The Value of the Recital

Sometimes we’re cautious with young students about insisting on public performance. Do the work, learn the pieces, move on. Young musicians can be apprehensive about performing, and of course we have all heard the nightmare stories of blank minds in kids’ recitals.

But there is a profound value in having the recital.

Music is not music until it is shared with an audience. In her book Anatomy of Melody, Alice Parker describes a circle from composer to conductor to singer that is completed only when we add audience. This is as true for solo performers as for 200 voice choirs.

You don’t know how well you know a piece until you perform it in front of people. It doesn’t need to be many – the formality of a recital and a few family members in the audience is enough to get adrenaline going…and then you learn what you’ve really learned.

The sense of accomplishment from sharing a piece publicly is far beyond the day-to-day rehearsal or lesson work. When you’ve performed in public, you’ve really made something happen.

This June we had a family piano recital – all five of us played pieces, for each other and a few other family members. It was a joyous, non-threatening, and musical peak for me and it gave each of my sons a sense of where they were, and where they were going. Over the summer they’ve continued playing regularly (well, semi-regularly) despite taking the summer off of lessons, and I think the reason for that is the recital. Their pride of performance has spurred them onwards in their music-making.