Anna Larsen - Performing the Études

Young musician Anna Larsen performed three of Chopin's Études as the live soundtrack to three of BreakThru's short films: 'Little Postman', 'Night Island' and 'Pl!nk' at the Lincoln Centre, NYC. In our inaugural blog post, she describes her experiences...

When I first heard I was invited to perform Chopin Études as the live soundtrack to children's movies at Lincoln Center, I was overcome by curiosity and excitement. Which Chopin Etudes would I be playing? How many? What were the movies like? Then we heard from the Lang Lang Foundation that the etudes I would be learning were Opus 10 no. 4, the Revolutionary Etude (Op. 10 no. 12) and the Octave Etude (Op. 25 no. 10).  I was surprised and even a little bit scared about the octave etude.  Playing fast legato octaves was going to be a challenge for my small hands. When my piano teachers learned about the concert, they were concerned with the timeline (six and a half weeks to master 3 Chopin etudes and perform them at Lincoln Center!).  Deep down inside, I knew that even though it would be a challenge, the event would be awesome and I was positive I could do it.

                  

Anna performed a live soundtrack to 'Little Postman' (above)

I started with the octave etude, since it would be one of the most challenging to play. At first, I played very slowly. Over the course of the next few weeks, I gradually sped up until I could play at three times that speed. Also, I began working on Op. 10 no. 4, which was also difficult because of the speed!  Since Lang Lang had played the original soundtrack, it was up to us to recreate his magic and daring tempo in front of a live audience.  When we received the DVDs with Lang Lang's soundtrack, his tempo was metronome 168 to the quarter note! I never played anything that fast before!  It was insane!  Would I be able to do it?  I practiced for days, and the etude became faster and faster. Soon, I ran into a problem: the etude wasn't getting faster anymore. Even though I was trying, the piece simply wasn't making that much progress. I turned to my teacher for help, and he told me I was thinking too carefully about every note. “Think about the piece in groups and phrases, not about the articulation of each individual note.”  This helped a lot. I would practice as fast as I could go, except in very little groupings of notes. Gradually, I strung the groups of notes together until I could play a whole phrase at this rapid tempo. Soon I could play the whole piece at Lang Lang speed! Even my teachers couldn't believe how fast I mastered the etudes.  On Thursday the 15^th (my twelfth birthday, and two days before the concert), I rehearsed the three etudes over Skype for Nic Marshall, one of the organizers of the concert. We had to use Skype because there was no time for everyone to drive down to NYC to meet in person before the concert.  Technology is great!  When I finished playing, she had tears in her eyes and said that this concert was going to be even better than she thought it would!

The big day arrived.   It was amazing to finally meet everyone. I was shown to the beautiful theatre. After I tried out the piano, there was a run-through of the concert. I was totally amazed by the effect of the movie on the giant screen with the huge sound effects compared with the tiny DVD player I had practiced with at home. It was as if I were actually part of the scenes in the movie, experiencing everything the characters were. After the run-through was finished, I met Hugh Welchman, the person who had created the movies and Dorota Kobiela, the director.  Hugh showed me and Derek the puppets used to film the movie The Magic Piano. Also, he explained how the filming worked and how they shot the whole movie one frame at a time, with 24 frames per second. That must take a tonne of patience! I thought.

Performers Derek Wang and Anna Larsen with producer Hugh Welchman
onstage at the Lincoln Centre

After rehearsal, we killed some time, and then it was time for the concert! We walked out into the hall, where I saw kids with their families eating popcorn, and that's when I realized that I shouldn't be nervous! Popcorn with movies and classical music!  These were kids who wanted to have a good time. All I needed to do was relax and have fun! The whole theatre buzzed with excitement as the opening music played. I asked Derek, "Is your teacher here?" "Yeah, somewhere in the back," he replied. "Cool! I wonder if he's eating popcorn," I joked. Then, the lights dimmed and there was a short introduction before I went up and played. This is it! This is what all my hard work is for, so pour your heart into it, I thought to myself. I smiled as I watched the familiar little kid on the movie screen appear and clang his colorful xylophone as I began to play Op. 10 no. 4. At first, I was a little nervous. I couldn't exactly help it. But as I continued to play, I felt more and more comfortable. By the time I had reached the octave etude, all my nerves had almost entirely disappeared and all that remained was excitement! When I played the slow section of the octave etude, I felt that this was the best I had ever played this part. I let all my feelings enter the music for the remainder of the concert, and the Revolutionary Etude was full of passion and perfectly timed with the movie, the big explosions in sync with the big chords. After I was finished, there was huge applause and cheering, and I was completely happy. All of my work had paid off! I cheerfully bowed and then put on my 3D glasses to watch Derek perform. I suddenly felt very lucky that I only had to play three etudes... Derek had to play nine! I admired him for his courage to learn so much music, and he did a great job. The question and answer session was mostly questions about how the movies were made.

The concert was over, and the best part was that the kids loved it! We went into the main lobby to meet the kids and parents, who had many wonderful compliments for me and Derek. We talked for a while with Kristina, Lukas, Nic, Hugh, and Dorota, and then it was time to leave. We waved goodbye to Derek and got back into the car. By participating in the New York International Children's Film Festival, Derek and I had just helped put on a great show that lots of kids enjoyed and were inspired by, and I couldn't wait to do something like this again!

- Anna Larsen