This year’s Greensleeves Music recitals were truly fantastic. They spanned over two Sundays, May 21st and June 4th, and were held at a couple of our favorite venues, Jacob’s Music of West Chester and The Garage Youth Center in Kennett Square. Students of all ages played a wonderful array of music and showcased their talents and months of hard work.
Jacob’s Music is a piano store just outside of West Chester with a lovely private recital room. The Greensleeves Music recitals there are exclusive to piano students, who have the unique opportunity to play on a nine-foot Steinway grand piano.
This year almost 50 students performed at Jacob’s on May 21st. There were a lot of beginners as well as experienced players, and the song choices included popular and lesser-known classical repertoire, beloved traditional ballads and a number of catchy, recognizable pop songs.
It’s always nice to see dramatic improvement from year to year in longtime students like Kate and Yuri, who played pieces by Chopin, Yiruma and Bober. Siblings Jack, Rhett and Piper played beautifully, with Jack’s performance of “Maple Leaf Rag” wowing the audience.
Lili, who has taken lessons with Greensleeves Music since 2011, played two pieces by Ludovico Einaudi and surely inspired many of the first timers like brothers Levi and Van, whose debut performances were cheered on by their family and teacher John.
This year we made a last minute call to squeeze a fourth recital in on June 4th and it was certainly the right move. Over 100 students signed on to perform at The Garage Youth Center in downtown Kennett Square, where we held recitals at 1:00, 2:30, 4:00 and 5:00 p.m. This fun and funky space with a full stage allows for all instruments and even group performances.
Students light up when their teachers come out to support them, and it was awesome to see such a great turnout by the Teamsleeves teaching team. Jonathan and Ethan spent the day there with us, running tech and sound. They, along with Caitlin, Kyle, John, Andrew, Katie, Jacob, Eduardo, Alexis and Nikolay also accompanied their students on stage, which gives their performances a boost and helps to ease showtime jitters.
We loved the family band performance by siblings Kayleigh, Grayson and Quinn, who played “Brother” with guitar, singing and percussion as well as Jack and Will’s medley of two great White Stripes and John Coltrane tunes. Kayleigh also wrote and gave an inspired performance her own song, as did students Andrew and Luci.
Adrianna gave a showstopping vocal performance of “X’s and O’s” and brothers Austin and Nate rocked out on the drums to Passenger and 21 Pilots. Janaki showcased her skill on the violin with two very challenging pieces and Lucy and Sehaj performed a set of beautiful violin duets. Greensleeves’ own Lily Green was among the many students who experienced the thrill of a successful live musical performance for the first time.
The Garage Youth Center has been our gracious host for many years now, and we were able to collect a few hundred dollars in donations to help support their incredible work with at-risk youth in Chester County.
We are really looking forward to next year’s recitals. If they’re anything like 2017, we’re all in for a real treat!
