It happens every spring without fail, almost always the day following prom, often falling on Mother's Day. The big event at the High School Auditorium this Mother's Day was the Spring Piano Recital- "Duets and Fun". From time to time, I am fortunate enough to have a young mentor who takes additional students under their wings, and this spring event featured 22 of my students, and 7 of teen mentor Ethan Mahoney. I can say this with all humility: It was a lovely event.

The performance began at 2 pm with an upbeat opener. Home school sophomore Caitlin Rowland, age 15, a composer, played her own duet arrangement of "Baby Elephant Walk" with her mother Tammy. Caitlin recently submitted one of her piano solo compositions to the Bruce Berr Composition Festival and Competition in Chicago. The piece, "Dance in E Minor" was featured later in the show.

Ethan Mahoney, age 17, presented his students, who all played beautifully. Ethan, also a composer, arranged "Minecraft Theme" for his 6 year old student, Eli Warden. Ethan encourages creativity in his students, and two of them composed and performed their own recital solos. Ryder Baker, age 8, played his own piece "I Died In The War" and Hedya Whitaker, age 7, performed her own solo "Piano is Awesome".

My students followed, and as usual we mixed it up a bit. Rather than start with the beginners and end with most advanced, we distributed the levels throughout the afternoon. This makes time go quickly, keeps the interest up. Almost every student played a duet with another student, whether sibling or friend. Some pairs, like Lily Mahoney and McKenzie McLaughlin, forged a new friendship over the past months of going to each other's homes to practice their difficult but pretty duet "Ferris Wheel" by Mike and Jennifer Watts.

There was a lot of jazz this year, more than usual, and some tongue in cheek fun. Gannon McLaughlin, age 8, performed a duet that I composed especially for him, titled "I.D.W.D.A.D.W.M.S." , or,  in other words, "I Don't Wanna Do A Duet With My Sister". Styles stretched back to the Romantic and 20th Century eras as well, with Schubert, Beethoven, and Debussy. While the spring recital is not necessarily classical (which is our featured genre at Winter Recital) the older students often choose classical pieces for spring because it tends to show their talents more brilliantly. Ethan Mahoney played a virtuoso piece Schubert's Impromptu Opus 90 , Caitlin Rowland chose Debussy's difficult but jocular "Golliwog's Cakewalk", and Kiara Villamor, age 14, played Beethoven's classic, the beloved "Fur Elise" . The music came to a sweet contemporary close with Sydney Mahoney Mahoney, age 15, playing and singing her own arrangement of Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" with harmonies provided by 16 year old Delanney McConnell.

This year's awards went to:
Most improved Ages K-6: Mackenzie McLaughlin
Most Improved Ages 7-12: Gianna Villafuerte
Composer of the Year: Caitlin Rowland
Most Inspirational: Ethan Mahoney

The event lasted for two hours and over 125 people were in attendance. Our recital was dedicated to all the supportive mothers, appropriately, on this Mother's Day and each student presented their mother with a white rose. Special thanks were given to the Department of Parks Culture and Recreation and Unalaska City School District for their continued support of the piano program, with a special shout out to Channel 8.