Following a first-place distinction at B.C.’s Provincial Festival of the Performing Arts, a teenage Sunshine Coast pianist will this month participate in Western Canada’s top amateur music and speech arts competition.
Taho Shinagawa, 14, was the winner of the Junior A piano division at the provincial festival, held in Penticton from May 28 to June 2.
The teen will join 40 other solo performers from B.C. at the Canada West Performing Arts Festival at Edmonton’s Macewan University from July 21 to 22.
In Penticton, Shinagawa — who is also a dancer with the Waldorf Ballet studio and a singer with the Choralations Children’s Choir — performed Frédéric Chopin’s “Raindrop” prelude and Tarantelle by Moritz Moszkowski.
“Usually when I practice a lot, and feel that I’m ready, I know I can trust myself to do a good job when playing in front of an audience,” said Shinagawa. “If I get nervous before I play, I try to think: I trust myself that I can do this, and I get strong. Then I get up and go. When I start playing, I don’t really get nervous because I’m in the moment, and it usually goes really well.”
The festival adjudicator singled out her Chopin rendition for special recognition, commenting it was played in a manner worthy of the finest artists.
It was Shinagawa’s third year of participation in the provincial festival, although her first time attending in person. The 2021 and 2022 events were held via web video due to COVID-19 health orders.
In April, Shinagawa competed at the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Performing Arts by performing five pieces for piano. She composed one of them herself, a meditative solo titled Nostalgia. She received five unique local awards, including the Senior Piano Award and the Adjudicator’s Choice Award for Piano.
Shinagawa first played the keyboard at three years of age, but began lessons via Zoom with Gibsons-based teacher Patricia Geenfield only three years ago. Even prior to formal instruction, Shinagawa was composing music. “She had all these compositions as early as age eight,” Greenfield recalled, “and she was amazing. There was a lot in her head, coming from within.”
For her pupil’s appearance in Edmonton, Greenfield has added a new sonata to her repertoire. Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 7 contains a musical portrait of one of Mozart’s pupils who was the same age as Shinagawa at the time of the piece’s composition in 1777.
“Mozart is faster, with more imagination and quick mood changes,” observed Shinagawa.
Shinagawa is one of three Waldorf Ballet dancers earlier selected to receive instruction at the Alberta Ballet School this summer. She will take a brief absence from the ballet school’s Calgary base to perform in the Canada West piano competition.
“I want to say that I feel very thankful for my music teacher,” added Shinagawa, “and thankful for the Coast Recital Society and the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Performing Arts for the scholarships and the opportunity to go to provincials.”
The B.C. provincial festival also recognized Sunshine Coast competitor Doris Garner with an honourable mention in the Junior Speech Arts category. Garner performed poetry and prose works during the Sunshine Coast festival in April.
