From West 54th Street to the Barcelona Piano Academy

Under Music Opportunities Abroad, our students can take a place at the Barcelona Piano Academy: a week of masterclasses and workshops with the academy’s faculty, ending in a concert.

It is the part of the year students talk about for the longest afterwards, and the part families ask the most questions about beforehand. So here is what it is.

What the week looks like

The academy pairs teaching from working professionals with a cohort of students who are there for the same reason. Days are built around masterclasses and workshops rather than private lessons: you play, you are taught in front of the group, and then you spend the rest of the day listening to people at your level and above.

At the end of the week the faculty team selects students to perform in the closing concert, and awards are given. Selection is not the point of going, but every student we have sent has come home playing differently, whether or not their name was called.

Why Barcelona, specifically

Because it is not a trip we bought into from the outside. The connection runs through our own faculty.

Albert Attenelle, who teaches here, trained in Barcelona with Frank Marshall, directs L’Escola de Música de Barcelona and teaches at the Conservatori del Liceu. Stanislav Pochekin has taught at the Conservatori del Liceu since 1993. Students arriving from New York are not walking into a building where nobody knows their school.

Getting ready to go

• Two contrasting pieces, secure enough that you could start either one cold. Memorised where the repertoire expects it.
• Original scores. Bring them even for pieces you play from memory. You will be taught from the page.
• A question per piece. The students who get the most out of a masterclass are the ones who arrive knowing what they cannot yet solve.
• Travel documents in order early. Passports and any visa requirements are on families, and they are the one part of the trip nobody can fix in the last week.

The distance is the point. Playing the same piece in an unfamiliar room, on an unfamiliar instrument, for people who have never met you, is the fastest way to find out what you actually know.

If you are not travelling this year

The same teaching is here. Attenelle and Pochekin both teach our students from Barcelona, and the masterclass series brings visiting professors into our own rooms across the term. Barcelona is an opportunity, not a prerequisite.

Places are agreed with your teacher and confirmed through the office. If your child is likely to be ready next year rather than this one, say so early. The preparation is a two-semester job, not a two-month one.