Genius Piano Kids

Anna Larsen - Take A Chance On Me - Abba

Villa Lobos The Porcelain Doll

In addition to celebrating Haydn's 200th death day, the New England Conservatory also chose to honor Villa Lobos's "death day" with special concerts featuring his works. Anna learned this piece for the event. It was by far the strangest she has ever learned! The numerous accidentals and atonality make it harder to learn, since it defies a lot of her intuitive musical logic. It also has very strange rhythmic shifts where (for example) he writes 3 "half notes" as a triplet in 4:4 time! Conducting was a nightmare. We'll try to get a better recording at some point.

Anna Larsen performed this E minor sonata in Lincoln along with Beethoven's Tempest sonata and Mozart's piano concerto in A major. This third movement is fun to play! Hope you enjoy.

Anna performed this in Spring 2008. Left hand booms a little bit on this piano.

Anna composed this Suite for entry in the ASCAP competition.

There are three movements:

(1) Afternoon Stroll

(2) The Loss

(3) Twirling

This suite is in sonata type form. She composes first, and then thinks of appropriate titles later.

The programmatic aspect is therefore slightly artificial from how she actually writes the music.

Anna's music is melodic and tonal with shifts in key. As such, some judges have labeled it "conventional". I think it means that it sounds nice and doesn't have random wrong notes scattered around for artificial effect. :^)

Anna singing the National Anthem

Bach - French SuiteNo. 6 in E

Haydn - Sonata in F

The New England Conservatory hosted a series of recitals to celebrate Haydn's 200th death day (to borrow a term from JK Rowling). In this series, they recruited NEC students and prep students to play ALL of Haydn's known keyboard sonatas. Anna was one of several prep students selected to play in just one of 8 recitals. Anna was assigned this small sonata, which I think is HOB 20. We were amused that several people in the audience fell sound asleep and accompanied the performers with audible snores! As much as I love Anna's playing, I sympathize with their verdict. Two hours of Haydn is not for your average audience. Hardcore musicologists, no doubt, find it far more exciting.

Prokofiev - Gavotte

Bach - Prelude in D Major WTC 1, No. 18

Anna Larsen. This piece was chosen as a study for clear finger articulation. Live performance in 2007.

Chopin - Winter Wind (Home Practice)

Bach English Suite No 3, Gavotte + Musette (age 7)

Anna played this Gavotte paired with a Prokofiev Gavotte in a live recital 2007. This Gavotte is one of my favorites next to the Gavotte in French Suite no 5. The slow Musette part is the same Musette in the Suzuki piano repertoire (book 2).

Bach - Invention in C Major No. 1

This was recorded by Anna Larsen in 2005, pre-K. She actually learned it while still 4 years old. The coordination of the voices in two hands was a major milestone for her.

Bach - Prelude C Sharp WTC 1 No. 3

Bach F minor Concerto Anna Larsen (age 8)

This is the first movement of Bach's F minor keyboard concerto. She would love to play this with an orchestra! For fun, she also learned to play this piece with the keyboard part in the right hand and orchestra part in the left.