Tired of the usual spring or fall recital? Your students might be a little bored as well! Our local music teachers association came together and talked about different recital themes we could use to liven up our yearly performances. Teachers who have done this mentioned how much more interesting the performance is – and how much more excited their students are when there is a theme!
And themed piano recitals are definitely something more and more piano teachers are doing. They don’t have to complicated though. You can check out this lovely Art and Music Recital idea which looks complicated, but isn’t really!
Below, I have a list of over 40 recital themes from our local association as well as ComposeCreate Facebook followers. I’d love to hear what ideas you have tried! You might also want to know that there is a FREE Student Solutions Catalog with all ComposeCreate music, organized by common student issues and themes.
Everybody Plays! – Audience Participation Recital
- Invite any siblings, grandparents, or parents to prepare duets or ensembles with their kids
- Use an audience participation piece like Mob Bop or Yee-haw to get everyone clapping to the beat and involved. They will love it and think it’s one of the best recitals ever because they participated
- Use audience participation pieces like America the Beautiful or Take Me Out to the Ballgame to get your audience involved using Rhythm Cups!
Movies and Music
- Provide popcorn for guests (or ask a local popcorn store to supply the popcorn)
- Have a door prize of popcorn bucket and popcorn
- Used digital keyboards for fun sounds
- You could make this an “Academy Awards” recital and find oscar like trophies to award to students
- Find a red carpet for the students to walk down!
Earth Day – Nature Themed Recital
- Here’s a huge Earth Day Recital blog post full of repertoire, decoration ideas, and refreshment ideas.
- Refreshments can include Mrs. Field’s earth cupcakes recipe, natural foods, seeds, nuts, etc.
- Decorations can be super easy if you have a helium machine. Earth balloons and other such decor ideas are available on the Earth Day Recital blog post!
- Any pieces from the Beautiful Places series would make wonderful Earth Day recital solos, as they all feature nature themes and gorgeous watercolor covers.
Music Around the World or Musical Travelogue
- Each student asked to present a paragraph about their piece (like Music around the World)
- Students mark where the piece was from on a map
- Make the program look like a passport
- Rote and Reading® Adventure bundles make the perfect pieces, and each student can play one piece from the series! Here they are: African Adventure, Outback Adventure, Amazon Adventure, American Adventure, and Canadian Adventure.
Music Around Europe
- Spanish dances (see Tangy Tango for early elementary, or Swept Away for intermediate tangos)
- Polish mazurkas
- Irish Music (see Escape from Donegal Castle and Celtic Hymn Transformations)
- Hungarian dances
Sounds of Color
- Show a video of nature shots, first in black and white, then in color
- Color of Music Series (bundle 1 here and bundle 2 here)
- Programs were on different colors of paper
- Parents make cookies in different colors
- Use student artwork
Happy Birthday ________! (insert your state name here)
- Birthday cake
- Recital program on birthday paper
- Trivia information about your state
- Here’s a fun 21st Century Happy, Happy Birthday piece. Plus, check out William Gillock’s Birthday Variations and Forrest Kinney’s Birthday Variations.
- Kansas themes: Wizard of Oz, Home on the Range, Over the Rainbow, Walnut River Rag
Tasty Tunes
- Yes, that’s the name of this book about fun foods kids like, but it could also be the name of a super fun recital!
- Think of the food you could have for the reception. It’s pretty open ended.
- Ice Cream on a Sunday Afternoon, Crazy for Lemons, Macaroni Pizza, Pickle Sandwich…all these are in the Tasty Tunes book and I know there are lots of other books out there with pieces about food. Mona Rejino has a Pepperoni Pizza song in her Just for Kids book.
- Early elementary students will also love the “Fun Foods” Short Sheets™, all about ketchup, hot dogs, and chocolate!
Whither the Weather
- Music about snow storms, sunsets, venetian boat songs, Twisters, etc.
- Whither the Weather Short Sheets™!
- Method books even have great pieces about the weather.
- A Break in the Clouds is a great piece for adult students or older beginners!
