This year Halloween looked a little different. Halloween Masquerade turned into a Mask-A-Rade. Instead of holding Halloween group lessons and recitals in person, we adapted. Adapting seems to be the word for 2020. But adapting doesn’t mean that things have to be any less fun!

Halloween Group Lesson Goes Online

The week of Halloween we always hold a group lesson instead of our regular schedule. This avoids the problem, what do you do if lessons fall on Halloween. That wasn’t a problem this year, but we stuck with what works. And as you may have guessed, was online! Even though many of my students have transitioned back to in person lessons, I didn’t feel like it was quite the time to go back to group lessons in person quite yet. 

A spooktacular time was had at our online group lessons this week. We did some faBOOlous rhythm activities, some Halloween trivia (free download by the way) and had a hauntingly good time reviewing music symbol names and definitions. We also enjoyed hearing some Halloween pieces for those who shared! 

Halloween Masquerade turns into “Mask”-A-Rade

It has been a tradition for many years to hold a Halloween Festival in my studio where students (and teacher) dress up in costume and share Halloween pieces. It is event that we look forward to each year. Last year, a new local piano store opened up and they started up a Halloween Masquerade performance event, so I decided to take my “home” recital on the road and have it at Riverton Piano instead. It was a big hit! The decorations were faBOOlous and I didn’t have to do any of it! ha ha! So I decided this is where we were going to perform going forward. It’s always good to support your local music store when you can and this was one of the ways, I could do that. 

Then COVID-19…

Then COVID-19 hit and we were all wondering if Halloween Masquerade was going to happen. After contacting the store, they came up with a plan to do the event safely. Families would come in by appointment only, one family at a time and students would record their piece on the most SPOOKTACULAR fully decorated stage.

I dropped off some goodies for them to give to my students when they came in to perform and record their piece. It was during this time that I was able to see the hauntingly decorated stage and did a couple cameos for the video that would be edited and premiered on YouTube for families and friends to enjoy together.

I was thrilled we could still enjoy this event in a safe way for everone. One of the local papers even featured the event and two of my students made the page! A HUGE thank you to Riverton Piano for not only making this event still happen for students but for all the work that went behind it. These guys are truly SPOOKTACULAR!

Below is the Halloween Masquerade that was premiered online. I would highly recommend watching the first 3 1/2 minutes! So fun!!! (I also have a couple cameo’s) Five local teachers with their students participated in this event.