Dear Schubertiade YYC subscribers,

So the summer has gone by, and for you it may have seemed long or short, but I hope for all of you it made some wonderful memories. And now autumn is upon us, with for many of us the start of more intensive school, choirs, orchestras, and lessons if you take a break in formal music lessons.

After some discussion, I made several changes in plans for the Schubertiade, chief of which right now is that the deadline to sign up, previously October 1, I am now moving to November 15, 2025.

I am sure many of you have heaved a sigh of relief at gaining an extra six weeks to review and consider your repertoire.

And remember, what you play doesn’t have to be the most difficult Schubert composition that you can perform! This is not about passing exams for a given level, and it is not a competition where difficulty in the same class should be reasonably equalized. This is for fun and for the love of music. Play a RCM grade 3 Schubert piece and put your heart into it. If you love it, we will love it.

Schubert anecdote of the post:

A place of rendezvous [for Schubert and his friends] was the still-existing extra room on the ground floor of the ‘Hungarian Crown’ [restaurant] on the Himmelpfortgasse. Amongst the evening guests were painters…poets…government officials. Schubert is said to have been nicknamed by these people ‘The Kanervas’, because when a stranger was introduced to his society, the first question Schubert invariably asked of his neighbour was ‘Kann er was?’ [Can he do anything? or Is he capable?].’

— from The Book of Musical Anecdotes, edited by Normal Librecht

Happy autumn, and till next time,

Schubertiade YYC