Perhaps the spirit of my former piano teacher Irina Ginzburg was hovering as I was filling out my own registration form for the APTA Festival. She would want me to challenge myself. Before I could stop myself, I registered for the Teacher Recital class, which means three songs. It's not too scary, at least, I hope it isn't. It's just that I now have to add two senior level pieces to my practice list (on top of students' songs and gig repertoire...to practice in the wee hours in the night).

I'm pretty happy with my selections. I've been meaning to learn Chopin's Nocturne in e minor, op. 72 #1 for years; ever since I heard it in the Hallmark TV production of The Secret Garden. It's only four pages - however, the return of the A theme is a doozy! I've sightread Bartok's Bagatelle, op. 6 #5 before and find the rhythms catchy. Hey, if I can sightread it - then it's do-able. Both songs are Gr. 10 level, which provides a bit of a challenge without taking too much time. The final selection is Houki Boshi (Comet). It's one of the theme songs from the Japanese show Bleach. I plan on embellishing and improvising a bit, something which I already do with it.

The question is whether or not I will memorize all the songs. I'll play that by ear.

So all in all, not too bad. It's still added sturm und drang though. When to practice?