I don't think there is another discussion. We can talk about ideas here.

I had a short chat with @Sam where he suggested simply having everyone prepare their submisson and publish it on the same date. I'm a bit sceptical and think this would result in a lot of chaos. I think we still need some kind of coordination but I don't have a solution yet.

In the short term I'm not sure what we are going to do. We can continue on ABF but now Gombessa will not be able to participate. What shall I do about the voting for themed recitals 2025? I was supposed to make a poll thread tomorrow.

    What a kind thought, thank you both for that! I really love the good nature, kindness and thoughtfulness of all the participants here.

    For what it's worth, please don't change anything on account of me. I think if the PW ABF recitals get disrupted, that would be a net loss for the piano community as a whole.

    Also, while I'm not certain, my strong hunch is that the recitals codebase crated by Bob Muir and Sam S is not at all integrated with the forum, in particular the ban list, so I'm guessing I can still submit pieces when recitals.pianoworld.com opens (but if not, so be it, no hard feelings). I also defer entirely to the recital maintainers whether it would be appropriate to participate, and will respect their wishes.

    If recitals either move here to PianoTell, or a new recital system spins up, all the better and I'd be honored to be able to take part!

    BartK I am in two minds about whether or not recitals should take place here when they are still available on PW. However there may be people who do not belong to PW that would like a recital space and people that would wish to post their recordings both here and in PW.

    We have a Member Recordings forum and suggest this should be the home for recitals if they do start. Let us assume a recital takes place every six months. All it takes is that a responsible person creates a new thread with a simple title "Recital for 1st July 2024' say. Participants only reply with their recorded contributions and a few words of description in a set format. Participants should then be discouraged from adding additional posts unless they contain different recordings. On July 1st participants would be expected not to add to the thread, which would then be considered closed. If people want to comment on a performance it is done in a separate thread 'Comments on Recital dated 1st July 2024'.

    This method will not keep individual performances hidden until the due date but personally I consider this not a big issue. Generally I was overwhelmed with the number of recordings being released together over on PW but I accept others may say this is the point of the recital. This method may not archive performances, which I believe is achieved on PW, but I'm not sure if this is necessary.

        The recital is not tied to the user database, anyone can submit an entry. I wouldn't have a problem with seeing the recitals move to PianoTell though. If that ever happens and you need help, let me know.

        keff We have a Member Recordings forum and suggest this should be the home for recitals if they do start.

        Maybe that is an easier solution? Don't have scheduled recitals. When your piece is ready, post it to Member Recordings!

            Pallas putting in a request to Navindra (I think @twocats has been making a list)

            Actually it's not my list, it's Navindra's! In the future I'll post the feature requests directly to his to-do thread instead of tagging him elsewhere to keep it all in one place.

              BartK In the short term I'm not sure what we are going to do. We can continue on ABF but now Gombessa will not be able to participate. What shall I do about the voting for themed recitals 2025? I was supposed to make a poll thread tomorrow.

              I don't envy you your decision, Bart. It's a tough situation to be in! You have my back too, whatever that is worth 🙂 (yeah I know, that's like someone from the peanut gallery whistling at the performers on stage) 😆

                bSharp Thanks for the reply. Agree that is an alternative although the recital community may be less obvious....but then again we will have a member recording community.

                  BartK I am going to carry on with the recitals at Piano World as long as l can and as long as there is interest. So, yes, go ahead with the poll. The themed Recitals and ABF quarterly recitals will continue at Piano World.

                  Which is not to say that we can't also do recitals over here. I corresponded with Navindra about it several days ago. My idea was that if it is possible to schedule a time for a post to go public, then we could announce the recital and start a thread for it with instructions in the first post and the deadline for everyone to use. The performers each make a post with their recording and comments, scheduled to go live at the deadline. Then we can have the feel of an online recital, with lots of things to listen to and comment on. And there is considerably less for a recital admin to do.

                  As far as uploading and storing recordings, I don't think that is necessary. It is something we did at PianoWorld to avoid dead links - the recordings now take about 47 Gig for 18 years of recitals! Treat the recital like a live one, and have the performers pledge to keep their recordings live for a month, after that, it is history.

                  As far as Gombessa participating in the recital - anyone can participate - you don't need an account at PW. But unless you have an account, you cannot comment.

