A Piano Extravaganza featuring a host of pianists, both professional and student, all in celebration of their beloved colleague and teacher.
Pianist Rae de Lisle Photo: Supplied
Composers and pianists: Janet Jennings, Justin Bird, Camila Oliveira, Katherine Austin, Stephen De Pledge, Lorelle McNaughton, Melody Deng, Richard Liu, Judy Lee, Ludwig Treviranus, Rae de Lisle, Madeleine Xiao, Andrew Cochrane, Leonie Holmes, David Hamilton, Somi Kim, Cindy Tsao, Thomas Wong, Eve de Castro-Robinson, Henry Meng Photo: supplied
Rae de Lisle was a long-time lecturer in piano performance at the University of Auckland until her recent retirement.
As Stephen De Pledge, her colleague and organiser of this concert, writes in the programme booklet:
“Rae de Lisle is unquestionably the most important figure in the history of piano pedagogy in Aotearoa New Zealand. Her philosophy has influenced generations of students and teachers, both within this country and increasingly on a wider international stage.”
A number of years ago, Rae launched Fit 4 Piano, a set of exercises and resources for developing piano technique using the most natural body movements.
And just recently she’s commissioned a set of 12 études from 12 New Zealand composers, which each work on one of the technical aspects outlined in Fit 4 Piano.
This concert contains the world premiere performances of these Fit 4 Piano Etudes.
Otherwise, it’s a fun night with many pianists, both professional and student, performing a type of repertoire that we don’t often hear in concert: piano duets, duos, trios ... we get up to six players at once.
The multi-pianist items
The Fit 4 Piano Etudes
Recorded by RNZ Concert in the School of Music Theatre, University of Auckland, 30 April 2023
Producer: Tim Dodd
Engineer: Adrian Hollay
