Peta’s piano accompaniment recording revolution
A few months ago I received an email about an exciting recording project from Peta van Drempt, a professional piano accompanist in Sydney, Interested to hear more about her plans, I caught up with her on Skype. She offered to send me some of her recordings to listen to, and I chose a few pieces at random from the Suzuki violin repertoire. They were excellent. Knowing that good accompaniment recordings are a real boon for students at any level, I’m pleased to support her work.
Peta is working to create the world’s first comprehensive streamable catalogue of piano accompaniment recordings for violin – Peta’s Piano for Violin. She has been making high-quality recordings for hundreds of individual soloists and teachers since 2011 and has seen many performers experience greater joy and satisfaction in their music after using the recordings to prepare their pieces. Her dream is to create a resource that any teacher or performer can turn to to find the accompaniment recordings they need to help them prepare themselves or their students for that first rehearsal with a live accompanist, freeing them up to spend those precious sessions on honing the higher-level ensemble skills that are so crucial to giving a great performance.
There’s an opportunity for teachers and others to support this project by joining the Kickstarter campaign and pre-book a subscription to the service at a substantial discount. (No longer available – Ed.)
(Disclosure: I have no financial interest in Peta’s project.)
The recordings will be of outstanding quality, performed by some of Australia’s best concert pianists and accompanists in a state-of-the-art studio in the Blue Mountains. The tracks will be available at different tempos for rehearsal purposes and can be streamed 24/7 straight into the studio, home or concert hall. Teachers will be able to easily share the recordings via an app with their students so they can access them at home without having to purchase the tracks themselves, making it much more likely they’ll actually use the recordings to practice (no more needing to email mp3s, burn and send out CDs that get lost in backpacks, etc.).
Peta is offering Early Bird Lifetime packages for teachers exclusively during the Kickstarter campaign. These will give teachers and their whole studio of students access to the full catalogue of recordings FOREVER, as it grows from the beginner level through to the intermediate and advanced levels over time. These are only available during the campaign as a way of thanking the early supporters who help the project get off the ground.
Here’s the links:
https://kck.st/2oCcove The Kickstarter Campaign (Expired)
https://www.petaspianoforviolin.com/ (Peta’s Piano website)
Cheers,
John