Warren Mailley-Smith – Exploring the Romantic composers – Intermediates – Long weekend – SOLD OUT

The Romantic composers always feature prominently at our piano courses at Finchcocks. So we’ve designed a course that helps intermediate players access a wealth of beautiful piano repertoire from some of world’s most inspiring composers over a three day long weekend course on Friday 5 July to Sunday 7 July.

We’re incredibly lucky to have secured the services of Warren Mailley-Smith for this course. In 2016, Warren became the first British pianist to perform Chopin’s complete works for solo piano from memory at a series of concerts at St John Smith’s Square in London. Warren also features regularly on Classic FM, and has played in Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall as well as having performed for the British Royal Family on numerous occasions.

This course will explore the work and styles of five major romantic composers: Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Schumann and Schubert; with Warren doing a talk and analysis on each of these composers over a three-day course.

In each session, Warren will discuss the styles and characteristics of the each of the composers, help discover new repertoire and furnish participants with techniques to tackle the music of each composer.

There will also be an opportunity for each participant to play one or two pieces (ideally composed by one of our five romantic composers) that they have been working on in advance of the course. These pieces don’t have to concert ready – it’s perfectly acceptable to bring pieces that are partially prepared, where guidance is need on particularly tricky parts. During these sessions, Warren will look at developing phrasing and articulation, with plenty of tips on performance and how to polish our pieces and make them sound as natural and elegant as possible.

In the evening on Saturday, Warren will give a talk and recital on our five romantic composers, providing a biographical and historical commentary of the romantic movement through to Debussy and the beginnings of the impressionist movement.

In between the seminars and masterclass sessions there will be time for private practise on one of our beautiful grand pianos including our new Steinway. During these sessions, Warren will drop in to each of the practice rooms to provide individual pointers and tips.

The course is intended for intermediate players who are keen to bring their favourite repertoire to life. It might well be that there’s a Chopin prelude that you’ve been struggling with for years that you would desperately like to perfect, or equally there might be Schubert Impromtu that you have always wanted to play, but haven’t yet had the chance to really work on. Or you might just be looking for inspiration – recommendations of pieces that are suitable to your ability level – or from composers that you particularly love.

Either way, the chance to spend a long weekend immersed in the music of the world’s most inspiring composers is not to be missed.

For booking enquiries, please contact us on 01580 428080 or fill in the form below.