Presenting District: Blue Mountain
Presenter: Paula Dreyer
Program Description: Morning workshop: Improvisation is a skill that can be learned, just like everything else we teach. With the right tools, some practice, an open mind, and a bit of bravery, all pianists can learn how to improvise. Everyone will leave the session with concrete tools that will allow them to explore the piano in fresh, new ways. Paula invites you to discover creativity at the piano. In this interactive workshop, participants will explore a wide range of specific, attainable improvisation concepts, based off of rote pieces, gorgeous chord progressions, left hand patterns, and more. After spending years exploring improvisation and composition, Paula has discovered a framework to help you and your students become more versatile, well-rounded musicians.

Afternoon workshop: Rote pieces, learned through modeling and demonstration, have recently become widely popular in the piano pedagogy field. They are highly beneficial for teaching technique and expression while enhancing musical memory and reading skills. They offer impressive, motivating recital pieces for beginners. Teachers will learn how and why to teach rote pieces, gain new tools for creativity in the lesson through improvisation and composition, and will discover new resources to enhance and compliment standard beginning repertoire.

About Paula Dreyer: Pianist Paula Dreyer is a composer, educator, and performer who seeks to inspire, include, and connect individuals through music. She believes that with proper guidance, all people are capable of expressing themselves through music. Paula has presented and taught internationally (including China, Brazil, Spain, MTNA, and NCKP) about the pedagogical and therapeutic powers of rote pieces and beginning improvisation. She is the creator of the highly acclaimed Little Gems for Piano series, full of appealing rote and pattern pieces. Her music has been published by Taubman’s Rotation and Alignment and the class piano book PianoLab. She currently teaches an online improvisation program called Piano Flow.

Paula completed an artist residency at Obras in Portugal, where she composed much of the music for the Little Gems. She has a real passion for creating unique, accessible, and enjoyable music for aspiring pianists and loves sharing her compositions with students around the globe. The Little Gems have been enjoyed in all 50 United States and in over 50 countries. When she’s not composing or teaching, she loves spending time with her husband and two daughters and developing her concert series Piano Flow Live in the beautiful mountain town of Bend, Oregon.