Isabelle Phinney's Piano Recordings

I started piano at age 4 with Ms. Stacy Wang of A-1 Yamaha, and completed the 2-year Yamaha Junior Music Course. In summer 2004 I graduated by audition to the Yamaha Junior Special Advanced Course (performance, improvisation and composition). In fall 2005, at the end of book 3 of JSAC (Yamaha level 9), I decided learning 7 new pieces a week, plus theory, composition, counterpoint and harmony was all a bit too much combined with school homework and soccer. So I stopped the Yamaha group lessons, but continue my private lesson study.

In August 2009 I began advanced piano study with Eric Chun-Yi Wang (no relation to my previous teacher), and in June 2011 with Jackie Tu. I have passed the MTAC Level 10 (Advanced), 9, 7, 5 and 3 (theory and performance) exams with branch honors in Feb 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008 and 2007 respectively. In 2011, I joined the Junior Chamber Music organization, and performed the Haydn Piano Trio in C Major, Hob XV:27 in the March 27, 2011 Central Cities Concert (coaches were Grace Huang and Fang Fang Xu). In 2012, I performed the Debussy Piano Trio in G Major in the March 11, 2012 Los Angeles Concert at the Colburn School (coach was Samuel Fischer).

2012 [age 14]

  1. Claude Debussy, Piano Trio in G Major: I. Andante con moto allegro [13Mbyte, 9:09, mp3 stereo, 256kbps, fixed] Recorded 3/11/2012 on Sony ICD-XS700.

2010 [age 12]

  1. Franz Liszt, Consolation No 3 in d flat [6.4Mbyte, 4:28, mp3 mono, 256kbps, fixed] Recorded 3/20/2010 on Sony ICD-XS700.
  2. J.S. Bach, Prelude No 15 in G Major, WTC II, BWV 884 [2.1Mbyte, 1:27, mp3 mono, 256kbps, fixed] Recorded 4/18/2010 on Sony ICD-XS700.
  3. J.S. Bach, Italian Concerto, BWV 971, 1st movement [6.1Mbyte, 4:15, mp3 mono, 256kbps, fixed] Recorded 4/18/2010 on Sony ICD-XS700.

2008 [age 10]

  1. Aram Khachaturian, Two Ladies Gossiping [2.8 Mbyte, 1:30, mp3 stereo, 256kbps, fixed] Recorded 6/1/2008 on Roland R09 at Piano Recital, Chinese American Cultural Center, El Monte, CA.
  2. Muzio Clementi, Sonatina Op 36, No 6, [5.2Mbyte, 2:49, mp3 stereo, 256kbps, fixed] Recorded 3/15/2008 on Roland R09 at MTAC Los Angeles Branch Piano Honors Recital.

2007 [age 9]

  1. Ludwig van Beethoven, Fuer Elise [5.6Mbyte, 2:56, mp3 stereo, 256kbps, fixed] Recorded 9/4/2007 on Roland R09. With vocal accompaniment by Tweety the parakeet.
  2. Eugenie Rocherolle, French Waltz for piano 4 hands, Isabelle -primo, Stacy Wang -secondo. [4.1Mbyte, 2:07, mp3 mono, 256kbps, fixed] Recorded 5/29/2007 on Olympus voice recorder, AGC.
  3. Isabelle Phinney, improvisation. [6.5Mbyte, 3:23, mp3 mono, 256kbps, fixed] Recorded 5/16/2007 on Olympus voice recorder, AGC.

Dec 2006 [age 8]

[Isabelle w/ Miss Stacy after recital] 3 December 2006, Isabelle with her teacher, after Isabelle's solo recital.


Dec 2005 [age 7]

  1. Christmas Recital 11 Dec 2005, J.C. Bach Andante and J.L. Streabbog A Pleasant Morning (Op 63 No. 1) [2.4Mbyte, 152 seconds, mp3 stereo 128kbps, fixed]; also as a 27MB stereo wav file.

April 2005 [age 7]

I have devised a (patent-pending) improvement to Yamaha electronic teaching pianos.  Miss Stacy keeps having to nag her students, including me, to keep their little fingers curved.  So my  first idea was to put bee stingers or pins on the ends of the piano keys, so they would prick any fingers that were not well curved.  But then I thought that perhaps some of the kids might have gymnastic lessons after their piano lessons, and the gymnastic teachers and parents might object to the swollen fingers.  So my improved idea is to put little buttons like telephone buttons on the ends of the piano keys.  When the buttons are pressed by flat fingers, they will close a circuit to a voice synthesiser, which has a 3-position switch: "boy, girl, off".  When Miss Stacy sets the switch to "boy, " for example, each time a boy forgets to curve his fingers, the piano will keep saying "Bad Boy" with every note.  This will wreck his concentration and make him so furious that he will always keep his fingers curved to avoid the electronic nagging.  The height of the buttons can be adjusted for different sized fingers.

December 2004 [age 6]

[Isabelle piano, Raymond Gilmartin violin] 3 December 2004, South Pasadena Middle School: Isabelle (piano) accompanying Raymond Gilmartin (violin) in Lightly Row.

[Isabelle w/ Miss Stacy after recital] 5 December 2004, Isabelle with her teacher, after Isabelle's solo recital.


September 2004 [age 6]

  1. Dmitri Kabalevsky, Polka, from Op. 39: 24 Little Pieces [83kbyte, 10 seconds, mp3 mono 128kbps, fixed]
  2. Manami Tokuda, A Day in the Forest (left hand arrangement by me), [425kbyte, 53 seconds, mp3 mono 128kbps, fixed]
  3. Happy Clown [1.2Mbyte, 77 seconds, mp3 stereo 128kbps, fixed]

Back to my page, my sister's page, or my father's page.

Last Update: 2007 Sept 4