                    I like the idea of recitals, as opposed to posting to the Member Recordings section ad hoc. I think it helps with participation, both in making a submission and taking the time to listen to the other participants. Of course, people should post to Member Recordings whenever they want! But I know that I, for one, probably would not do so. In part because if there’s no deadline, I’ll make a better performance some other time! (And ‘some other tine’ most likely will never come to pass).

                    Also, with this new format, I think we can have this less tied to an Adult Beginners thing. While I know that most participants were not beginners, since the switcheroo, I’ve communicated with someone who never really looked at the ABF because she wasn’t a beginner. But I think she’d probably be game to participate in an e-cital.

                      Sgisela I like the idea of recitals, as opposed to posting to the Member Recordings section ad hoc.

                      Me too. Of course, people can (and should) keep sharing their ad hoc recordings, but having a special recital is a great motivator, and wonderful to listen to!

                        Bumping this thread with the latest discussion from the other thread.

                        I believe the ABF (or Learners Lounge) is not the best place to host the recitals because the more advanced pianists may be hesitant to participate. A few people agree with me, a few disagree. What I noticed is that those who agree tend to be the more advanced pianists/learners.

                        Edit: oops didn't see Pallas' post.

                        Pallas What's inclusive about dividing by skill level or experience? And who is going to enforce it? What I always say at the PW recitals is that there are no recital police - it is up to the performer to decide if their piece fits any theme we might have. But if you divide by level or experience it becomes too difficult - and exclusive, not inclusive.

                          I prefer if everyone can join the same recital, pianists and adult learners. If the recitals are going to move to this forum one day I think the members recordings area is the best option.

                            Pallas why not make a forum of its own: PianoTell Recitals, right on the Home page

                            Personally I like this idea. Remember that on PW there is a recital database - you can always go back and review old performances. I don't think we'll have that here since we aren't uploading to a DB. If we have a special forum for it, at least it's all in one place so you can go back and look at old recitals later (although I understand that not all of the performances will be available forever).

                              Pallas I agree with Sam. Once you start breaking it down by ‘levels,’ then you do start being exclusionary, and it seems to be the consensus that we want to encourage as much participation as possible. I think the other issue is simply a numbers one. The ABF recitals get a reasonable number of submissions, but my guess would be that participation here is still going to be a little shy of what we’ve been seeing at ABF. Then if you start breaking it down more, I think you might end up with recitals where only a handful of people participate. If this thing takes off and there are an overwhelming number of submissions, then maybe we could reconsider things, but I suspect that’s not going to be a problem.

                              As to where the recitals should be, I think a dedicated ‘forum’ would be reasonable. There are sometimes long lapses between the recitals where recital-related threads don’t see much activity, but I don’t think this is a problem, and a dedicated forum has the advantage of archiving things in a way that’s more straightforward than if the recitals are in a non-dedicated place. Alternatively, I think Member Recordings is a reasonable spot for them. I’m not opposed to the Learners Lounge, either, but it seems that there’s still some sense that this will dissuade some from participating.

                                Josephine I prefer if everyone can join the same recital, pianists and adult learners. If the recitals are going to move to this forum one day I think the members recordings area is the best option.

                                I fully agree.

                                  In my earlier post within this thread I suggested that Member Recordings would be the appropriate place for recitals. Equally appropriate would be a dedicated Recitals forum provided that the architect of PT does not take the view that it makes the home page too cluttered. For consistency of appearance and content, personally, I would keep recitals out of any other PT forum.

                                  I agree that an individual recital should not be level specific. Come one, come all!

                                  As to whether it should go in the Member's Recording subforum or get its own subforum, I don't have a strong opinion and am happy to leave it to @navindra to decide.

                                  Either way, I envision people posting announcements in the various subfora inviting people to hop over to the recital to listen once it's up. And then it's easy to go back and listen etc. So a distinct forum for that makes sense to me.

                                  As @Sam rightfully pointed out in various discussions, this is not the PW forum. The PW recitals are fine and belong in PW. The discussion about them belongs to PW as well.

                                  Which means that now that we have this shiny new PT forum, all options are still open. I absolutely loved the recitals in PW, but I don't necessarily think that we should copy that exact format to this forum here. I don't have any answers or ideas, but I think it might be wise to keep an open mind on possibilities and not get too hung up on what goes on in there.

                                  Although I personally prefer this forum, I also think it's important not to take away from that forum by copy catting their recital format. Just some thoughts 🙂 As I said, I don't have any answers or specific ideas!