhaugen, Bortkiewicz's Prelude No. 1, Opus 6, and Scriabin's Prelude Opus 11, No. 1. I would love to find someone to play some four-hand or two-piano pieces with at camp! I'm attending the 8/24-8/29 session.
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Your Grieg piece was part of a piano program played by a dear friend at my home wedding way too many years ago. I have played and loved that Scriabin prelude and have been reading through Bortkiewicz preludes lately. I’m looking forward to hearing your program!
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I'm looking forward to hearing your Debussy! And I would really love to hear you play the Scriabin Prelude, as I struggle to get it to speed while not forgetting the phrasing and paying attention to the surprise note sequences. It is deceptively hard, in my opinion! This will be my first time at Adamant Piano Camp - so excited!
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Saint-Seans' 2nd - so gorgeous! Hope we can hear you perform Carnaval if you have it ready to perform, Dominic.
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Hmmm, I haven’t played the Scriabin for several years, but as I recall, I had many of the same struggles-it really isn’t easy to pull off a good performance. I’ll take a look at it again. Despite playing for many years, I naively continue to hope for miracles when resuscitating a piece!
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I completely understand! You'd think muscle memory would get us through, but sadly not true. My main concern is what my nerves will do to this beautiful music when I'm performing it in front of fellow campers and world-class teachers! I've played it in front of my cat with now glitches. That's a start.
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sorry to bombard you with messages but everything you're saying is very exciting to me. I love playing 4-hand/2-piano music. I would be very happy to set something up and practice a bit beforehand or even just sightread some pieces on the spot.
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That sounds great! Is there any four-hand music you had in mind? I love the Dolly Suite by Faure, but I'd love to try something new since I've played that already. And I'd love to play some two-piano pieces too - we so rarely have that opportunity (unless you're lucky enough to have two pianos in your house). This is going to be amazing!
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I would also love to play something for two pianos. Let me look through my music because I've been saving things for a few months for my students and might have some really fun ideas! Here is a recording of a two-hand piece that could be good just off the top of my head https://youtu.be/HG-TacABbeY?is=JmhAQrOLWx8c1zDE
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*Two piano. Whoops
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Alright you know which piece I've actually been dying to play with somebody? Poulenc's Sonata for four-hands. What do you think? https://youtu.be/lunDd17ltyU?is=o-7W186CUQYYqUnW
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I've never heard that Poulenc piece before, but it sounds very much like the Poulenc I played in college. Looks like a fun, challenging piece. I accept! Do you have a preference for which part you'd like to play, first or second piano? Knowing my limited time from now until camp, I think the second part would be more reasonable for me to tackle. Thoughts?
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This is a great piece too!
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Sorry. I was referring to the Spanish piece as being great too.
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I'm more than happy to take the prima part! The seconda part is actually not great for my tendonitis so that works out perfectly. Ahhh I'm so excited 😆
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Fantastic! I'm excited too!
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- oooo can I join this fun? I am not a great sightreader anymore, but if I csn have a practice session on my part I’ll be fine…
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Absolutely! I was actually going to mention a very cool 8-hand, 2 piano piece in the other forum that's dedicated to duets (at camp.) I'll have to take a look at the sheet music again though. I can't remember the difficulty very well.
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but if you have other ideas in the mean time let me know!
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Here’s the 8-hand piece I was thinking about. It is so energetic and feels really good in your fingers. I just hope enough people want to play it. I’ve included a sheet music snippet of all 4 parts and the best recording I could find. Let me know what you think!
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- This sounds like lots of fun! Let’s go for it. I know we can find two more people!
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I would say please count me in as I love multi-hand works, but I'm there week 2, and you're discussing week 1, right?
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- alas, yes. So sorry we won’t be able to connect!
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Hi,
1. I'm working on several things - Poulenc, Mendelssohn, Fauré and Prokofiev.
My incentive to start piano lessons was the introduction of a player piano to the house when I was 5. Once I learned that many of those piano rolls were played by four hands, my love of duets began. i have collected lots of them over the years, 4-hand and 2 piano, and hope to get to play some of the more exotic ones at camp. I'm guessing if I have them scanned for iPad use I won't need to lug paper to Vermont. I'd like to play some of Bolcom's Recuerdos, maybe the playable chunks of Stravinsky's 3 Movements from Petrushka (arr. Victor Babin), and others.
2. I've been playing with local piano groups that meet monthly in San Diego, but a whole week of non-stop piano sounds like a vacation made for me.
3. This will be my first time at Adamant music camp.
4. I am having a hard time knowing what i'll want to work on in lessons this far in advance. If my choice of repertoire changes, can I just update it on the intake form and resubmit? I also didn't see anywhere on the form to list my flight booking info - does that happen closer to the event?
Looking forward to meeting Dominic, Noah & crew this summer! Plus the attendees, of course.
Steve Sanders
