Piano Playing Parent Performs for Pingry
May 2, 2004

Lenore Davis CP of sixth-grader Aaron and first-former Isaac, and an accomplished pianist, gave the fifth- and sixth-grade students a look at the music being composed in Europe during the time of the American Revolution. “Not much was happening in the colonies during this time except for people trying to survive off the land,” Ms. Davis taught. “But there was a lot happening in Europe.” Ms. Davis talked about the lives of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Franz Joseph Haydn and their different styles of composition. In between her short lectures about the musicians, Ms. Davis would punctuate her thoughts by playing the first movements of sonatas written by each. The students discovered that Mozart and Haydn preferred light, easy styles, whereas Beethoven preferred darker and heavier styles. The students categorized Beethoven’s work as “scary,” but they wanted to hear more of his works. During the question and answer segment, the students wanted to know how long Ms. Davis has been playing the piano (“since I was six”) and how long does she practice each day (“not as long as I would like; usually about two hours each day”). As she expertly and very emotionally played Beethoven, the students were tapping their feet and fingers in time. Ms. Davis is a professional musician with the Arbor Chamber Music group of Maplewood and Westfield. She has been sharing her musical talents with the fifth- and sixth-grade classes for several years. © 2004 The Pingry School