Kinder HSPVA Among First High Schools in Nation to Experience 'Remote' Piano Master Class via Yamaha Disklavier Technology

Kinder HSPVA is among the first high schools in the United States to introduce this remarkable application of distance learning to its students, thanks to cutting edge Yamaha "Remote Lesson" technology

HOUSTON (PRWEB) March 25, 2019

Students at Kinder High School for Performing and Visual Arts (Kinder HSPVA) participated in a groundbreaking piano master class in Houston with Yamaha Artist Giorgi Mikadze—even though the world-renowned pianist, composer and arranger was instructing the students from 1,500 miles away.

Kinder HSPVA is among the first high schools in the United States to introduce this remarkable application of distance learning to its students, thanks to cutting edge Yamaha "Remote Lesson" technology and two internet-connected Yamaha Disklavier "reproducing" pianos located at the school's Houston campus and at Yamaha Artist Services in New York City.

The technology allowed Mr. Mikadze to evaluate actual "live" performances by two students from Kinder HSPVA, Mei Dickinson (Beethoven Sonata in C Minor, Op. 10, No. 1) and Ricky Kirk ("I'll Be Seeing You"). As each student performed, Mr. Mikadze sat at the Disklavier located in New York, intently watching the keys and pedals of the instrument recreate the students' pieces in real time.

After each performance, Mr. Mikadze offered valuable insight to each of the students over video chat, occasionally playing the Disklavier at Kinder HSPVA remotely to visually illustrate his points. With perfectly synchronized video streaming between the two locations, technology seemed to disappear. Both teacher and students conversed freely about the master class, performing back and forth to one another, as if they were sitting on the same piano bench in the same room.

"Kinder HSPVA is excited to be at the forefront of utilizing new technology to teach students the art of piano," says Rodolfo Morales, Kinder HSPVA's director of piano studies. "This technology allows us to not only deliver top-notch instruction to our students but also helps our students to remotely-audition to their dream schools eliminating the need for expensive travel."

"I am so honored to participate in what I believe is the future of music education," said Mr. Mikadze. "Remote Lesson eliminates geographic barriers to music classes and auditions and offers me the flexibility to instruct students even if I am thousands of miles away."

Kinder HSPVA recently debuted its new state-of-the-art, $88.3-million facility—a five-story, 168,000 square foot building that accommodates a central 800-seat theater, a 200-seat black box theater, rehearsal rooms, an arts gallery, a recording studio, along with classrooms and administration and faculty spaces.

Already offering its students a complement of 20 Yamaha pianos and a Bosendorfer piano on which to practice and perform, Kinder HSPVA recently acquired 12 new Yamaha pianos from Fort Bend Music Center including the company's flagship Yamaha DCFX, one of the world's finest concert grands pianos, as well as the most technologically advanced instrument. With this acquisition, Kinder HSPVA joins a pioneering group of education institutions that comprise the Disklavier Education Network (http://www.yamahaden.com) a burgeoning community of schools connected to one another thanks to the Disklavier, which helps students and teachers connect remotely to share resources. Among these select schools are the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, CalArts, University of Alabama Huntsville, University of Central Florida, University of Wisconsin, the University of Kansas, Brigham Young University, Wayne State College and many more.

Being part of this unique network, Kinder HSPVA is able to provide its faculty and students with the means to take part in remote piano lessons, performances and master classes with other pianists from around the country and the globe—all without students having to go on expensive trips, or professional pianists having to travel to the school.

Kinder HSPVA college-bound pianists will also be able to participate in the Disklavier College Audition program, which offers them the opportunity to record video-synchronized auditions in Houston on Disklavier pianos, which are then shared with colleges over the Internet. The admissions and scholarship committees at these schools download and evaluate the performances that are played back note-for-note on the Disklavier in their location, with perfectly synched video that is viewed on a connected monitor. Kinder HSPVA students, in essence, can audition "live" at schools in the US, allowing the adjudication team to see and hear the student as if he or she were right in the room.

First introduced 30 years ago and now in its seventh generation of refinements, the Yamaha Disklavier has earned a formidable reputation at educational institutions around the world both for its artistic qualities and its ability to reproduce stunningly accurate, note-for-note performances — ideal in the sharing of lesson and performance content.

For more information about HSPVA, please visit https://www.houstonisd.org/hspva.

For more information about Yamaha pianos in educational and institutional settings, please visit http://www.yamaha.io/YamahaISG.

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About Kinder HSPVA
Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts was founded in 1971 as a place for young artists and performers to study their disciplines and to prepare for the challenges of competitive arts programs at universities and colleges. As one of the first magnet schools in the Houston Independent School District, HSPVA paved the way for other non-comprehensive high schools to emerge and to offer alternative high school experiences. Kinder HSPVA prides itself on fostering creativity and independence while also emphasizing loyalty and responsibility to the community.

About Yamaha
Yamaha Corporation of America (YCA) is one of the largest subsidiaries of Yamaha Corporation, Japan and offers a full line of award-winning musical instruments, sound reinforcement, commercial installation and home entertainment products to the U.S. market. Products include: Yamaha acoustic, digital and hybrid pianos, portable keyboards, guitars, acoustic and electronic drums, band and orchestral instruments, marching percussion products, synthesizers, professional digital and analog audio equipment, Steinberg recording products and NEXO commercial audio products, as well as AV receivers, amplifiers, MusicCast wireless multi-room audio systems, Blu-ray/CD players, earphones, headphones, home-theater-in-a-box systems, sound bars and its exclusive line of Digital Sound Projectors. YCA markets innovative, finely crafted technology and entertainment products and musical instruments targeted to the hobbyist, education, worship, music, professional audio installation and consumer markets.

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