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Throughout this semester I have managed to perform four times, including the Performance module examination. With each of these performances I have managed to develop my musicianship and learnt new techniques and methods about myself in terms of practising, performing and, accompanying.

Aram khachaturian's "Toccata" is one of the pieces which I have performed in my final recital. I had the opportunity to perform it beforehand in a lunchtime recital and this was extremely helpful in multiple ways; calming my nerves for my final performance, listening to the critiques by my fellow peers in the peer review, and exploring different performance techniques. In reading into Khachaturian, I found that he was an Armenian composer, born in Soviet-era Georgia. And in his pieces, "Toccata" specifically, he utilised Armenian folk melodies and rhythms to infuse the composition with a unique and personal cultural essence. When performing this piece in the lunchtime recital, I noticed  aspects of the piece which helped my overall understanding of the score and how to interpret it. For example, in the beginning, the piece starts with a tonic chord played at forte. When practicing this by myself, it was hard to gauge how loud this needed to be and how much emphasis should be on it. So when it came to the lunchtime recital, it would be my first time playing this piece on the grand piano in Studio One, and the difference sound needed to fill the room was completely different to how it is in the practise room. Of course, I knew it would be different performing in Studio One as I have done it before, but the subtleties and smaller characteristics of the piece are hard to measure in the smaller practise rooms. Therefore, the time I had in Studio One was vital, and the information and grasp I had on the piece exceeded what it was before.

Another aspect which helped me understand the piece more and assisted my practise was listening to different recordings from a wide scope of playing styles and time eras. The main recording which I went back to time and time again was Murray McLachlan's performance. Researching through many performances made me understand that these piece had many interpretations, and the style in which musicians performed this piece where drastically different. For example, Hayk Melikyan's performance of "Toccata" is dramatically different. Melikyan interpretation is harsher, but however the B section (starting at Bar 109), is far more contrasting than McLachlan's version, allowing for a calmer, soft section before the lively, vibrant coda begins.

The other piece I am performing is Edvard Grieg's "Wedding Day at Troldhaugen". When I first listened to the piece in the recording of Lugansky performance I immediately connected with it and could easily see the picture of this wedding day in the picturesque village of Troldhaugen in Norway. When researching this piece I discovered the charming and romantic nature of this piece, and further investigation into the narrative of the score I found that this was a work dedicated to Grieg's 25th anniversary to his wife.  This bought a sincerity to the piece which I really enjoyed and enabled me to envision what Grieg was contemplating when composing this piece which, in turn, allowed me to perform this piece with a deeper understanding of the sentiment the composition brought.

Another recording I listened to was Grieg's own performance of his composition. This recording is heavily murky, with the melodies and harmonies being quite clouded, however the opportunity to listen to the composer himself perform his piece is a great advantage to any performer attempting to play this piece. Listening to the performance, Grieg plays at a great speed and with precise accuracy, the tones and rubato he uses are amazing, and I have taken a vast amount of influence from this recording, being Grieg's own interpretation.

The two pieces aforementioned are vastly different. "Toccata" is a composition which allows the performer to lividly bash at the piano, bringing out harmonies which are non-traditional in typical 'Western' compositions, and also with a resonant melody absent, choosing to focus more on the rhythms and timbre. "Wedding Day at Troldhaugen" is completely different, it mostly has a recognisable melody, which transforms as the piece develops, it uses harmony which is conventionally attractive to more traditional audiences, and produces a more charismatic tone in contrast to the distinct harsh tone of "Toccata". I believe that these two pieces are therefore a great pairing for a recital, as it has the ability demonstrate a range of techniques which these pieces bring out, for example "Toccata" focusses the performer on the complex rhythms of some bars, such as bar 5-8 and in bars 109-112, whilst "Wedding day in Troldhaugen", brings attention to the intricate voicings, as in bars 59-106, which alternates the emphasis on each individual melodic line.

When performing these pieces I think one of the main obstacles that stands in my way is nerves. Nerves will always be prevalent throughout my time as a performer, however I believe it is the way you approach them which makes the difference. As I have done more performances throughout my time at Surrey, I have only gotten more capable of handling my nerves and being able to embrace them instead of trying, and failing, to suppress them, as I would have done years ago. In the process of embracing these nerves I have learnt multiple methods in aiding myself in these circumstances. Most of these 'methods' can only be done in performance scenarios so it is hard to practise them regularly, making performances even more important as an opportunity to master my nerves. However, some methods I learnt which I could practise just by myself was breathing; focussing on my breathing, calming myself down, thinking about what is happening. Another main issue that comes with nerves is sweaty hands, as a pianist having slippery fingers is one of the most annoying things that can happen before I performance. So to prepare for this I would try and do some exercise before heading to the practise room, this could be running, cycling, and just doing star-jumps in the practise room so I can build up my adrenaline and get my hands to be more slippery; mimicking the performance scenarios. And after this I would start playing, so I can learn to control myself and understand how different it is playing.

