My DD is a piano student. She's easily late intermediate level-- but she is also easily frustrated and gets BORED with works long before she has perfected them, generally speaking. Due to her suspected CTD, she can't really play for a LONG time, and her hands are very very small, so her reach is about a 10th even with her very long fingers.
She's also not 100% on board with the traditional western European classical idiom.
She doesn't necessarily like to PLAY what she likes to listen to, but loves jazz, swing, and folk music, particularly that from E. Europe.
Thus far, her very favorite piano study works have been:
Bartok's Romanian Dance suite (Op 56, I believe)
Mozart Rondo Alla Turca
Bach 2-part Invention No. 8
Debussy's Golliwog's cakewalk (though she dislikes most of the French Impressionist composers)
Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag
Kabalevsky-- assorted miniatures
She also loves to play show tunes and tweak/arrange/improvise on the fly.
What I'm after is more of that E. European folk idiom written for keyboard-- in miniatures/suites. She loves that stuff, and it definitely helps her technique. Miniatures are short enough that she doesn't get bored before she's extracted learning from them. She likes pretty high tempo works-- no minimalist, dreamy stuff for her. She can play Debussy or Satie to make you cry, but she just yawns (which really ruins the effect for her audience, I must say).
Russians? I'm just not familiar enough with this body to pick out miniatures that might appeal to her, and her teacher really isn't either (being an early music specialist herself).
