SOPP683: I want to play a full public organ recital on a fine instrument

Vidas: Hello and welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast!

Ausra: This is a show dedicated to helping you become a better organist.

Vidas: We’re your hosts Vidas Pinkevicius...

Ausra: ...and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene.

Vidas: We have over 25 years of experience of playing the organ

Ausra: ...and we’ve been teaching thousands of organists online from 89 countries since 2011.

Vidas: So now let’s jump in and get started with the podcast for today.

Ausra: We hope you’ll enjoy it!

Vidas: Hi guys, this is Vidas,

Ausra: And Ausra,​

Vidas: Hello and welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast!

Ausra: This is a show dedicated to helping you become a better organist.

Vidas: We’re your hosts Vidas Pinkevicius...

Ausra: ...and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene.

Vidas: We have over 25 years of experience of playing the organ

Ausra: ...and we’ve been teaching thousands of organists online from 89 countries since 2011.

Vidas: So now let’s jump in and get started with the podcast for today.

Ausra: We hope you’ll enjoy it!

Vidas: Hi guys, this is Vidas,

Ausra: And Ausra,

Vidas: Let’s start episode 683 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Gena, and she is our Total Organist community member. She has sent me her answer to the question what is her dream in organ playing for the next three months and also what are some of her challenges. So she writes:

“Thank you!
1. Full public organ recital on fine instrument here in FL. Program pieces have been gradually prepared over several years.
2. Currently putting all keyboard efforts into the next full piano recital Shall We Dance. Have a professional teacher/coach weekly. Can’t do both goals at once due to poor health, lack of time and organ teacher/coach. Still singing in multiple choirs.

Gena
Florida and Colorado
USA”

Vidas: So, I think Gena has a lot of things on her plate!

Ausra: Oh yes, a lot of them!

Vidas: Do you think she will be able to do an organ recital?

Ausra: Yes, I think so, too, that she will be able to do it...

Vidas: ...in addition to other things that she is preparing.

Ausra: …because if she was preparing pieces over several years, then why not?

Vidas: Right. It’s not like a monthly recital or not even a yearly recital, but she’s been working gradually on those pieces. I wonder what’s on the program for her organ recital?

Ausra: Yes, it would be very interesting to know.

Vidas: And how far along is she with her program?

Ausra: Yeah. Is it easy for you, for example, to play both on the piano and on the organ?

Vidas: No, no, no. I played for some time on piano, too, when we worked at the church. Remember? But that was a long time ago… or were you playing more? I forgot.

Ausra: I was playing too!

Vidas: We both probably were playing accompaniments. 

Ausra: Yes. But we played on the Valentines Day. Remember? Those Brahms’ waltzes. 

Vidas: Right.

Ausra: And it was really, really difficult, at least for me.

Vidas: It wasn’t impossible, of course, but kind of strange for an organist to do piano.

Ausra: Yes, because I simply used piano as one of the working tools for organ repertoire.

Vidas: Right. And not the other way around.

Ausra: Yes. 

Vidas: I wonder what is more important to Gena, organ playing or piano playing? Because she wants…

Ausra: ...and she still sings in multiple choirs.

Vidas: Right.

Ausra: That’s impressive.

Vidas: Right. At some point in my life I had to prioritize my activities into things that I want to do most, or maybe things that yield the most impact, and then gradually remove things that are not as important.

Ausra: Yes.

Vidas: Of course, I have many, many wishes and many other dreams, but I understand that they are just dreams. I’ll never be able to speak Swedish fluently, for example.

Ausra: Will you be able to learn to play the Theremini?

Vidas: Theremi! Oh, Theremini… haha, ever since the war started in Ukraine I gradually shifted into another mood. But of course, the war is just an excuse…

Ausra: Yes, you bought the Theremini before the war, so if you had been practicing diligently every day maybe you would already be able to play it, and now it’s just gathering dust and I have to clean it.

Vidas: Do you like cleaning the dust?

