The last few days before a piano exam can feel stressful. From my own experience preparing for exams and performances, here are three things I would focus on: know your music, check every detail in the score, and most importantly, trust what you've prepared.

Playing the same Beethoven trio in a different hall made me hear the piano differently, crisper, more powerful, and surprisingly different in the softer sections. During rehearsal, we adjusted the tempo, made more eye contact and gradually became more connected as an ensemble.

Singing Heinrich Schütz’s Musikalische Exequien has been a very different experience from playing the piano. Without an instrument between myself and the audience, I’ve had to listen differently to my own voice, the German language, the other singers, and the words behind this remarkable 17th-century work.

Performing Beethoven’s Op. 1 No. 3 on a fully open grand piano made me think differently about the instrument Beethoven knew. A lighter touch, the balance between three voices, and the acoustics of each performance can change the musical conversation in ways that cannot always be predicted in advance.

Why C minor? Beethoven’s Op. 1 No. 3 reveals a composer testing the boundaries of Classical tradition. Exploring Haydn, C minor, and the emergence of Beethoven’s distinctive musical voice.