Chair’s Column

By Lynne Oliverius

Optimizing Light

Are we the light that creates “A better world, one learner at a time, nurtured by love through Suzuki education”? Our new vision statement is the pathway for guiding our future work. Each student or learner is important, and by using our skills as Suzuki educators, we nurture them with love and create a better world. 

How can we embody this directive in our own teaching, our studios, schools, communities, and in our relationships? Optimize Light.  

In my first Chair’s Column in the Fall 2025 issue, I spoke of us as educators being lights that lead and our collective endeavor to shine as a beacon of light in this world. We as Suzuki educators are highly innovative at teaching concepts of proper positioning, technique, musicality, and a myriad of other skills that add to our learners’ education. Remembering in our endeavors of sharing the light, that passing the flame from our candle to others in turn is a gift to ourselves.  Our joy grows in giving and is often multiplied but never diminished.

Here are some practical ideas for sharing and optimizing light.

Be present. Truly being engaged, listening and observing intently, honoring and respecting other voices show presence. This light gift is a nurturing by love that connects us in a deeper way through head and heart.

Share joy. True joy is recognizable. It is seen, felt, and allows for a comfortable resting place. Joy can take place in a moment of applause or in a sweet smile. Sometimes it’s tricky to find that joy moment. It can be a tiny flicker of awareness to a concept or a gesture of kindness. It’s always there and being a joy detective amplifies shared happiness.

Acts of kindness and accepting kindness. These are glowing light opportunities to both share and receive gestures of goodness that find homes in our hearts. Words and acts of kindness carry great opportunities for creating a better world. Remembering that we can choose minute by minute how we move through the world and affect both ourselves and others helps keep the desire for positivity and kindness at the forefront. Genuinely accepting loving kindness and goodness is a gift to the giver and a blessing to the receiver.

Patience and compassion. We Suzuki educators are quite masterful in our acts of patience and compassion. We know how to demonstrate the same skill in myriad ways all the while maintaining a calm and steady flame. I agree that sometimes my flame does flicker after the 100th reminder of a bow hold or a positioning concept. Compassion is a nurturing by love that allows the path to be lit by a single flame of understanding. 

Shared knowledge. Say yes to lighting the way for a student, a school, your community and relationships with others. Giving your skills in an uplifting manner enhances connectivity. Time is a valuable commodity for all of us and choosing to share is a selfless personal act that is love giving and helps to create a better world. To you it may seem like a small gesture to share a musical concept, a business insight, or offer a helping hand, yet, to the receiver, it could mean everything. 

All these elements connect us to our vision statement and indeed lead us to a better world.

Colleagues, you all have many more ideas on how to optimize and share light and I would love to hear from you through the board email on the website or in person at the February conference in San Francisco.

Optimize and share light. In doing so, you gift others with joy, kindness, and love, and in turn strengthen and expand the light within yourself. For it is in giving that we receive.

Sincerely,

Lynne Oliverius, Chair of the SAA Board of Directors