Recitals & performance
Two a year — a December recital and a May recital, both at the Atwood neighborhood hall. Free to perform, free to attend. No tickets, no performer fee, no costume list. This is not a loss leader; it's the product.
The philosophy, in five rules
01
Every student is offered a slot every time. Declining costs nothing — not standing, not the teacher's opinion, nothing. Most students perform by their third invitation, which is exactly why we don't push the first two.
02
Any nervous performer can share the stage with their teacher — four hands on one piano, a second guitar, a harmony line. Training wheels are how everyone learns to ride.
03
Nobody restarts, nobody apologizes to the room, and the applause is identical either way. We teach recovering from a slip as a skill, because it's the one every performer actually uses.
04
There are no scores, rankings, or medals at a Practice Room recital. If you want competitive festivals we'll prepare you honestly for them — as an option, not a default.
05
The quarterly Living Room Sessions are adults-only, potluck-adjacent, and deliberately unlike a recital: couches, low light, and an audience made entirely of people equally terrified. Attendance obligation: zero.
A typical program
A typical recital runs 75 minutes: Little Notes families in the front rows for the first three songs, Kids Choir set, twenty-odd solos and duets from age five to sixty-five, and one Rock Band Lab band to blow the doors off the ending.
What it costs a family
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Performer fee | $0 |
| Tickets (any number of grandparents) | $0 |
| Costume or dress-code purchase | $0 wear what you like playing in |
| Accompanist | $0 teachers accompany as part of the job |
| Program printing, hall rental | $0 to you that's what tuition is for |
This table exists because the industry's ~$40 recital fee is real and normal — and we'd rather be the school that prints a column of zeros. The rest of the fee schedule is on the pricing page.
Most of them said no to their first recital invitation, and the second. That's the system working. Book the trial; the stage will still be there when you want it.