Overall, I believe I have developed as a musician greatly, due to many aspects. Some being my improved technique, with more accuracy, tone control, and finger dexterity due to the amount of practise I put in. Another is the time keeping when it comes to knowing how long to spend on each piece when practising and understanding when to move on to another section or to stop. And also, the research I had put into learning more about the composers, allowed me to understand the scores in a different view and gave me a distinctive way to add my own interpretation on the pieces. Even though I feel like I have developed as a Musician greatly, I still understand that I can improve too. For example, I feel like my stage presence can be improved, as when I perform I tend to focus on the music and not acknowledge the audience confidently. So by doing this, it would create a rapport with the audience, thereby bringing myself more confidence. Another improvement I could make would be to focus on the pedalling of the piece. As when I'm performing I am paying most of my attention to the notes, I sometimes would forget about the pedal, and then this would lead to murky, very heavy passages that sound blurred. To combat this I have tried to concentrate more and more on pedalling, practising the pieces with a large amount of focus on the execution of the pedal.

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I performed in the chamber music competition with a fellow final year student. I played Piano and he played Trombone. In the competition we played Bozza's "Hommage a Bach", this is a piece we both learnt in the first semester. We decided to carry on developing our understanding of this piece as the workload of learning a new piece would have been too much for us to do along with our final year studies. We also saw this as an opportunity to evolve our togetherness, advance our ensemble skills, and hone the piece to a great standard.

To be able to delve deep into Bozza's personal style we had to research the composer and find out more about his life. In doing so, we found that this was not the first composition in which he draws inspiration, or pays homage to J. S. Bach. In his piece "Aria", which is written for Alto Saxophone and Piano, he pieces reminds the audience and performers of Bach but does not outrightly state it. Also learning new information about Bozza aided our performance thoroughly, this new information showed us that he was knowledgeable about Bach and knew how to depict his style accurately. We also found that his style was a concoction of French impressionist school, merged with the harmonic foundational structure of Bach. This neo-classical style was allowed us to understand the "hommage" part of the composition; being a more 'contemporary' composer looking retrospectively into the past.

So with this new information, our chamber ensemble had the opportunity to play with more authenticity, and therefore, hopefully, a more accurate depiction of what Bozza was striving for. As this piece is not one of Bozza's most famous pieces, recordings for this composition are hard to come by. The few that we found were helpful in giving us an idea of what to strive for, especially in the formative days. Robert Parker's performance was one that I frequently came back to. When watching this recording I made sure to focus on the points of entry with the Trombone to help me understand when the Trombone would need more time to breathe, therefore allowing for a more fluid performance. Another aspect of the recording I made sure to focus on was the pedalling of the pianist. By doing this, I made sure that pedal blurs were infrequent and hopefully non-existent.

I have learnt many things as a performer, musician, and accompanist by playing in the Chamber music competition and also performing with the Trombone. For example, I have learnt to listen more carefully to other aspects of the whole performance, as when I play solo the only factor of the music I need to listen to is my playing only. When there is another element joining me I had to adjust myself to listen to more than just myself. This proved to be difficult at first, but the more we practised together, the more efficient we got at playing as one, instead of two separate instruments. I also believe, due to playing with another musician, my rhythmic sensitivity has increased. This would also be because of our practise sessions together, and due to the musical rapport we built together.

Some future goals I personally would have, is to be able to accompany an increased range of styles and instruments. I believe that this would further my musicianship as I would become more knowledgeable on many more instruments, in terms of their playing style, the limitations and characteristics that they have. As I only accompanied a Trombone playing in a neo-classical style, I had not attempted this, however I will in the future definitely be more open to accompany other performers and an array of different styles. This semester the accompaniment I had done has inspired me to do more in the future, and I hope that it will develop my listening ability, and my general musicianship.

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This was taken during the tech rehearsal.

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I managed the concert on 23rd March called 'INTRASPECT V'. For this concert I was the co-ordinator, this meant my role was to oversee the concert and guide the concert manager.

The day before the concert I emailed Shiv Varma, to discuss the tech times. As the concert only featured two ensembles the tech times were simple to map out. I also spoke with the concert Assistant to discuss the concert and what time to meet at PATS.

On the day of the concert I arrived early to help out in Studio One. As I arrived I introduced myself to the performers and asked if they needed any help. I stayed in PATS in case there was any emergencies or anyone needed help. The concert assistant and I cleaned up the seating area in Studio One, we reorganised the chairs so that they were in the suitable state, and removed all clutter from the stage and audience section. We were present throughout the tech rehearsals and stayed until the very end of the concert, lending our hands to help pack away the stage and more.

Whilst we were waiting I spoke to the concert assistant about what the role of a concert manager and co-ordinator is, and described what needed to be done to fulfil this role.

As the concert was about to start I handed out programmes to all audience members, and ushered people to their seats by giving the, 5 minute calls and 1 minute calls. I also turned the houselights on so that the audience could make their way to their seats. I checked with certain audience members to see if everyone was okay and was all accounted for. During the incoming, I also gave time warnings to the performers so they could start to prepare themselves.

