Words of Wisdom: Insights from the Autumn Piano School
Held annually in the picturesque city of Armidale, the Autumn Piano School is an intensive piano program for young pianists. The school is organised by Piano+, who are the same institution that organises and runs the prestigious Sydney International Piano Competiton. Designed for students from intermediate to advanced levels, the week-long event offers a vibrant blend of masterclasses, lectures, workshops, and performance opportunities. With faculty drawn from Australia’s leading conservatories and concert stages, the school fosters deep artistic exploration in a supportive and inspiring environment. This year’s program featured a diverse array of topics that gave students and teachers alike the chance to reflect, refine, and reimagine their musical practice.
Just a handful of the lectures on offer explored building a career in music, mastering performance anxiety, refining practice habits, memorisation strategies, and the overlooked value of intermediate etudes. Below is a curated selection of key takeaways from some of the week’s most inspiring sessions.
A Life in Music — Professor Jerry Wong Reflects on Career
Professor Jerry Wong reminded us that a career in music is less a conventional profession and more a vocation — one that seeps into daily life. Creativity doesn’t clock on and off; it hums quietly in the background and rarely goes away.
While competitions can be a springboard for growth, connection, and exposure, they should never define a musician’s worth. Teaching offers equally rich rewards — not only for the student, but for the teacher’s own growth, as it presents fresh perspectives on repertoire and fosters creative problem-solving.
Performance careers also demand initiative. Musicians must create their own opportunities, work collaboratively, and explore programming ideas that reflect both artistic curiosity and audience connection. Jerry also reminded us that careers in accompanying, répétiteur work, and music direction are ideal for those with strong sight-reading skills and collaborative instincts.
Whether or not you remain in music long-term, the discipline, resilience, and creativity it fosters will serve you across all aspects of life.
Transforming Nerves into Energy — Grace Kim on Performance Anxiety
Grace Kim drew striking comparisons between the stress of a performance and high-stakes professions like neurosurgery or aviation. The surge of adrenaline, elevated heart rate, and sharpened awareness are not signs of weakness — they are biological tools we can learn to work with.
Grace encourages reframing anxiety as energy. Channelled effectively, nerves can heighten expression and focus. Preparation is essential — not just technical mastery, but planning, mental rehearsal, and even familiarisation with the venue. Techniques such as deep breathing (“hot cookie breathing” – smell the cookies, in through the nose, and blow to cool the cookies out through the mouth), gentle stretching, and slow movement sequences just before performance can help ground the mind and body.
Above all, mistakes happen. As Michael Jordan famously said, “Why would I think about missing a shot I haven’t taken yet?” Anxiety anticipates failure; musicianship embraces risk.
Practising the Whole Body — Clemens Leske on Practice
Clemens Leske invited us to reframe the way we think about practice — not just as repetition, but as reflection. Effective practice includes an awareness of the whole body. It’s not just about fingers and keys, but wrists, elbows, shoulders, back, and breath.
When problems arise, don’t brute-force solutions. Instead, question everything: is the fingering efficient? Is there tension? Are the phrasing and articulation suited to the tempo?
In many cases, the musical answer is the technical solution. In Chopin’s Etude Op.10 No.1, a phrase played too loudly becomes unmanageable — but when shaped musically, with lighter touch and arm involvement, technical fluency follows naturally.
Memorisation: More Than Just the Fingers — Hamish Tait on Music Memorisation
Hamish Tait challenged the myth of “playing off by heart” as a simple, singular skill. True memorisation is multi-layered — drawing from analytical, physical, visual, and aural domains.
- Analytical memory: understanding form, key, structure, and harmonic logic
- Muscle memory: repetition-based, but also the most fragile under pressure
- Visual memory: spatial layout of the page, hand positions, and movement patterns
- Aural memory: the internal “sound map” of the music
Memory doesn’t live in a single brain compartment. Rather, it is distributed — and often, combining modalities yields the strongest results. One practical tool is the two-chair method: alternate between studying at the score (away from the instrument) and playing without it. This reinforces memory as active, not passive
Why Etudes Matter — Grace Kim on Intermediate Study Repertoire
In her second presentation, Grace Kim turned our attention to the rich tradition of etudes — often overlooked once a student graduates from beginner studies. Etudes evolved in response to the modern piano’s expanding capabilities, offering a focused way to develop technique while still being musically engaging.
For Grades 5–8, Grace recommends:
Grades 5–6:
- Burgmüller Op.109
- Heller Op.45
- Czerny Op.299
- Duvernoy Op.176
- Gillock (Books 4–5)
Grades 7–8:
- Chopin (selected from Op.10, Op.25)
- Moszkowski Op.72
- Bartók Mikrokosmos (Books 5–6)
- Czerny Op.740
These etudes serve as technical stepping stones to more demanding repertoire below:
- Chopin Preludes → Etudes,
- Scarlatti Sonatas → Classical Sonatas,
- Debussy’s Children’s Corner → his mature Etudes,
and so on.
These lectures offered more than just technical guidance — they spoke to the evolving identity of a musician. Whether you’re navigating career choices, wrestling with nerves, refining your practice, exploring memorisation, or developing technique, each insight underscores one central truth: musicianship is holistic. It requires emotional honesty, physical awareness, intellectual curiosity, and above all, a deep love for the process.
As teachers, performers, and lifelong learners, it is our privilege to pass these perspectives on — not only to help students become better players, but better thinkers, communicators, and human beings.
Written by Andrew Rumsey
Prepared by Hugh Raine
