Trinity's Piano 2023 was released earlier this month (4 September) and, much like the Woodwind, Jazz Woodwind and Singing syllabuses before it, it adopts our new way of managing syllabuses running without an end date and seeks to continually build upon the repertoire available to candidates, both in terms of quantity and breadth of styles. Read on to find out more.
What is Piano 2023?
The first thing to clarify is that this is not a new syllabus in the traditional sense. The reason for this is that the 2021 Piano syllabus, with all of the pieces and technical work requirements within it, remains unchanged and continues to be valid indefinitely*. What Piano 2023 does instead is extend these options, adding more repertoire and technical work exercises for candidates to choose from. This both removes the necessity for a syllabus overlap period, meaning candidates can continue to practise the pieces they have been learning without any time restrictions in place, and gives them the flexibility to learn pieces from either or both the 2021 and the 2023 selections.
In addition to this, we have published two separate versions of the syllabus: one for face-to-face exams, and one for digital. We hope that this will make the requirements for these different formats of exams really clear and easy to use.
*copyright and territory dependent
How has the repertoire been extended?
Piano 2023 offers candidates our largest and most diverse selection of repertoire yet. An impressive 42 pieces per grade is now available across our 2021 and 2023 publications, plus an additional 14 pieces per grade featured on the repertoire lists as extended repertoire that aren't included in the graded books. As well as continuing to offer a wide range of classical favourites and contemporary compositions, you will now find Latin and jazz styles included, music from film and video games, musical theatre and global pop hits. Here are just a few examples to whet your appetite:
- Western classical favourites by composers such as J S Bach, Claude Debussy, Florence Ada Goodrich, Franz Joseph Haydn and Hélène de Montgeroult featured across all grades
- Pokémon Theme and the Emeli Sandé hit Read All About It, Pt III at Initial Grade
- Titanium (David Guetta ft. Sia) and Alex Wilson's arrangement of José Fernández Diaz's Guajira Guantanamera at Grade 1
- Hedwig's Theme (from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone) and It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) at Grade 2
- Dynamite (BTS) and the Angry Birds Theme at Grade 3
- Polperro Beach (from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) and Avril 14th (Aphex Twin) at Grade 4
- Ajeeb Dastan Hai Yeh (from Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai) and Duke Ellington's Don't Get Around Much Anymore at Grade 5
- Love Yourself (Justin Bieber) and Victor's Piano Solo (from Corpse Bride) at Grade 6
- Fallin' (Alicia Keys), Andrea Vicari's arrangement of Chick Corea's Spain, and Mixed Nuts (from Spy x Family) at Grade 7
- The Heart Asks Pleasure First (from The Piano), the Julian Joseph arrangement of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Deep River, op. 59, and Coconut Mall (Mario Kart Wii) at Grade 8.
We have also commissioned a number of new works from contemporary composers such as Michael Price, Mark Choi, Mari Sainio, Zhenyan Li and Seána Davey. Including newly composed works within a syllabus that exists in perpetuity means that commissioned pieces are available for candidates to learn, play and perform, not just for a few years, but on an ongoing basis. It's an exciting prospect for candidates, teachers, composers and supporters of new music alike, and we look forward to being able to champion more contemporary composers in this way in the years ahead!
What publications are available?
As we've already highlighted, the 2021 repertoire books will continue to be valid indefinitely*. However, to support the increase in repertoire candidates now have to choose from, we are releasing brand new repertoire books for each grade. There will be two versions of each grade repertoire book available:
Standard edition - includes 12 new pieces, new technical work exercises and detailed performance notes
Extended edition - the same as the standard edition plus a further 9 pieces, scales and arpeggios and broadcast quality demo tracks available to download.
Both books are available in print and ebook formats, as well as some ebooks 'singles'. This means, for example, if you have a student working from the 2021 repertoire book but would like to play a piece from the 2023 publication, it may be available to purchase as a single piece from our estore*.
*copyright and territory dependent
Want to know more?
Why not watch back the recording of our webinar where we talk and play through some of the highlights?
Register to watch the webinar on demand here
And keep an eye on our social media channels for details of our soon to be released podcast series.
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