Great fun - much like the mood of the first ever gathering! Thanks to Panthera for playing my composition at very short notice! (your ending is better! )

Thanks to Solari and JoMook for their organisation. It was a great day, and I particularly enjoyed the 'extreme sight reading' - pick a piece from the new Grade 1 or Grade 2 book and play it. Vampire Blues and Bah-ba-doo-bah are great fun.

It was fantastic to hear everyone play and see how much they'd improved since the last Grand Gathering I attended. Well done to all of us.

Oh gosh, that was excellent you're a fine composer, Sol!

That was fun (Great idea bringing the grades 1 and 2 books, b-c.) As usual big thank you to Jo and Sol for organising food and venue.

Sounds great - so sorry I had to miss it, because I was having SO much fun in my grade 3 piano exam yesterday afternoon. The only consolation - I took the exam at ABRSM HQ so did get to play on a Steinway grand - my first play on a Steinway AND on a grand. Sadly the performance did not live up to the instrument ...

PatC

Another fantastic day, Thanks so much Sol for organising, also to Jo for an excellent choice, yet again, in an eating venue.

I loved the day, felt so much like the first event, really laid back and we seemed to have loads of time to keep getting up and playing more.

Thanks to Barry for bringing the Grade 1 and 2 exam books along, it was great to be able to get up and have a go at sight reading the pieces.

It was good to meet Benjy who was the only one there that I hadn't met before, I just love your piano playing, Panthera as always the most fantastic sounds. I loved the John Cage too, and was quite pleased with myself that I had managed to interpret what it was.

Excellent composition Sol, keep it going, you obviously have a gift there.

Brilliant to see how everyone had improved.

Sorry that Missypiano couldn't make it, we really missed you.

ET

Thanks again to Sol and Jo for another great day. Well done to everyone who took part.

Aw, thanks ET and pianophrase! I did miss you all too!
Great to hear you all had fun!!! See you soon!

Fingers crossed you make an event soon, missypiano

Surely this wasn't the reason behind the choice of 'missypiano' for a forum-name?

On a side note, I never heard anything from MTG or Hotair, wonder what happened there?

What nothing at all, did they confirm? Very strange! Has anyone met them before?

Yep, Hotair seemed quite keen at Benslow, I can only assume something went haywire...

MTG doesn't seem to have been active since March.. Ah well!

Solari,
So sorry I did not let you know. I had intended to come but, at short notice I had to take my son back to Manchester so that he could start his job placement. I should have let you know but completely forgot.

Sorry!! Hopefully, I can make the next event in London.

I guessed that something had gone wrong! No worries!

Thanks for your understanding! Is there any space on the 27th November list? I have already posted to the General Forum.

The thread is here:

http://www.abrsm.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=42207

Numbers are quite high right now, but I'll mark you down as interested? Closer to the time, I'll contact everyone and get them to confirm with payment. It's quite possible that things will crop up and some will have to cancel.

A quick question : will the fee be the same for both participants and people (like me) only coming for the recital?

Eeek... I hadn't thought of that - I'm willing to work to a general concensus. Personally I'd say no, as, let's face it, the event is traditionally all about the opportunity of playing of the piano itself. If it were solely down to me, I'd say that a nominal amount would be appreciated to assist in covering the hire time of the venue for those making the effort to put together a recital programme!

I think Tom and Panthera should really have some input on this....

OK I'm quite happy to pay a full fee to see great pianists

I was sort of assuming it'd be just a typical playday with Tom/me hogging the piano for the last hour so we were going to split the fees between ourselves (appreciative audience being a bonus!) Let me discuss with Tom

OK, thanks.

Update: Tom and I have agreed that we'd simply split the fee for the last hour between ourselves. Any audience being there is appreciated enough, and if you like our playing, then ask for encore (so we get to play more on that piano)!

Hi, yes Panthera & I will pick up the tab for the last hour. And if you say that you think my playing's inspirational, not only will I perform an encore, but I'll also buy drinks in the bar afterwards!!

Looking forward to it!!

Tom

P.S. apologies for time taken to respond - very busy at the moment, so minimal forum time...

Looking forward to hearing you and Panthera play again Tom, we missed you last week. And I don't think there will be any doubt about requests for an encore or that your playing would be anything but inspirational.

ET