Hey, temperatures are on the rise, and I’m really looking forward to summer.  And the music is really heating up!  There’s a lot of great new material out there that I have to share with you. 

My must-have book is the new compilations of tried and true Myklas Contest Winners from Alfred.  The first book has solos for the early elementary and elementary players.  Book two contains late elementary and early intermediate pieces.  Level 3 has some really nice intermediate works in it, and level 4 rounds off with intermediate works.  You see some very familiar titles in the book and each piece you can see the music lines and the concepts clearly shown in the music with each song.  I would highly recommend this folio for your library, definitely a gold medal winner!

Another series just out is the Audition Repertoire for the Intermediate Pianist.  There are three books in the series.  I would say that these folios are comparable in work to the Bastien Piano Literature books.  They contain a selection of the major classical piano works to which students should be exposed.  The novel aspect of this book is the selections of songs that you normally do not see.  For example there are pieces in the folios by Goedicke and Bortkievich and Casella.  And usually many books don not see Page d’Album by Debussy.  In order, they books are early intermediate, intermediate and late intermediate.  This series is worth checking it out as a collection option.

Classics for Children is an intriguing and surprising find!  The songs are arranged for early to late beginner.  What I really like about this book is the interesting selection in it:  Norwegian Dance by Grieg, The Pearl Fishers’ Duet by Bizet, and Waltz From Sleeping Beauty by Dvorak, just to name a few.  Those are pieces that you normally do not find in a beginner book.  Also on top of each song, there is a paragraph introducing the history of each song or composer and what it is about.  Talk about learning!

Carol Matz’s Gershwin for Students is a good folio if you are working on introducing your students to Gershwin.  The levels are in this order of difficulty:  late elementary, intermediate and early intermediate.  All three folios have a couple of the same songs:  Summertime and Rhapsody in Blue.  As a teacher, one can see how Matz progressed in the difficulty of the piece.  Another note, book 3 primarily has piano solos in it where the earlier books have more of the songs and the words.

And if you are looking for your own personal music pleasure, I have a few suggestions.  Lorie Line just came out with her new book, Vogue, and Keveren released another compilation of pieces, The Great Melodies.  And if you play at your church, Medleys for Blended Worship 2 and 3 are just right.  And I love Melody Bober, so I’m excited about A Call to Faithfulness.