Fun piano syllabus updates and more at Trinity Malaysia's event

A few weeks ago, I got to take a behind the scenes look at Trinity Malaysia's Associates Celebration event where around 200 invited guests joined them for the launch of their exciting new Piano syllabus and several interesting new opportunities for teachers to upskill themselves. 

The New Piano Syllabus

Before the presentations started, I got to take a peek at the new Piano exam pieces and I thought they seemed incredibly fun! In addition to the standard classical repertoire, I even spotted Mixed Nuts, one of the themes from Spy X Family that I've been listening to on repeat this year, amonst their Grade 7 piano exam pieces. This really surprised me! I was not expecting anime themes to be among the selections for their music exam pieces, and definitely not ones that were released as recently as 2022. 

via GIPHY

In addition to the standard classical repertoire, these were the interesting pieces I noted from each grade in their new Piano exam syllabus:

Initial: The Pokémon Theme

Grade 1: Titanium (the David Guetta one!)

Grade 2: Hedwig's Theme from Harry Potter

Grade 3: Once Upon a December from Anastasia

Grade 4: Star Wars: Main Theme

Grade 5: Clocks (the Coldplay one!)

Grade 6: The Journey to the West from Princess Mononoke

Grade 7: To Zanarkand from Final Fantasy X

Grade 8: Cha-La Head-Cha-La from Dragon Ball Z

"We want the process of preparing for a Trinity assessment to develop candidates as performers, not exam-takers. That's why our syllabus is fun to learn and perform," said Lim U-Jin, National Manager, Trinity College London. 

Learn more about their exams and syllabus here.

Check out their books featuring these pieces in their online store. 

Upskilling for Teachers

There were also several new initiatives presented by the Trinity Malaysia team that provides opporrtunities for teachers to continue to upskill themselves in an increasingly competitive industry. These included:

A free two-hour introduction to Drama and Communications skills for teachers, titled Project Yourself! at Trinity's offices in Plaza Mont Kiara.

An in-person workshop, also at their Mont Kiara offices, for violin and viola teachers in their Violin / Viola Fundamentals and Repertoire series which explores teaching strategies for intermediate students at the Grads 4 and 5 level. 

And finally, The Virtuoso's Lounge - Trinity Malaysia Edition, an online subscription to classes by Virtuosity.online that support violinists and violists teaching the Trinity syllabus. 

"Part of our goal to transform lives through the power of performance is to also uplift the overall standard of education in the performing arts. We've partnered with great organisations in the region and around the world to bring those learning opportunities to the teachers who in turn, transform the lives of their students," Lim U-Jin, National Manager, Trinity College London shared. 

Find all their courses available on the Trinity College London Malaysia website.