View a video of the SAA Violin Committee’s presentation on the revised Suzuki violin books from the 2008 Conference. The presentation includes a comprehensive overview of the newly published Suzuki Violin School Volumes 1, 2 and 3 and their recordings. The committee outlines the history and mechanics of the revision process, and the procedure for the compilation, editing and publication of future volumes.
News
Video Presentation on the New Violin Books
ECE Brain Research Receives Grammy Foundation Funding
Laurel Trainor, director the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind has been awarded a grant from the Grammy Foundation to study the effects of Suzuki ECE music lessons on infants. She and research partner David Gerry hope to show that Suzuki ECE can improve their perceptual, cognitive and social development. Dr. Trainor was the keynote at the recent Research Symposium on Talent Education at the 2008 SAA Conference.
Spring ASJ (36.3)
The Spring 2008 American Suzuki Journal is now being mailed to current SAA members. Look for it in your mail soon!
In this issue…
- Rodney’s Fabulous Adventure
- Meet the Cavani Quartet
- Watching the Leader
Corrections
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Please save the listings on this Journal mail sheet as an addendum to your 2008 Member Directory. We apologize that our Group members were missing from that publication.
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Thanks to Katie Coneary for the cover photo of Bejamin Verdery in ASJ vol. 36.2.
Annual Meeting & New Board Members Welcomed
The SAA’s Annual Meeting took place on Friday, May 23, at the Hilton Minneapolis. The agenda included an enthusiastic welcome to new Board members: Marilyn Kesler (MI), Elizabeth Stuen-Walker (WA) and Mark George (CT). The Board appreciates their willingness to serve and looks forward to working with them. Their terms begin August 1, 2008.
In addition, the Board thanked four outgoing members: Beth Goldstein-McKee, Gail Lange, Dave Madsen and Mary Elizabeth (Betty) Wahlig. The amazing skills and dedication of each of them will be greatly missed! We are fortunate that each will continue service through involvement in numerous other SAA activities.
The Annual Meeting also featured the traditional “Board skit.” The theme—brought home clearly to all present!—was “it’s on the web.” The Board encourages all members, potential members, families and friends to visit the SAA’s ever-growing website often for news and information.
New Chapter Welcomed
Over the past Memorial Day weekend, at the 13th Conference in Minneapolis, the SAA was delighted to announce Heart of America Suzuki Association’s Chapter Affiliation. Founded in 1979 by Beth Titterington, HASA is one of the oldest Suzuki associations in the Americas. They have a large membership base that is concentrated in the Kansas City area and additionally surrounding counties on both the Kansas and Missouri sides.
Second Annual Costa Rica Suzuki Festival
This was my second time at the Festival, at the invitation of Lidia Blanco, President of the Costa Rica Suzuki Society I had met Lidia for the first time at the Latin Suzuki Festival in Peru and then again at the International Suzuki Conference in Torino, Italy. We had become amigas bound together by the love and magic of teaching with the Suzuki Method.
IV Latin American Suzuki Teachers’ Conference
“Unidos hacia un sueño común”
Lima, Peru
January 12-14, 2008
More than seventy-five teachers from thirteen countries including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, EEUU, Scotland, México, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela attended the IV Latin American Suzuki Teachers’ Conference held in Lima, Peru in January.
Read more of IV Latin American Suzuki Teachers’ Conference »
XXIII International Suzuki Festival
Lima, Peru
January 5-24, 2008
Over 200 teachers and 400 students attended this successful event held in Newton College in the capital city of Peru. The SAA teacher trainers were Marilyn O’Boyle, Nancy Lokken, Nancy Hair, Virginia Dixon, MaryLou Roberts, Doris Koppelman and Mary Halverson Waldo, all from the USA; Kelly Williamson from Canada; Eduardo Ludueña and Fernando Piñero from Argentina; Caroline Fraser from Peru and for the first time Mary McCarthy from Scotland.
Chair’s Column
There are stories out there. Teachers know them. I have a Suzuki teacher friend who received a call from a woman, now 32, who took Suzuki violin lessons while in foster care as a five year old. She was only able to take for a year and a half while in that foster home, but remembers her lessons, particularly the group lessons, and performing at the Mall. Those are among her precious childhood memories. This teacher and I marveled that she remembered so much and then were just amazed that a foster parent would enroll a child in a Suzuki program even if for a short time. Obviously that foster parent thought it would make a difference and it did. The young woman is now a mother and is seeking the same opportunity for her two small children.
Meet the Cavani Quartet
Photo by Christian Steiner.
Annie Fullard, Violin
Mari Sato, Violin
Kirsten Docter, Viola
Merry Peckham, Cello
It was a pleasure to interview the Cavani String Quartet for the SAA Board’s series “Meet Our Honorary Board Members.” We had an engaging hour filled with intellectual conversation, passion towards music and music education, as well as tons of laughter. This is a quartet that lives its craft in all aspects of life. The Sato Center for Suzuki Studies at CIM is proud to have their children enrolled in our program. Their enthusiasm for music and its impact on the world energizes all of us as we continue our daily routines of changing the world through music. I feel a renewed energy for my mission as I write this interview. I hope that you will feel the same.