Eliza Lim loses herself in the Ballade in D-minor Opus 10 No. 1 by Johannes Brahms.
She hunches when the notes get broody, lifts up to lighter harmonies.
“I chose this piece because it has lots of different emotions in it,” says Lim, 14.
“The beginning is all eerie and dark and mysterious. It brightens up and becomes really intensive and goes back to the original dark mood that it has before.”
Lim joins 11 other performers at Dan Wardrope’s 15th fall piano concert at Swan-e-Set Golf Club in Pitt Meadows next week.
Since it began more than a decade ago, the sell-out concert held every fall has raised more than $10,000 for charities, including the Friends In Need Food Bank, B.C. Cancer Foundation and World Vision, since 2005.
It features performances by students studying at Grade 10 or diploma level with Royal College of Music.
Stefani Yap, a student at Douglas College, picked Chopin’s Waltz in E Flat Major Opus 18 No. 1 to play.
It’s a piece she is very familiar with.
“It’s a piece I have heard since I was little,” says the 19-year-old Coquitlam resident.
“My grandmother played it for an award ceremony in Jamaica. She is a pretty accomplished pianist and I just wanted to learn it because she learnt it too.”
• The 15th annual fall piano concert plays Swan-e-Set Golf and Country Club at 7 p.m on Monday, Nov. 14. Tickets are $12 with all proceeds to World Vision. Light refreshments will be available at the intermission by donation. The program includes Chopin, Brahms, Grieg, two 20th Century works and two duets. The performers are Eric Liang, Tiana Worthy, Jessie Henderson, Stefani Yap, Lillian Zhang, Edward Liang, Michaela Durovic, Benita Etey, Derek Maroney, Eliza Lim, Alison Lim and Rebecca Baum.
Tickets must be pre-ordered as the event sells out every year by calling Dan Wardrope at 604-818-8853 or emailing djwardrope@aol.com.