20 Years of PTNA Piano STEP - Its History and Development
2016/09/15 | コメント(0)
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PTNA Piano STEP was inaugurated in 1997 and has been tremendously developed in these 20 years. STEP has been held at 5,352 venues and the total amount of participants reaches 514,458 (as of September 2016). STEP is a unique system to help learning piano by offering stages for everyone. Here is a brief history of STEP and interviews of key personalities.
1997: The 1st STEP was held in Tokyo (at PTNA headquarter).
1998: Increasing number of STEP stations established
2000: Award system was settled to commend participants for continuous stage performances
2003: Supported by MEXT(Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology)
2003: The total number of required repertoires reached 3,000
2004: The advisors appointment committtee was established. STEP talk concerts (free admission) kept increasing
2006: Online application became available. The total number of pariticpants surpassed 30,000 in a singly year.
2007: Increasing number of local schools recognized accomplishments of STEP award recipients.
2008: Increasing number of piano teachers took part in STEP
2010: 1st recipient for the 100 stage performances award
2012: The total number of participants surpassed 40,000 in a singly year
2013: STEP brochure booklet became free of charge
2014: STEP venues surpassed 500 in a single year, and 40% of those incorporated talk concerts
2015-2016: The total number of participants reached half a million since 1997.
Mutsuko Tozawa, the chairperson of the STEP Committee, advocated in 1990s to start a new system to encourage piano learning and teaching in more open-minded, collaborative environment. At that time, she was inspired by late Yasuko Fukuda, the founder of PTNA, who worked with a big team including Ministy of Education (MEXT), and made up her mind to expand this new unique learning system through PTNA. According to her, the most innovative things in these 20 years was to establish local Stations across the nation. Station can be settled by the affiliation of 10 piano teachers or more, and its mission is to hold STEP in their local city/town. Nowadays, more than 30 Stations are born every year. Those teachers understand and agree with the policies of STEP, such as "continuation of stage performances", "lifelong learning" etc. Besides, they have strong motivations to connect and learn each other. Tozawa says, "I believe that STEP supports the foundation of the music education. These days, the number of participants reaches 46,000. But I believe it could be more, if piano teachers connect, share and seek for better quality of study environment furthermore".
Keiko Hanasaki, the representative of Sanuki Takamatsu Station, is going to hold the 20th STEP this autumn. Since its establishment, she has been witnessing a lot of new members coming in and new ideas coming up, that led to the birth of a new study group. And she suggests that activities of Station positively affect to the Branch office (Branch is ruling organization of satellite Stations). Hanasaki is also pleased that teachers become open-minded and collaborative, for instance, when she sees them telling each other how others' students have been developed, as they all keep watching performances through STEP.
Eri Kato, Grandmuse member, participated in STEP at the age of 8 for the first time, and she was awarded her 20th stage performance this summer at the age of 20. when she majored mathematics at high school, she was too busy to practice piano sufficiently. She was dissatisfied and realized how deeply she loved piano. Then she decided to go to music college, and participated in STEP for the preparation of college examination. Now, She begins to teach piano to children.
Katsunori Hata, Grandmuse member, is working for IT company, and began learning piano from 5 years ago. His first STEP participation was 2014, and will be awarded the 20th stage performance this autumn. He, self-educated person, makes advantage of STEP by reading professional advises again and again so as to improve his performance and interpretation. He participated in Grandmuse division at PTNA Piano Competition this year.
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