Piano students get expert guidance

MOSES LAKE — Forty-five Basin piano students participated in the Washington State Music Teachers Association’s Music Artistry Program on March 27-28, according to an announcement from the association.

“The students play two piano pieces, memorized or non-memorized, for the visiting artists,” said music teacher Harriet West, who had students participating in the program. “Then (the artists) write down comments and work with students at the piano.”

The visiting artist was Dr. Fabio Menchetti, according to the announcement. Menchetti, a native of Lucca, Italy, is an assistant professor of piano at Washington State University. Menchetti has performed as a soloist with orchestras in Italy and the U.S., and regularly concertizes throughout the United States, both as a soloist and a chamber musician, according to his website.

“(The teachers like) to have someone else listen to the students, somebody really good, and offer suggestions,” West said. “Our music teachers (association) chapter is really particular whom we invite to come here and work with our students. We want somebody to offer encouragement, be uplifting, reinforce what the teacher has already taught.”

The pieces the students performed are mostly classical, West said, selected by the teacher. The difficulty of the music is at the teacher’s and the student’s discretion. Many students work for a long time to get their pieces down, West said. Kaylee Duong and Kyle Duong teamed up for a duet, she said.

“It was a marvelous, marvelous duet,” West said. “They probably worked four or five months on it.”

The MAP was formerly called “adjudication,” but that term was deemed intimidating to students, West said, so it was renamed to Music Artistry Program. The program has been going on since the Moses Lake-Central Basin chapter of the WSMTA was formed in 1970, West said.

Advice from an outside expert goes a long way to furthering the music students’ education, West said.

“Sometimes it means more to the students than (it would) coming from their teacher,” she said.

Participating students:

Benjamin Faber

Giovanni Pendleton

Eveline Dovmat

Julian Dovmat

Kaylee Duong

Kyle Duong

Alvin Beus

Jacob Beus

Asher Schober

Jonah Schober

Jelani Mann

Kylia Coulston

Anna Borodulin

Isaiah Turchik

Paul Turchik

Bayanna Ismagulov

Joel Carpenter

Evie Trautman

Zoey Chavez

Alec Goleta

Kate Goleta

Sofia Suprunenko

Danny Tormozov

Faith Buchert

Wyatt Gilbert

Ella Gilbert

Sawyer Golay

Rocky Howard

Lila Buchmann

Victoria Malan

Lisa Allred

Ryan Bergeson

Adelyn Chamberlain

Crew Christensen

Luciana Cardenas

Allyson Vanderholm

Natalie Bischoff

MJ Beloborodyy

Beatrice Garcia

Chidubem Abonyi

Alivia DeHoog

Baylie Bates

Sadie Allred

Walker Erye

Jacob Duvall