Anna Betuzzi, who has been playing piano since she was four years old, is a shining star for the 100 Mile Festival of the Arts.
During the Nov. 29 Fall Recital, which is the first opportunity for local music and speech arts students to play in front of an audience in the new season, Anna started the recital by accompanying the singing of O Canada at the piano.
At the end of the performance, she delighted the audience at the 100 Mile House Evangelical Free Church by playing a very difficult piece, titled Studies in Line, by Canadian composer Barbara Pentland.
It is a piece she will play for her Associate Diploma level test in June 2016, Anna explains.
“I was pretty happy with it, but there are a few things I will have to work on and I have to be able to play by memory.”
It will be a busy year for the Grade 12 Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School student who wants to be a music teacher and possibly have a studio of her own one day.
Anna will be playing at three house concerts in the area to prepare her for playing in front of an audience when she takes her Grade 10 level piano practical test in Coquitlam on Feb. 4, followed by the Associate Diploma level, which would allow her to teach music.
Ginny-Lou Alexander, Anna’s piano teacher for the past three year, notes that her student will also practise stringing her pieces together and doing a commentary on the composer and the time period between pieces at the house recitals.
Anna, who practises piano 90 minutes every day, will play her seven Grade 10 pieces by memory but will be using music sheets for her three Associate Diploma level pieces, which are much more difficult.
She is looking forward to the opportunity to playing all of her pieces at the house concerts.
“So when I walk into the exam, it’s not the first time I’ve played them all at once.”
The Associate Diploma also has co-requisites in theory and history that have to be achieved.
She notes a lot of people who get their Associate Diploma level start teaching right away because it is recognized by a lot of music associations.
“This will be like a stepping stone for me; I’m going to go off to the University of Victoria in September.
“I’m actually going to be studying oboe there. That will be my main instrument, which I have been playing for five years.”