WonderPiano students take St Chad’s audience around the world with music

Date published: 09 August 2021

Dedicated piano students have taken an audience around the world with this year’s WonderPiano musical concert at St Chad’s Parish Church.

The July concert is an annual event, displaying the talents of classically-trained pianist Margarita Capas’ students, which has a different theme each year.

Over the course of an hour, an ensemble of 30 children and young adults of all abilities – from beginner to the highest Grade 8 - took their audience on a global journey with a repertoire including music from Italy, Armenia, Scotland, Morocco, Turkey, as well as Margarita’s home country, Lithuania.

Speaking after the event, Margarita, of Castleton, said: “I’m on such a high! It is a big event which is full of emotion and no concert is ever the same. This is the sixth one and I’m already thinking about the next one.”

Margarita hopes to host a Christmas WonderPiano concert and said some possible themes for upcoming performances could include dance, as well as a Disney theme.

The first WonderPiano concerts showcasing her students’ talents took place in Maragarita’s living room for three years, before quickly moving to her garden. From there, she knew she needed a larger venue, and the performance has since taken place at St Chad’s at the end of the school year.

Margarita, who has lived in Rochdale for around seven years, began playing the piano under the tutelage of her piano teacher mother. As a teenager, she began helping out to earn more pocket money before studying her passion further at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. She has over 15 years of experience as a qualified teacher, plus degrees in music education, piano accompaniment and piano performance, and was the 2010/11 John Wilson Junior Fellow in Accompaniment at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Under her WonderPiano brand, Margarita has taught people of all ages and abilities to play the piano with many achieving distinctions in their exams with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.

For more information about Margarita and WonderPiano, please visit WonderPiano's Facebook page.

Photos: Kristina Zvinakeviciute