During the performance, the concert assistant and I discussed about our placements during the performance. We came to the conclusion that they will stay in the Studio and I will be in the green room. My role in the green room was to open the door for the performers as they entered and exited the Studio, and to be at hand if there were any technical difficulties during the performance.

During the interval, I sold tapes, key-rings, and handed our refreshments to audience members. I made sure all of the audience were satisfied by asking them if they would like any Wine or water. I also sold some tapes from the ensembles that were performing.

After the show, the concert assistant and I made sure all of the seating area was cleared up and that Studio One was in the same state as when we arrived. We helped the performers pack away their instruments, and said our goodbyes to the audience members.

Retrospectively looking at this concert I believed I could have done a few things to allow the concert to run even more smoothly. Due to the size of the ensemble I was not able to familiarise myself with the whole group, I think if I was to do this again, I would do that as some other members of the group could have needed help. I also think I would be more active when it came to delegating jobs to the concert assistant, as we did a lot of the actions together, this was a great way to learn for the assistant but however gave little independent learning for them. The concert ran very smoothly however, and we encountered no major issues, and I believe this was due to my time-keeping, and our teamwork in clearing up the studio and making sure the show ran without a hitch.

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An excerpt from "Toccata" (Khachaturian)

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The piece's I have logged is Khachaturian's "Toccata" and Edvard Grieg's "Wedding Day at Troldhaugen".

Early on in practising and starting to learn "Toccata" I realised it was different to any piece I had played before. Being influenced by Armenian folk rhythms and harmonies, this was a new style of playing altogether that I had not encountered before. Also being composed in 1932 this was a later, more contemporary, composition that I was not used to and I had to alter many of my original thoughts when learning it. Such as,  the absence of melody being the main factor which I was unfamiliar to. This, for me personally, made the piece hard to listen to at first, in fact as I first heard the piece I was not a fan of the brash harmonies, and convoluted rhythms, however, as I put away my preconceptions about the piece and I started to push myself to learn it I noticed hidden beauties which I had not seen first time round listening, with only playing and looking thoroughly through the score helping me to understand these intricacies. One section in particular that caught my attention early on was bars 115-118. These four bars completely took me by surprise as the massive build-up, in bars 113-114, deceives the audience into thinking there is going to be this gigantic, intricate, and flourishing melody that sweeps from the lowest end of the piano to the highest. Instead of this, Khachaturian displays a gentle Db octave notes down in the bass, completely free of any other harmonies at this point and then develops a 2:3 polyrhythm which creates this beautiful, airy feel to the section, and then makes it even more intriguing when the Tenuto on bar 116, with the dissonant clash between the Eb and the E♮.

Some musical difficulties I faced early on were the complex chromatic, almost cadenza-like, patterns. These can be seen at bars 74-77, 105-108, and 160-163. These sections were a challenge for me as I clearly needed to improve my finger dexterity to perform these patterns to a high standard. To do this I first practised these patterns in individual sections, taking one beat of the bar at a time; learning the notes so I can play from memory later on. Learning these sections from memory was important as I did not want to be looking at the music when I play these passages, as 1. It would distract me by making me look at the score rather the piano and 2. It allowed me to focus purely on the speed of the passages as I was not held down by focussing on the notes. To improve my finger dexterity I went back to Hanon's finger exercises; 'The Virtuoso Pianist'. Doing these every day helped me in many ways, but most importantly assisted me in playing these quick passages.

When I first started to learn "Wedding Day in Troldhaugen" the first aspect I noticed was the recurring melody that is prevalent throughout most of the piece. So, when I first sat down at the piano to start to learn the piece, I first looked at this, as I believed this to be the foundations of the score. After I learnt this I then moved onto the semi-quaver section from bars 31-41. To learn this section my teacher advised me to instead of playing each of the notes separately from the right hand to the left, that I should play the all together so they would be one large chord. In doing this I had to voice the higher notes to form the ascending melodic line which gradually got higher in each repeating pattern. So when I practised I made sure to bring these higher notes out when playing the chord together, so when I would eventually go to play the score how it is shown, I would have already understood how to voice the chord and how to show the musical narrative.

Difficulties I faced in Grieg's composition was mostly the tempo and speed of the piece. As I wanted to replicate the recording of Grieg himself, but also have my own interpretation, I tried to mimic Grieg's style. I soon learnt that this was the best option as Grieg plays the piece extremely quickly, and that speed would come at more amount of time of practise that I had available. So knowing I could not bring his speed to the music, I wanted to pay tribute to his masterful performance in a different way. Therefore, I listened to the recording many times and looked out for certain aspects which I really enjoyed, this brought me to bars 45-48, where Grieg takes a slower approach, and really emphasises the bass notes. Knowing this, I added this into my performance, merging my own interpretation with the composer's himself. Even though it was a small, seemingly insignificant four bars I was looking at, I realised by doing this it allowed me to have a greater understanding of the whole piece generally, and as I had listened to Grieg's recording many times now, I was able to put in certain aspects of his performances unknowingly.