I apologize up front for not writing more in the past few
weeks. I have several blog posts in the works, but I have had very limited time
to spend to finish them. I have played symphony concerts, children’s concerts,
and ballet performances, and the Artisan Quartet has been heavily involved in
preparations for our next Beethoven string quartet installment this Memorial
Day weekend. Somewhere in there I have been squeezing in a few short runs to
kick off a new running season with an eye toward the fall (San Antonio Rock
& Roll Half Marathon in November anyone?).
Despite my busy season, however, I want to share with you
about the value of celebration, because this is a good time for commemorating
what we have accomplished during the past school year, from last September
through the current May. Many studios in the United States will offer end of
the school year performances and recitals, where students will have an
opportunity to exhibit the skills and abilities they have accomplished this
year.
My studio – the Wildflower Suzuki Studio – gave its spring
concert Sunday afternoon. We held it in the recital hall of the Texas State
Music Department, so it was quite a momentous occasion for the students to
perform in a real concert hall with an excellent piano and resonant acoustics.
The atmosphere was formal enough to lend a sober reflective quality to the
occasion; students dressed up in their finest clothes and parents set up video
cameras and flashed smart phones about to capture photographic memories.
This year I added something new to the program. Rather than
the usual program with the students and their pieces listed, I added a short
biographical sketch of the students. When I first thought about the recital
program, I reflected on how richly I knew my students and what some of their
outside interests, hobbies, and accomplishments were, but that few people
shared that knowledge with me. Along with the child’s age, grade, and school, I
added a few more sentences to paint a more complete portrait about the child.
For example, one of my older students has studied Korean for
several years and is about to begin studying Chinese; she wants to teach in
Taiwan. She loves all things Asian. Another student (8 years old) is a champion
rodeo rider (belt buckle winner). The studio boasts a volleyball champion, a
ballerina, a singer, a whistler (yes, she can whistle!), a figure skater, a
Karate student, and students who play basketball, hockey, baseball, and who
swim, jump on trampolines, and run cross country and hula hoop.
We have Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts, a fiddle champion, horse
riders and owners, writers, animal lovers and trainers, and students who can
play more than one instrument. We have students who participate in community
orchestra, youth orchestras, string music camps, and Suzuki institutes, and students who have part
time jobs. We have students who have practiced every day for 100 days, 200 days
or one year, and one student who has not skipped a day of practice since she was
five (she is now graduating from high school). The list goes on.
But my celebration list does not stop with the students. I
want to celebrate the fact that my students’ parents have made this journey
with my students and me. The parents have hung on when practice sessions got
tough, when students (and parents?) were tired and cranky, and when life’s
busy-ness interfered with practice schedules. The parents were willing to bring
students to regular lessons and group classes and other community performances.
Some families have more than one child and more than one activity to attend each week, and
these parents had much to juggle in their weekly schedules. I wanted to
celebrate and recognize the parents’ contributions to the students’ success as
well.
Yearly recitals are excellent opportunities to bring everyone
together in one place and take a celebratory look at the fruit that the past
year’s lessons and classes and practice sessions have yielded. Students enjoy
the opportunity to show what they have learned, parents enjoy patting
themselves on the back for all the hard work done at home, and teachers can
memorialize the year’s progress in the recital program.
Some of my fondest childhood memories centered around piano
and violin recitals. I recall my parents taking my sister and me out to the ice
cream parlor after a performance, which was always a big treat! One year my
parents gave us portable transistor radios. Some of my readers may be too young
to know what a transistor radio is (one of the early forerunners to an ipod or
MP3 player but much larger and needing batteries). I loved my radio; it was my most treasured possession! I went to
sleep every night with the music playing under my pillow. I loved recitals if
it meant that we would have ice cream and get cool gifts like radios!
Recital celebrations serve another important purpose that will touch both the students and the parents. Recitals allow students and parents to
watch other students. A young beginner has the opportunity to watch a
graduating high school senior play something in book 11 (something outside and
beyond the Suzuki book 10 level). A beginning student’s parent can see what is
possible if the parent is willing to commit to a regular practice and listening
schedule. Older students and their parents can serve as role models and mentors
for younger and less advanced students and their inexperienced parents. Younger,
less advanced students will serve as reminders of where all students begin in
the process of ability development.
Perhaps my most favorite part about the recital celebration
is when parents share all their photos from the event. I receive photo and video
links on Facebook, in email, and via text messages for days afterwards. It is
so fun to keep a photographic record of how children look at a particular age
or stage of progress. I can quickly assess which children have grown and need a
new size violin or a different shoulder rest or sponge.
So if you have not yet had your celebration, take some time this week to plan one.
I just remembered what my absolutely most favorite thing about a spring recital is. It is the reception afterwards, when my studio parents and students
can visit and congratulate each other. And, someone always brings chocolate
cupcakes. I love chocolate cupcakes!
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