I will never forget watching Vladmir Horowitz's performance of this in his famous Moscow concert. Obviously I was not there in person, but I have watched my copy of that performance over and over again. Seeing that performance is what drew me to want to record this piece, which then led me to record several others among the "Scenes from Childhood" of which "Dreaming" is only one segment.

I have been told that this particular piece was a favorite "encore" piece of the great Vladmir Horowitz. My music teacher encouraged me to study this one and it did not take long at all to come to adore this quick-paced etude. Hopefully the "sparks" that give this piece it's common name are portrayed appropriately through this recording.

This is one of Chopin's most popular Etudes. It is great for the left hand and provides some challenging reaches (for small to mid-sized hands). This was the piece I played to win first-place at a local talent competition back in my first year of college. I've always enjoyed playing this one and it seems to be a pretty good crowd-pleaser.

The first time I saw this performed was in a master-class at BYU. I thought it looked fun, and I've always been attracted to the "heavier" sounding music. This one actually has some very fun chord progressions in it that didn't stand out to me until I had been through several hours of practicing. Maybe the more astute listeners will pick up on those much more quickly than I did.

This etude is great for strengthening the technique of octaves for both hands. It is quite simple in form but provides a fun and unique method for practicing octave scales and runs.

My daughter loves to play pretend while I play this one. She pretends that she is chasing butterflies... I think that is a perfect use of imagery for this piece. It is commonly called the "black keys" etude because the right hand plays almost exclusively the black keys of the piano. It is a light, but fast-paced etude that is very enjoyable to listen to and probably even more enjoyable to play.

This is from the "Scenes from Childhood" set of works that Schumann composed. This is one that I always enjoyed playing and experimenting with the pedalling.

This was the first Bach piece that I ever memorized. I shouldn't admit this, but it actually took me a couple of weeks to commit to memory (sad, but true). The encouraging thing is that memorization definitely comes easier the more you do it :)