This year's KeyboardFest, held at Midland Center for the Arts Sunday, Jan. 10, brought together students, teachers, parents and family for a night filled with music. This is an annual event where pianists of all ages perform a variety of group pieces together. After countless rehearsals and hours of practice, students were ready to perform and show the audience what they had prepared. There were about 200 students performing in total.
Jim Hohmeyer was the conductor and has had many past experiences with both playing and teaching music. “I graduated from Wayne State University in 1961, and I was a high school, junior high and elementary school band and orchestra teacher for many years,” Hohmeyer said. “[I] taught at Michigan State and then came up here as the artistic director for the Midland Center for the Arts in 1998.”
While much of the work happens out of sight, it all begins long before the event itself.
It's all the logistics of getting it all on the stage and communicating with the teachers and communicating with the kids and the parents and selling the tickets,” Hohmeyer said. “It's like any production, there's just a whole lot of things backstage, but it's all volunteer."
(Piano teachers, directors, and volunteers posing for a group photo.)
Sophomore and pianist Raymond Chai was nervous before going on stage. “It’s kind of like a graph,” Chai said. “It starts out and then right before I go on, it kind of spikes. But then once I start walking to the piano, and once I put my hands on the keys, as soon as the music starts, it's fine.” Chai has been playing for ten years and has participated in keyboard fest many times. “I feel like my skills have grown a lot, especially this new year and over the summer,” Chai said. Chai believes this has helped him in many ways because of other music activities he participates in.
Senior and pianist Kristy Daoud also experienced a variety of emotions before she went on stage. “I'm really excited to see all the different sets and see what everybody's been working on,” Daoud said. “I think I'm most nervous about not messing up.” This was Daoud’s fifth year participating in KeyboardFest and has been playing piano for almost 13 years. “I've definitely been able to see the growth,” Daoud said. “I remember that the first year I was very nervous. It was also very different because it's not just you playing; it’s all like 12 different pianos at the same time. I've been able to get more comfortable going on stage and not caring if I mess up or something.”
“We start in, usually about October, and get them practicing on these duets, and they spend at least a couple months working on them,” Montgomery said. There are many challenges students commonly face when rehearsing and getting ready for the concert. “Counting is a big thing and learning to play with other players, so we do a lot of practicing,” Montgomery said. “We make sure they’re counting out loud so they can stay together.”
Montgomery believes that it’s very important for young musicians to participate in events like KeyboardFest. “It gives them a goal; they have something to work towards, and then they can see the fruit of their labor," Montgomery said. “Especially to be able to do it in such a grand [location], like at this center for the arts and on stage, and then to be able to work with all these other students and working together. I think it's just a really phenomenal experience.”
Junior James Wiseman believes that Keyboard Fest helps improve his commitment when it comes to piano. “I think [KeyboardFest] incentivizes me to actually practice,” Wiseman said. “Overall, I felt really good. I've been practicing for about the past week on my piece, so I kind of just figured it out at the end, but it worked out for me.”