Preface to Alicia's Fifth Piano Book

While Alicia (who is now 16) doesn't play the piano anymore, I still do write music for the instrument once in a while in my spare time. It's been approximately 1 year after the publication of Alicia's 4th piano book, and it (and its predecessors) have been proven so popular and useful for young pianists, therefore I was constantly asked for a new collection of piano pieces. So I gathered all my files, not only in my computer but also those papers I wrote during my travels (mostly by plane when it's too fussy to open the laptop) and I found all these works that I could present to you all in this book. ............................................................................................................................................. I think about many people while composing, but when I wrote these pieces I mainly thought of the (very) young ones . In fact, we in Indonesia should be happy that classical music is being a hot stuff among young people. In Europe, we have this joke now: What do classical music concerts and cigarette companies have in common? Answer: It’s the age problem. How do you stay in business when your customers keep dying? ............................................................................................................................................. I also give more and more masterclasses now in many cities and countries , and I am enjoying it more and more meeting young musicians. Teaching has never been so fun like these days, with all those enthusiastic kids and teenagers (yeah, yeah, THEM, not their parents nor their teachers) in Indonesia. They might learn something from me, but I certainly learn a lot from them. Each student / participant came with their uniqueness which inspires me. I don't think it's true that only great artists can inspire ; I do find inspiration from everyone I met including, or especially, from their imperfections. In fact, the beauty of art lies in human imperfections of its artists. If only the Indonesian government would give subsidy for classical music, in 5-6 years the world will be filled not only with prominent Chinese pianists but Indonesians as well. They need promotion and adequate management to take part in this tough Western classical music circle. ............................................................................................................................................. Apart from works for piano solo, there is one work for piano duet (4-hands) in this book. This is an addition to the collection "Pieces of Cakes" that appeared already in the previous Alicia's Piano Books. If you would like to perform them all, you can do it in the order you like since I am hoping that the number of pieces would still grow, but for now my personal suggestion would be : 1. Chocolate Mousse. 2. March of the Gingerbread Boy. 3. Apfelstruedel. 4. Strawberry Cheesecake. ............................................................................................................................................. The composer is deeply thankful to the team of piano teachers at the KITA Anak Negeri (Depok, West Java) for supervising and giving the grades to each piece in this book. ............................................................................................................................................. Ananda Sukarlan April 2015