We would like to thank Marvin Blickenstaff for this article about the benefits of The Piano Conference: NCKP. Want to learn more about The Piano Conference: NCKP 2025? Click here to read about next year’s conference and submit a proposal. Want to hear more from Marvin Blickenstaff? Join our book club beginning September 10, 2024! Learn more and register here.
If memory serves me correctly, I have attended every NCKP since its founding by Richard Chronister some 25 years ago. The memories of those conferences remain vivid in my mind, and I am a better piano teacher for having attended those events. The presentations have been informative and inspiring. The performances have been spine-tingling. And the teaching demonstrations have changed my teaching in many ways. I am confident that those who have attended would agree that NCKP is the best of its kind.
Every piano teacher who can possibly manage to attend this summer’s outstanding program should do so. The variety of sessions offers something for everyone, whether you are a teacher just beginning your career or are a seasoned professional. We all need the stimulation of meeting with like-minded professionals, hearing inspiring performances, learning from the best in our field, and having our horizons widened through outstanding lecture presentations. We often feel isolated in our own studios, and NCKP offers the opportunity to dialogue with teachers from around the country and profit from that professional connection.
I guarantee that you will find your time at NCKP well worth the effort. You will come away from the conference with a new perspective on the importance of your role in the lives of your students. You will approach your teaching with renewed vigor and ideas on how to improve your work with your students. You will be inspired by the performances you hear and the information gleaned from the lecture presentations. You will learn!
A bit of advice: attend each session with equipment for taking notes. There will be so much information shared that you cannot retain it all in your memory. Take notes. You need those notes to remind you of what you have experienced. A Conference Proceedings will be published, but your notes are the most important documentation of what you have experienced.
I look forward to seeing you this summer at NCKP in Chicago. You’ll find me sitting in the front row (with my pen and notepad!)
I guarantee that you will find your time at NCKP well worth the effort. You will come away from the conference with a new perspective on the importance of your role in the lives of your students.
Marvin Blickenstaff
More by Marvin Blickenstaff
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- MAGAZINE ARTICLE: Intuition is Overrated: 10 Lessons Learned After Interviewing Sixty Leaders in Teaching World by Ben Kapilow
- WEBINAR ARCHIVE: Messages Written on Our Students’ Slates with Marvin Blickenstaff
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- FOUNDATIONAL TECHNIQUE SERIES: Message from Marvin Blickenstaff
- FOUNDATIONAL TECHNIQUE SERIES: Technique Q&A with Marvin Blickenstaff
- FOUNDATIONAL TECHNIQUE SERIES: Warm-ups for Teachers with Marvin Blickenstaff
- NCKP: NCKP 2023 Conference Proceedings