The Community Piano Lab recital is a free recital intended for anyone interested in the Community Piano Lab program at BYU-Idaho.
"Anybody who is interested in having their children participate in this program are definitely welcome to come to the recital to kind of see a little bit what it's about," said Jessica Gibbons, a professor in the BYU-Idaho Department of Music.
Gibbons said the C-P-L program is part of a teaching class. Students at BYU-Idaho take two classes to learn how to teach piano. The first class is more of a classroom setting, but the second includes a lab, where each college student is paired with several community children to teach them piano for the semester.
"They do have a lesson every week for most of the semester, and then they also have group classes about five times throughout the semester where they learn and delve into deeper concepts in music theory and just learning the language of music, basically," Gibbons said.
She is responsible for coordinating in the community to find children to take piano lessons.
"They schedule those lessons with the families, and I also provide teaching spaces for them here in the music building and pianos, obviously. And then they just focus on developing those teaching skills, and I give them feedback," Gibbons said.
Gibbons sits in on the classes. She discusses the teaching and helps the student teachers hone their abilities.
This semester 8 college students are teaching, and about 20 community children are taking lessons. Those children all get to perform in the recital. They typically accept children between the ages of 7 and 12. Most of them are beginner level, but Gibbons said there are several children who have been in the program for multiple semesters and are reaching a more intermediate level.
"Our goal is to help kind of raise up the next generation of music lovers and concert goers too. And so, part of this is training the children that are performing and the audience on etiquette as well,” Gibbons said.
Gibbons has loved her involvement in the program. Lessons are $75 per child per semester, and that includes nine lessons and 3-5 group classes as well as participation in the recital at the end.
“So, it's really almost dirt cheap," Gibbons said.
Parents in the community who are interested in their children participating in the program are invited to attend the free recital at 10 a.m. on Saturday in the Snow Ensemble Hall at BYU-Idaho.