Education Composers – Page 2

The Eugénie Rocherolle Collection

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews

Eugénie Rocherolle (1936-2025) was born and raised in New Orleans. The music of the city would inspire her compositions throughout her life. She also spent formative time in France, studying with the legendary Nadia Boulanger in Paris, and later returning to explore the country with her growing family.

Although her career as a published composer began with choral and band music, Rocherolle’s teaching expertise and pianistic instincts soon propelled her to be one of the top educational piano composers of her generation.

In her later decades, Hal Leonard’s Eugénie Rocherolle Series brought well-deserved international fame, and grew to include more than 30 collections of original piano solos, duets, and superbly crafted arrangements of pop and jazz favourites.

Eugénie Rocherolle’s Reflective Piano Solos

Eugénie Rocherolle’s ‘Reflective Piano Solos” is the latest addition to the many superb publications in her Hal Leonard series. But is it what it seems?

Eugénie Rocherolle’s Romantic Stylings

“Romantic Stylings” is as easy to recommend as it is to review: eight superb and varied intermediate pieces, which are bound to bring joy to players at around UK Grade 4-5 level.

Eugénie Rocherolle’s Fantasia del Tango

For those who enjoy the tango genre, this collection is an easy winner, offering engaging material delivered with excellent attention to the needs of the intermediate player, and with genuine stylistic affection.

In Summer 2024, while preparing a compilation of her favourite works, Rocherolle was diagnosed with stomach cancer. The heart-breaking news focused attention on completing this long-planned anthology of pieces for Late Intermediate players (around UK Grades 5-6).

The Eugénie Rocherolle Collection includes two new, final compositions, and was ultimately completed by Hal Leonard editor Charmaine Siagian following the composer’s passing away on 4th March 2025.

Ben Crosland’s Jazz Beans!

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews

Ben Crosland’s Magic Beans for elementary players was one of the very first (and remains one of the best) music books to be reviewed on Pianodao, and in that review (which you can read here) I mentioned other Beans books in the series, Cool Beans and Easy Beans, concluding:

“To summarise, the ‘Beans’ publications establish Ben Crosland as a major voice in educational composing. The whole series is outstanding, and ‘Magic Beans’ easily lives up to the very high standards set by its predecessors.”

Crosland has subsequently concentrated on developing his career composing reflective contemporary pieces in the style popularised by Ludovico Einaudi and others.

Returning with new educational publications, Crosland’s Jazz Beans! series marks a welcome reappearance of three books which were previously published as Get Set Jazz, freshly baked for the Beans series. Suitable for Easy (Grades 0-2), Intermediate (2-4), and Advanced (4-7) players respectively, let’s find out how they taste…

Eugénie Rocherolle’s Fantasia del Tango

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews

Among the American piano composers to gain prominence since William Gillock (1917-1993), Eugénie Rocherolle (b.1936) is certainly a leading light, and I have increasingly taken an interest in her work as it has steadily become more familiar here in the UK. To find out about her other recent publications, you can check my previous reviews here.

A few months back, her 2016 collection Fantasia del Tango appeared in a new edition here, and it’s another firm winner. Read on to find out more…

Angeline Bell’s Garden Notebook

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews

Angeline Bell’s Lyrical and Quirky Notebooks were a highlight of 2023, and so much so that in my review of them here I concluded,

“With these two collections, Angeline Bell has certainly burst onto the scene with music that has the same explosive energy as the flora and fauna erupting from the pianos on her book covers. On the strength of these, her debut publications, she can be greeted as a major talent.”

Editions Musica Ferrum recently published Bell’s third Notebook, My Garden Notebook. This latest collection is suitable for players from elementary to early intermediate, around UK Initial to Grade 4. and offers:

“24 easy and melodious piano solos inspired by nature.”

Time to find out whether this new collection lives up to the inspiration of its predecessors…

Eugénie Rocherolle’s Reflective Piano Solos

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews

When I recently reviewed Mona Rejino’s Reflections and Relaxations collection (you can read the review here), I noted that the cover image and title suggested it to be part of the current trend for books of calm, relaxing music in the popular ambient classical style, but that in the event it proved to be something different.

It’s therefore with a sense of déjà vu that I now bring you my review of another Hal Leonard title that appeared around the same time. Here, again, the title perhaps implies a relaxed book of soothing adagios, a lovely cover photograph seems to underline this expectation, and the book promises “11 Beautiful Moods and Styles”.

But once again, this proved to be a different (but no less enjoyable) collection to the one I initially expected. Let’s dip in…