Collaborative Piano Services Policy

Please study this policy carefully in order to make a complete request.  Please give as detailed information as you can, and use the “Additional Notes” area at the end to leave a personal note/request to the service coordinator Lydia Qiu.  Please feel free to write to Lydia at [email protected] for your questions/concerns.

All Wind, Percussion, and String students can use this online form to request to work with a collaborative pianist.  Please make sure to fill out all the required information.

SMTD will provide collaborative piano service to the following projects: (in their priority order)

  1. Degree recital
  2. Jury
  3. Concerto Competition
  4. Studio recital
  5. SMTD master classes
  6. Studio class performance

SMTD will not be able to provide collaborative piano services to the following projects:

  1. Non-degree recital
  2. Any competition that is not related to UM curriculum
  3. Any audition that is not related to UM curriculum
  4. Personal recording project

If you are in need of collaborative pianists for these projects, please contact Ms. Lydia Qiu at [email protected], she may be able to provide you with some freelance pianists’ information for you to contact independently.

Deadlines:

  • Degree Recitals –  Request must be turned in within the first three weeks of each term.  If a degree recital is scheduled within the first month of a term, please get in touch with Ms. Lydia Qiu during the prior term about the situation. 
  • Juries – Request must be turned in at least 3 weeks prior to the last day of school each term.
  • All Other Requests – Requests must be turned in at least 3 weeks prior to the performance date. This guarantees sufficient time for Lydia Qiu to process the request, as well as for the accompanist to prepare the music.

Student who fails to meet these deadlines will be responsible for hiring their own collaborative pianist.

Once a request is matched with an available collaborative pianist, student will receive an email notification from Lydia Qiu.  At this point, it is the student’s responsibility to contact, and provide music to the collaborative pianist within 5 working days.  An assignment becomes void if the instrumental student fails to initiate the contact during that time period.

Collaborative piano assignments are not intended to last for the entire term.  All requests need to specify a performance date, which will be considered as the ending date of the assignment.  A new assignment will be assigned to the collaborative pianist on the ending day.  This is in order to provide collaborative piano service to as many students as possible.

Winds & Percussion students, please read the additional Department of Winds & Percussion Collaborative Piano Service Policy below.

Department of Winds & Percussion Collaborative Piano Service Policy

Revised January 2023

The Department of Winds & Percussion will provide collaborative pianists for the events listed in this list.  You can also find the general guild line of how many contact hours each event receive.  In case of extraordinarily difficult projects, we can add hours to your project based on the input of your professor and your collaborative pianist.

  • Degree Recital – 4-8 hours. Hours are designed for all contact hours between you and your collaborative pianist, including rehearsals, lessons, studio class performance, dress rehearsal and the recital.
    • 4 hours for 1-15 minutes of music in the recital
    • 6 hours for 16-30 minutes of music in the recital
    • 8 hours for over 45 minutes of music in the recital
  • Concerto Competition (multi-movement work) – 4-5 hours as needed. Time allotment is for rehearsals, lessons, studio class, and competition performance.
  • Concerto Competition (single-movement work) – 3 hours. Time allotment is for rehearsals, lessons, studio class performance, and competition performance.
  • Jury – 3 hours. Time allotment is for rehearsals, lessons, studio class, and jury performance.
  • Studio Recital – 2 hours. Time allotment is for rehearsals, lessons and studio recital performance.
  • Studio Class Performance – 2 hours. Time allotment is for rehearsals, lessons, and studio class.  (Each student may request for collaborative pianist for a maximum of two times per term for studio class performances.)

Deadlines

The Department of Winds & Percussion will provide collaborative piano services for the above events only if the following deadlines are met:

  • Degree Recital – Students must submit requests for degree recitals within the first three weeks of each term.  (For example for Winter, 2023, January 25th is the deadline for all degree recital requests.)
    • For degree recitals occurring in the first month of a term, please contact coordinator Lydia Qiu ([email protected]) to put in special request during the summer for Fall term recitals, or during the Fall term for Winter term recitals.
  • Concerto Competition – Requests must be submitted by October 15th of the fall term.
  • Jury – Requests must be submitted 3 weeks prior to the final day of classes in any given term. (For example, March 28th for Winter, 2023.)
  • Studio Class – Requests must be submitted 3 weeks prior to the desired performance date.

Students not meeting these deadlines will be fully responsible for hiring and paying their own collaborative pianists.

Applying for a Pianist

It is the students’ responsibility to fill out a Collaborative Pianist Request Form by the deadline specified above. Coordinator Lydia Qiu will contact the student with the contact information for the matched collaborative pianist soon.

Collaborative Pianist Request Form

If you have special need for collaborative pianist services, please contact Lydia Qiu at [email protected].

Please be sure you have understood the guidelines and information on this page.

All fields marked * are required.