Ausra: No, I hate it!

Vidas: Oh… no, I understand what you’re talking about. I was really, really excited to start practicing Theremin. The Theremin is like an electric instrument, but Theremini is a version of it that we have, so I was really excited, got inspired by watching videos on YouTube made by Jerry Martin, our friend, but it takes a lot of effort. It’s not an easy instrument to play. Even the simplest melody! I had the dream to play a melody on a Theremin, and let’s say, Ausra would play an organ part of any simple hymn, for example. But even this is absolutely impossible to do it nicely at the beginning.

Ausra: Yes, yeah.

Vidas: Because that’s the only instrument that you play while not touching it, actually. You are making shapes with your hands in the space, not touching it, and you have to be extremely precise with your fingers and with your hand motions using both hands. And for beginners, it’s just very difficult and it requires a lot of practice, and practice requires commitment, commitment requires time, and we all know where it leads.

Ausra: Yes, so we better stick to the organ.

Vidas: Yeah. Maybe, I’m not throwing this idea away, that’s why we are keeping it there, but you know, life has seasons. Sometimes you have projects on one side of artistic activity, sometimes less so, another time, right now, I’m very much into composing music and composing music for Ukraine on Ukrainian melodies, and this actually helps me revive my composition efforts in general. I started creating organ pieces for Lent, now for Easter and other compositions, but that’s this period! Yes, I’m thoroughly absorbed by it. And then, a time might come when I might switch gears and do something else. It’s okay! I believe we live in a project world, and I don’t need to be committed to one thing for 30 years. Maybe I will be committed to organ for 30 years or more, for organ, but in addition to Organ I can switch gears periodically. What do you think about it?

Ausra: Yes, I think so, too.

Vidas: Talking about various side gigs.

Ausra: But the organ is the most important, right?

Vidas: Organ is absolutely the pinnacle of our activities. Yeah.

Ausra: For me, too.

Vidas: Even composition. Yes? It’s organ composition that I’m focusing on right now. The time might come when I could switch gears and do something else, creating music for chamber ensembles or solo instruments. But I started as an organ composer. That’s my primary objective. What is your primary objective right now, Ausra?

Ausra: Preparing for recitals.

Vidas: We have plenty of them. Right?

Ausra: Yes.

Vidas: ...coming up this Summer and in Spring, too. Yeah, strange time when so much drama and tragedy in the world… right now we have so many invitations to play recitals.

Ausra: Yes.

Vidas: So Gena, very good that she has this double goal preparing for an organ recital and a piano recital. But I think she needs to maybe prioritize, because she says, “cannot do both goals at once due to poor health, lack of time, and organ teacher/coach. Right? Because I believe she has no piano coach. Right? Only organ coach. So the organ teacher requires her attention every week, and therefore probably the organ recital will come along faster than the piano recital. What do you think?

Ausra: Well, I understood that she has a piano instructor but not organ.

Vidas: Wait… oh, right! That’s true. I’m mistaken. Sorry Gena. Okay, so the piano instructor requires her commitment to piano. Right? But probably she wants to do… in her heart she feels the organ calling. Right? To her organ recital preparation, but she cannot do both goals at the same time. Maybe… yeah, maybe do one at a time! Why not?

Ausra: I would do that.

Vidas: One at a time. Whatever comes probably easier first, and then the second thing. Will it give her more time to prepare later?

Ausra: Sure.

Vidas: Either organ first or piano first. Doesn’t matter, probably. Okay…

Ausra: Because after when she will be done with one, then it will be easier for her to do the next one.

Vidas: Definitely. She already did a few of them, I remember, in the past. She has experience,  but since she’s not doing them on a weekly basis or monthly basis, that takes more preparation time, I think. More stamina.

Ausra: Yes.

Vidas: Okay, we hope this was useful to Gena and others who have commitments and dreams in preparing double recitals on two instruments. Please send us more of your questions; we love helping you grow. And remember, when you practice,

Ausra: Miracles happen!

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