Thinking of my friends...

Naomi and Kristal are in France right now at a piano competition. I really hope they do good this year!
Good luck Naomi & Kristal!
I can't wait to hear all about your trip.

Scarborough Historical Museum's Musical Instruments

Today we went to the Scarborough Historical Museum.

If you're ever in Scarborough, Ontario, it's a really nice place to visit. We were the only visitors there so we had a private tour where I could ask all the questions I wanted.

The highlight of our visit was going into the Cornell House. It's a house from the Victorian Era. (We're studying that now.) It was built in 1858 on Markham Road and they moved it to Thomson Park.

They had lots of musical instruments from the 1860s to the early 1900s displayed inside Cornell House. People would often entertain themselves with music.

They have a beautiful 1853 Chickering empire style, square grand piano with ivory keys. Instead of 88 keys like on a modern piano, it has 78 keys.
It has a great stool too!

There is also a D.W. Karn and Co. Organ

They also had stringed instruments.

Cello

Violin

Mandolin

Banjo

You probably wouldn't find this many instruments in one house in the Victorian Era. They were all donated to the Scarborough Museum and I'm really glad that they have them on display.

(Thanks Mom for taking these pictures!)

Our Dampp Chaser

Yesterday a Piano Technician came to install a Dampp Chaser on our piano. When he drilled little holes into the piano I was a little worried but I know he knew what he was doing. I watched for a little bit but I left the room so I could watch Victorian Farm on www.tvo.org

The Dampp Chaser is supposed to control the humidity of the piano. Wood will shrink and swell when the humidity changes. The piano won't hold it's pitch as well if the humidity changes and the wood parts might crack. That's why my parents decided to get the Dampp Chaser for my piano.

Here's a picture of what it looks like.
It's inside the piano.

The part on the right with the blue pad holds the water. You can see the pad was getting wet when we took the picture.

For Annie

This song is for Annie. I know you love Big Bang Theory so I thought I'd play "Soft Kitty" for you. Hope you feel better soon!

National Ballet of Canada's YOU Dance

Yesterday I got to go to YOU Dance by the Apprentices of the National Ballet of Canada. It was at the Betty Oliphant Theatre. It was the first time since my Mom's surgery that we went out. I'm glad we were able to go.

We got to see the dancers do some stretches and warm up a little before the performance. We got to hear the pianist - Zhenya Yesmanovich warm up as well. I really liked listening to her play scales and songs before the presentation started.

When it started the dancers introduced themselves and Lisa Robinson helped us to understand more about the dances. We listened to music and tried to figure out how it made us feel. (I noticed the keys that the music was written in.) She also told us how different movements have different meanings.

The movements, the dancers' faces, costumes, sets, the lighting and the music all help to set the moods for the dances.

The dancers were very talented. Everyone was graceful and the men were very strong and able to leap very high. My favourite dances were the Funeral March for a Marionette and the Wedding Pas De Deux from Sleeping Beauty.

I liked the music for "Vertigo" the most. It was written by Einojuhani Rautavaara. It was very dramatic and it seemed like it would be very hard to play. It takes about 4 months for the pianist to learn a piece like that! And she's very skilled!

I got to meet Zhenya Yesmanovich at the end of the YOU Dance performance.
Mom took a picture of us.

After the performance I found out that one of the Principal Dancers for the National Ballet of Canada - Guillaume Côté plays the piano and the cello and even composes music. I think that's so cool!

Here is a link to more info about YOU Dance
http://national.ballet.ca/YouDance/artists.php