Summer School: Arrival 2025

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 Here we are, back at Chetham’s for our third piano summer school. My son, Sam, is the musician of our family. I come along as his musically-illiterate mother to remind him to wear clean pants every morning. I’m by far the least knowledgeable parent here and my role in Sam’s piano life is confined to paying for his lessons and telling him he’s brilliant. He seems ok with this.

We arrived on Monday and Sam was happy to reunite with friends he’d made on previous summer schools. We then spent a long time pacing the corridors and going into every room to find a Steinway grand for him to practice on. That achieved, he played happily for a few hours and I, not for the first time, wished he loved the sort of music I could read a book to. But there we are. He prefers Lizst and Rachmaninvov, neither of whom will let you do much else while they’re around.

Later on in the afternoon was the first recital of the week by some of the summer school faculty. This was a gala recital – nine musicians in one hour – and beyond awe-inspiring for anyone, but especially someone like me, who can’t even look at a bar of music and clap the rhythm. Sam’s teacher, Stefan Bojsten, played Debussy’s L’Isle Joyeuse but the highlight of the concert was when Yuanfan Yang promised improvisation. ‘Give me a theme,’ he asked the audience. ‘Then give me a style, and I’ll play that theme in that style.’ I had no idea what this meant, but everyone else obliged. 

‘Beethoven's Appassionata,' someone suggested for the theme.

'And a style?' Yuanfan asked.

‘Shostakovich's Fugue!'

The audience laughed. I felt like the idiot in the corner who doesn’t get the joke. I still don’t get the joke, but when Yuanfan started playing, I did get the fact that he was a phenomenal musician. Beside me, Sam sat, gobsmacked, and I was aware of his excitement for the week ahead rising. In fact, I think I was aware of his excitement for the years ahead rising. He’s just turned thirteen and knows how much he still has to learn, but also how much he still has to discover and love. Recently, he met John Suchet at a book festival, and John said to him, very kindly, ‘You have a whole lifetime of musical joy ahead of you.' And that's why we've come to Chetham's. It is an incredible privilege to know what brings you the most joy in life, and if it's the piano, there is no better place to nurture that joy than here.

 

 

 

                                 

 

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