Hooray for the USA or Patriotic/Hymn Recital
- These are great for nursing homes. You might find this post helpful: Bless Your Community.
- Use the America the Beautiful Cup-tapping piece and have your audience cup tap with you. They will have soooo much fun!
- Instead of having a program, have a “Name That Tune” contest with the residents.
- Use a call bell and after the student has played, ask the residents to name that tune. If they get it right, the student rings the bell (usually several times because its fun!)
- Repertoire can be about states, regions, patriotic
- Even your young students can play artfully composed arrangements of hymns. Check out Easy Hymn Solos (Levels 1, 2, 3)
Salute to Heroes and Heroines
- I’m sure you can come up with a better title than that, but it would be fun to pay tribute to the heroes in our personal life (e.g. by playing our grandfather’s favorite piece or a piece our mother sang to us as a baby).
- You could also pay tribute to amazing historical characters like Abigail Adams in Letters from Abigail.
My Favorite Things – Christmas
- Use this as a Christmas recital theme
- The artwork had to be a drawing of their favorite things at Christmas
- The students share a favorite Christmas memory (or they write it out and the teacher shares it)
- Older students can make their own arrangement of a favorite Christmas piece if it was polished
- You could also have a My Favorite Music theme for times other than Christmas
Back to the Future – 300th Anniversary of the Piano
Christmas Around the World
Funny Recital or April Fool’s Recital
- Have a recital around April Fool’s day and ask the parents and students to submit jokes and tell them between the pieces.
- Here’s a list of humorous piano pieces.
All that Jazz
- Ask a jazz ensemble to come and play with each student’s piece.
- Ask a drummer to accompany students.
- Use the blues scale on the piano or improvise.
- Use Jazz Shorts to let your intermediate students show off and shine!
The Great Outdoors
- Move your digital keyboard out to your patio.
- Pre-recorded sounds
- Blankets, lawn chairs and picnic food
- We have a blog post all about a driveway drive-by recital perfect for this!
A World of Adventure
Animals, Animals (or Carnival of the Animals)
- The Pet Shop Pieces are perfect for this! Pet Shop 1 contains lyrics about cats, fish, and how pets just want to be with us!
- Pet Shop Pieces 2 is about dogs, horses, and rodents
- Pet Shop Pieces 3 talks about birds, guinea pigs, and reptiles
Water Music (apologies to G.F. Handel)
- Rainy Afternoon, Wandering Music, At the Bottom of the Sea
- Water represented indifferent forms like “Joplin When Your Hair is Like the Snow” Faber 2B Tecnique “Winter Wind” and 3A Technique Tropical Aquarium and MFPA book B Gliding Goldfish
- Handel’s music for prelude music
“A Musical Journey Through the Ages”
- Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Contemporary Recital Program
- Group music according to the time periods
- You could also do a “Baroque to Rock” theme and include pop music
Circus Music
Fairy Tale/Fantasy
- Pieces about Kings, queens, knights, etc.
- Possible repertoire: Ballroom dance, Greensleeves, Festival in Aragon, Dance of the Persian Princess, The Glass Slipper, Lady Alison’s Minuet
- The Mythical Creatures series 1, 2, and 3 covers dragons, mermaids, fairies, trolls, and more!
- Here’s an elementary duet about knights called The Knights’ Quest.
The Beatles
- Good for adult students especially
Music Theatre
Stars and Planets
- The Making of a Star is a perfect piece for this theme. It’s mid elementary and sounds huge, while being easy to play!
Creatures Great and Small
Classics and Folksongs
Music We Wrote
- Obviously featuring student compositions
A Pair of Shus
- Featuring music of Schumann and Schubert
An Afternoon at the Opera
Pirates and Fairies
- One possible piece to this could be A Royal Invitation, inviting everyone to the castle!
Disney
The Sea
Restaurant Recital Themes
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Make the recital program look like a menu.
- Placed songs in several categories: appetizers, main course, sides, and dessert.
