Volume 27 Issue 8 | July 1 - September 20, 2022

FEATURE
Music lights the way at
The RCM’s Celebration
Series launch
KAREN-ANNE KASTNER
Tony Yike Yang, at the Royal Conservatory's event “Music Lights the Way”.
RCMUSIC.COM
The Royal Conservatory of Music, established in
1886, was the first institution in Canada focused on
providing a graded music curriculum for musicians
of all ages. In 1916, it published its first piano book based
on the Conservatory’s graded curriculum. For private
teachers sprinkled throughout the small towns of Canada,
these books became a vital teaching resource: access
to regulated examinations promoted a more consistent
quality of teaching and a new sense of professionalism.
Cards face up on the table – my own first experiences as a student
with The Royal Conservatory repertoire and examinations were not
positive. Acceptable piano pieces, of primarily the ODWG (old dead
white guy) variety, were limited to what could be played for the exam.
Examiners were snappish if one took too long to look over a sightreading
excerpt or burst into tears because all memory of the List A
Gigue had evaporated. Then again, it was the late 1960s. I was 11. My
perception of reality could perhaps have been a bit off.
Perhaps, but 40 years into a piano-teaching career, the memory of
those (mis)perceptions has been instrumental (as it were) in helping
me clarify and stick to my goals as a music educator: to impart a love
of music, thereby opening a door to each student’s inborn musicality;
to affirm, for the student and society, the emotional, intellectual
and spiritual benefits of music, while at the same time guiding
the development of technical skills that will increase proficiency
and build confidence; and to
provide the historical and theoretical
context of a wide palette of
musical compositions via a depth
of repertoire by composers of all
sexual orientations, cultures and
historical periods, living and dead.
And by doing all this, to provide
each student with an individual
course of study uniquely aligned
with their strengths, challenges
and personal goals.
In attempting to fulfill these
goals, I have for many years
cherry-picked from the curricula
of different organizations
including, but not confined to The RCM. Granted, The RCM pianorepertoire
books were upgraded sporadically over the years, but
largely within the ODWG loop. The exception to this would be the few
works by living composers, such as Boris Berlin and Clifford Poole,
appearing in the 20th-century section of the books.
The RCM Celebration Series
This was the scenario when I began formal piano lessons, more than
five decades ago. Then, in 1988,The RCM’s Celebration Series® was
released, and things slowly began to change for the better. This was
the first series of piano books covering all levels of The RCM piano
curriculum, published as a complete set by the institution. In 1994,
two versions of the second edition were published, a slightly modified
edition for the increasing number of American teachers and a more
varied edition for Canadian teachers. The third edition of the series,
in 2001, added additional popular-sounding repertoire, including
Gentle Waltz by Oscar Peterson and George Shearing’s arrangement of
Harold Arlen’s Over the Rainbow.
Contemporary-sounding repertoire was expanded still further
In the 2008 fourth edition, and by the 2015 fifth edition, popularsounding
selections had been added to every level. Along the way, too,
a frequently updated supplementary list of popular titles was introduced
with specific graded arrangements of these familiar pieces
allowed as substitutes for one of the études required for examinations.
But it was only with the 2015 edition of the Celebration Series®, that
I would say that The RCM curriculum began to be significantly more
relevant to me and my students. The addition of more repertoire by
living Canadian and American composers, and the familiar pieces in
the Popular Selections supplement, brought home the fact that music is
alive and growing. If we can play music composed by people that we can
check out on social media, we feel closer to the creative process. Music
does not exist until it is performed. Once we start to extrapolate that
sense of being part of the co-creative process even to to composers that
were alive one, two, five hundred years ago, music becomes timeless.
The launch
Fast forward to April 27, 2022,
8:30 pm, at Koerner Hall: A single
Steinway grand piano basks in the
purple, yellow and blue glow of
the large screen hovering behind.
To the side, a podium awaits
Mervon Mehta, executive director
of performing arts at the Royal
Conservatory, and our host for
the roughly 90-minute event to
follow – including live and video
performances by piano luminaries
RCM’s Celebration Series Lang Lang, Tony Yike Yang, Angela
Hewitt, Jan Lisiecki and Stewart
Goodyear, along with performances
by students and Conservatory teachers. The occasion: the launch
of Celebration Series®, Sixth Edition.
For me, the key words for the sixth edition are diversity, inclusivity,
relevance and depth: 514 pieces are grouped in pedagogical order
over 12 repertoire and 10 étude books. Composers from 22 different
12 | July 1 - September 20, 2022 thewholenote.com