Any pianists out there with nothing better to do between Christmas and New Year might be interested in this:

http://www.pianodriedaagse.nl/festival-concours.php

Roughly translated, and much condensed:

It is open to anyone that plays, any age, except professionals and full-time music students. You can play solo, or four-hands/one-piano. You play for up to five minutes, completely your own choice, light music or classical with or without the score as you see fit. Entry is EUR 15 by bank transfer. (Spectators get in free).


If you just want to have a 5-minute spot in the festival, and then play no more, but just enjoy listening to the other pianists, that is fine, but you can also be considered for selection for the Concours.

The best 16 are selected for the semi-final where you play 10 to 15 minutes. The only restrictions are that you repeat your 5 minutes from the preliminary round, and if you played light music you add more light music., if classical, more classical.

The best four go through to the final, where you repeat your program from the semis. There is a judge's prize and an audience prize.

They are also looking for pianists to put on free 15-25 minute recitals to entertain the shoppers at locations in town.

Dear Mad Tom,

Will you play during the pianodriedaagse? (I do not know if you are officially a professional or not) your level must be very high, I can see from your other posts. If you do I would like to come and listen to you.
Are you Dutch too?

I will be placing my entry shortly (I have been "commanded" to take part by my teacher - in her gentle way!!). I am an amateur, but am hoping to reach a professional standard before I retire from my day job, and am working seriously towards that goal. My standard is not that high! Now and again I surprise myself, and the audience, by playing wonderfully, but I am just as likely to mess up badly one way or another. I am English, but I live and work in Utrecht.

Please post the time you play and in which hall once you know this, because I work only a 10 minute walk away from De Doelen. I would like to come and listen.
I am Dutch, and I recently found out that you can take ABRSM exams in Voorschoten. This is great for me because I can aim for an official qualification (well, for the time being just a grade X certificate) with private lessons. Otherwise it is just years and years of lessons with nothing, and at the end a final conservatory diploma, and nothing in between. I have absolutely no chance of studying in a conservatory. So I like the English system.

Yes I will let you know where and when I am playing, as soon as I know.

There are several ABRSM exam centres in the Netherlands (as in mosts other countries around the world). I think it would still be an uphill struggle to persuade the Dutch authorities to allow you to teach music in schools without a conservatoire qualification - even with DipABRSM, LRSM, and even FRSM to your name.

There is the Schumann Akademie ( http://www.schumann.nl ) which leads to a Conservatoire diploma (B.Mus) in the specialism of your choice over 5 or 6 years (1 year optional prelim, 3 years professional training 1, 2 years professional training 2). It comprises evening classes, self-study, and external fully-accredited exams. It is aimed at amateur musicians who did not attend a conservatoire straight from school and cannot afford to give up their day jobs to attend a conservatoire full-time now. It is based in Utrecht and Amsterdam.

Mad Tom, thanks for replying!

Yes I know about the Schumann Akademie but it does not seem attractive to me at all!
They just give the theory clases, for the piano lessons you continue with your own teacher.
Then after 3 years only when you have passed all the part I exams, they will allow you to study the pedagogy part and 'pianomethodiek', which are actually the only subjects I am interested in. It is all very rigid I think. I like the accessibility of the ABRSM.

Anyway, I want to (am already doing it too on a modest scale ... ) teach privately, elementary levels only. But grade 5 theory and an advanced grade certificate (I will start with 6, that seems very comfortable to me, with charming pieces, aiming for 8 or Dip.) is very nice, if I will teach upto the equivalent of grade 2/3 only. It will not persuade authorities, you are right, but parents and students are not all that demanding. I put an advertisement for private lessons, saying I have had private piano lessons for 12 years, and still have lessons, and I got 7 students already. That is all I can handle for now.
Your situation and attitude is really inspiring to me, only I would collapse if I would practice 4 hours every evening after work!

Well ... some days it is only three!

More usefully, the conservatoires accept external students on to one or more courses as "contract students". At least Utrecht Conservatoire does, so I expect that other conservatoires do the same. You study alongside the regular students, and take the same exam(s), and have access to practice rooms, libraries, reduced price concert tickets, and other perks (including free entry to the Botanical Garden in Utrecht!). The subjects may be called "theoretical" but in reality are intensely practical, with sight singing, harmonisation at the keyboard, taking dictation of multi-part pieces etc.

The only problems are that you need to take a morning or an afternoon out of work to attend, and there is no B.Mus. at the end of it, no matter how many courses you take nor over however many years. But I believe that passing the exams earns you exemption from parts of the Schumann Akademie Part 1. Courses available include piano lessons, and there are some quite fantastic performer/teachers on the staff, but to get on those you have to pass a standard audition.

Unfortunately you have missed enrolling for 2009-2010

That would be a much better choice. And it does not sound rigid at all
You have been looking into all this for yourself as well?
Who knows in 2010 .... or 2011 .... I would not have felt ready in 2009 anyway. I could do just one subject, one that really appeals to me.
About the final exams and the B.Mus, I know you are allowed to take the SNVM exams as an 'extraneus', you do not have to be enrolled in any institution at all and you just enter for the exam. It is it up to you how you got to your standard, even the practical final exam. So if these contract courses take you upto the desired level, you enter yourself for the final exams.
Thanks again!
But still I want to take the ABRSM grades and stay with my own teacher for now ....

Happy practicing!