- You might have to stretch some of the titles to make them fit the theme
- You could make this into a dinner recital and have ethnic food.
- Ah…here’s where Tasty Tunes will fit right in!
Outer Space
- There are lots of pieces about space include The Making of a Star, one of the most popular pieces on the ComposeCreate site.
- Consider having this recital at night where you can black out the audience and even shine some stars on the ceiling.
- Refreshments could include these Planet Pops and or a fun Space Buffet!
Bugs and Butterflies
- You can find all kinds of recipes online for various snacks that look like bugs!
- Repertoire abounds in this category. See Valerie’s post Recital Themes: Bugs and Butterflies for a great list and more ideas on this theme.
- Birds and Bugs features 3 solos in one Short Sheets™ set.
Mystery Theme
- Valerie from Dollarhide Music Center has a post about repertoire, snacks, and other things to do with this theme here.
Marches
- Repertoire ideas: Pomp and circumstance, wedding marches, military/patriotic marches
Music to Scare You Away (Halloween theme)
- Don’t forget to look at the comprehensive list of halloween pieces in the Student Solutions Catalog!
- This Halloween Bundle of elementary solos sound BIG and are some of the best-selling pieces on ComposeCreate!
Handel with Care
- You can guess the repertoire. This (and several others here including the Pair of Shus) was suggested by Meri Dolevski-Lewis, a pianist who played such a concert with her husband.
Bach to Spring
Invitation to the Dance
Suites and Treats
Light Music
- Light sounding pieces or pieces with light in the title
Rock On!
- Brooke Baker left this idea in the comments. She says, “One of my students’ favorite recitals was our Rock On! Recital.
- Students had the option to dress like Rock Stars.
- Repertoire included everything from The Beatles to Taylor Swift to Michael Jackson.
- Older students could play with a live band
- Brooke says that she ended with a huge medley that 6 keyboards and the kids rocking out on inflatable guitars. “So much fun!!”
March Mysteries
Ellen Berry shared insight on this fun theme:
Another idea that I got from Philip Johnston’s former website (Practicespot.com) is my annual “March Mysteries” concert. Each year I come up with a secret theme either about the students or the repertoire they are playing, and indicate the different groups on the program with two or more colours of ink. Audience members fill out a ballot with their guesses and I award a Parent Prize and a Student Prize in a draw. So far the mysteries have been:
- the time period of the repertoire (Baroque, Classical, Romantic, 20th Century)
- the tempo of the repertoire (fast, medium, slow)
- students who had a sibling in the studio
- the title of the piece was in a language other than English
Everyone seems to enjoy solving the mystery and are quite attentive listeners!
Other thoughts on themed recitals:
- Mini theme within each level (especially if you have very young and high school students).
- To strengthen the kids memory: Colored starting places instead of lettered starting places. Use shapes.
- Video your students saying why piano is so cool. Show the video as part of your program. Have a contest to see what student can come up with the best background music.
- Use trivia at recitals (there are especially good ones about Christmas music)
- Older students’ classical pieces can usually be incorporated in some way
- Before the recital (or as a part of the recital), play a video of beautiful pictures with student improv as the background music. See Anne Crosby’s post about this.
What are your ideas for recital themes?
READ ALSO:
- Repertoire Lists – fun duets, trios, music for 1 hand, world music, and much more!
- Music Portfolio – see all kinds of pieces by Wendy here.
- Is There a Way to Make Money at a Recital?
Download and print the entire list of recital themes (plus even more tips) by clicking the green button below!
I was at Disney World in September and decided then to do a Disney themed recital this spring. Each student will play a Disney themed piece and one other piece.
Last year I did folk songs from around the world and the year before was composers before the year 1900.
Theme recitals are so fun. One year I was able to work it out with the local movie theater to have our recital there. Our theme was “You’re a Star!”. I found material that was perfect for the red carpet. I did a little movie music trivia at “intermission” with plastic movie trophies as the prizes. It was so much fun!
