The 2019 MONSTER CONCERT is a grand piano extravaganza, heldThursday, June 6 at 7:00 pm the Long Center Center for the Performing Arts at 111 N. 6th Street, Lafayette. It features piano ensemble music, performed on ten pianos by over 175 pianists, grade 3 to adult, playing in groups of up to 20 at a time. The concert is sponsored by the Tippecanoe Music Teachers Association and will be directed by Nadya Dubikovsky of West Lafayette. Patriotic, popular and Jazz arrangements, classical works and more will be performed by students who represent 19 local independent piano studios.
Monster Concerts have a long history in Lafayette, dating to 1979 when area adult pianists performed the first of four Monster Concerts that were a part of the Midsummer Arts Festival. The Piano Teachers Network (now the Tippecanoe Music Teachers Association) began producing the biennial concerts for students in 1987. With this year’s concert, over 2,000 students have had the opportunity to experience piano teamwork on a large scale. Since 1989, TMTA has presented a concert piano bench to the Lafayette Symphony Orchestra, helped in the maintenance of the LSO Steinway concert grand piano (which was purchased with funds from the 1979-1982 programs), contributed to the purchase and maintenance of a grand piano for community use at the West Lafayette Public Library, provided a concert bench for that piano, and helped support the annual West Lafayette Musicale’s Jamieson Piano Competition. Several years ago, TMTA donated a Steinway grand piano and concert bench to the Tippecanoe Arts Federation which TMTA had housed and maintained at TAF for many years.
TMTA provides many educational and performance opportunities for area piano students through events such as the Sunday Showcase Recitals, Achievement in Music Festival and IMTA District Auditions as well as continuing education opportunities for members.
A sustained education in music provides intellectual and creative advantages that last a lifetime. Among the benefits of music study are the development of self-confidence, self-discipline and an outlet for self-expression. The 2019 Monster Concert provides all of these experiences for local piano students.