Summertime collaborations.

Summer can be a great time to introduce our students to exciting collaborative experiences. Any student is eligible, and no student is too young or too old to begin to experience the joys of making music with others. Scheduling during the summer is usually a bit easier for students, and they are less likely to be focusing on recital and competition pieces. Musical collaboration may be the perfect challenge and treat during this vacation period.

The first collaborative experience often is a duet with the teacher or another student in the same studio. The personnel and repertoire for these same-instrument ensembles usually are readily available. If you enjoy a little more excitement, successful duos, trios and other small ensembles with mixed instrumentation can begin at a surprisingly early age. Coordinating the personnel and finding the repertoire can require initiative and cooperation outside the studio. If you have not yet coached ensembles and are unsure how to get started, I would like to encourage you by sharing my collaborative adventures from last summer.

I chose four of my private piano students, ranging in age from 10 to 17, for this special experience. I visited with my local violin colleagues (although most any instrument would work), who were excited and eager to work with me. Much to my surprise, we were able to pair the students quickly. Even in our small town, performance level and age were well matched. For all the teams, we selected appropriate repertoire for informal, short-term goals. As the students began practicing independently, I monitored their progress and determined when they were ready for their first meetings with their partners and with me.

Each team had a different timetable. Two eleven-year-olds, who happened to be neighbors and friends, could not wait to play together. The violinist picked her favorite Volume I and II pieces from the Suzuki Violin School with my approval of the level of the piano parts. Within a few weeks, the pianist was prepared, and we met for the first collaborative lesson. We focused on several basics--learning about the idiosyncrasies of each instrument, learning to cue and follow cues, listening and balance and other rehearsal tips. We were joined at the second lesson by the violin teacher. I was elated by the immediate success! And it continued. The girls walked back and forth with music and violin in tow and happily added rehearsals to their playtime activities. Their project culminated in a chamber music recital with Team Two, another violin-piano team of ten-year-olds! The girls came away from this experience with a marvelous sense of accomplishment, a deeper friendship and a new understanding of making music.

I was completely satisfied with this success. If no other pairings worked out, I would have been happy to know I had influenced these few young musicians. But there were other successes. The second team--the ten-year-olds--began rehearsals in the late summer. The coachings took place at both the pianist's weekly lessons and at the violin lessons, and continued until the chamber music recital in November. The third team was a pair of fourteen-year-olds (viola and piano). Both students were musically advanced for their ages and learned the music within a few weeks of the assignment. Their first collaborative meeting took place under parental supervision because of my travel conflicts. My first session with them several weeks later revealed two talented and eager young musicians receptive to many suggestions of style and collaboration. Team four, the seventeen-year-olds, were unable to work out their schedules and never performed together. I regret to say you can't win them all.

Learning to collaborate is exciting, especially when experienced early with the appropriate partners, repertoire, goals and guidance. Yes, schedules can be a problem when dealing with more than one person, but the rewards are worth the extra effort. Through these rewarding projects, the pianists and string players gained greater understanding of the process of collaboration--music making on the level of equals. They are now ready for the next chapter in the collaborative process: church, school and more summer collaborative projects.

Getting started was the most difficult part for us all, but as you are reading this, more young musicians will be enjoying a summer of duos, or perhaps trios! Let's encourage music making together--any combination of instruments--and at any age!

BONUS BYTE

Be sure to check the new Intermediate Chamber Music Repertoire Database for repertoire for combinations of three or four instruments including piano. Go to the MTNA website at www.mtna.org and click on the database under "What's New."

Susan Keith Gray is associate professor of music at the University of South Dakota and is pianist for the USD faculty Rawlins Piano Trio and the Kobayashi-Gray Duo, a violin-piano ensemble. She holds a D.M.A. degree in collaborative piano from the University of Michigan.