A good friend does a Composer of the Year recital each December. Students find out who the next year’s COTY is as they leave their MTA syllabus exams in April, begin working on pieces in spring and over summer, and are hard at it Sept-Dec. Some years she chooses 2 composers, one lesser-known one with lots of easier pieces, to go with one of the major dudes (ie Chopin, Mendelssohn, Liszt) who didn’t write lower levels pieces. Each student also has some kind of creative project, which is presented at the recital.
BTW this is a very helpful and inspiring list, Wendy — thanks so much for sharing. My recital ‘themes’ have tended to be ‘pieces arranged in an order that makes sense to myself’.
Great ideas! I always try to have some kind of theme especially in the spring recital. One that I did at Christmas was The Snowman by Howard Blake. I read the book between each selection. I printed the pictures in the book in color on transparencies sheets to use as we told the story. Most of the pieces are intermediate level. Everyone loved it! Another neat theme is trains – lots of train songs out there for boys.
One of my students’ favorite recitals was our Rock On! Recital. The students had the option to dress like Rock Stars. We played everything from The Beatles to Taylor Swift to Michael Jackson. I had my older students play with a live band and at the end we had a huge medley that 6 keyboards and the kids rocking out on inflatable guitars. SO MUCH FUN!!
Love the ideas Wendy, this is great! One themed recital that sticks out in my mind was our “Name that Tune” recital. Each student played 2 pieces – mostly movie themes, Beatles or Pop tunes, TV shows, and famous classical themes. During the recital all the parents/grandparents/kids were given a guessing page to write down thier guess as students played – bonus points if they could name the composer. At the end each student said the name of thier piece and the composer, and we tallied up scores. The top scores got a prize. It was very fun and kept even the most aloof parents quite focused on each piece. It went pretty well until the end when we were scoring and two of the dad’s got into a heated debate about how “Twist and Shout” was recorded but not technically composed by the Beatles. So a word of caution if you try this…..you may find some tough calls in scoring!!!
That sounds so fun Brooke! Thanks for sharing.
I love the “Musical Journey through the ages” theme.
My older kids are researching specific composers for the spring recital. They will “introduce” our audience to the composers throughout the recital. It is a great way to get music history into the piano lesson and I don’t have to do much work!!!
Wendy, thanks for all that you do for the teaching community! I love the recital themes and will definitely dip into this list over the next few years. I did one called, Dancing Through Time a few seasons ago, and the students played everything from hoe-downs to minuets, waltzes and polonaises, even boogie-woogie. Of course, each student had to know about his type of dance piece and the audience loved learning about different dances through the ages.
What a great idea, Beverly! I love this theme! Thanks for sharing!
This years recital for my studio is Hollywood themed. Last years recital was dancin’ through the decades for the 30th anniversary. The year before was planet Dance which had music that had a spacey ring to it. Another one we did was a live love dance this one had all sorts of different styles of dance. I hope this helps anyone who didn’t have a theme Idea for their recital.
Thank you for sharing, Abbi! I love that you have so many themes with dancing as a part of them! Sounds like you are a wonderfully creative teacher. Thank you for sharing your own ideas here on the ComposeCreate blog!
Last Christmas I wanted each student to have an accompanying experience. Most had an older sib or parent or grandparent who played an instrument, my daughter played for one student as well. I had to alter a couple to make them work. Overall I felt it was a success!
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Thank you, Wendy, for your creative recital themes.
Let me share two of our favorites as well. One year we presented “An Evening with Beethoven”, where each student chose one of Beethoven’s works along with other pieces they had prepared. The students shared a bit of Beethoven’s story before their performance.
Another year we invited a high school drummer to accompany a student as he played “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” by Journey. She tossed her stick into the air as a grand finale. It was so delightful.
During that same recital, we featured one of our younger student’s playing “The Hokey Pokey,” where everyone in the audience was invited to come to the front and dance together. Everyone actually joined in except some of the elderly grandparents.
We also invited a music major from the local university to participate as a guest performer.
Such great ideas, KayLynne! Thank you for taking the time to comment and share them!