For the first time, flute training courses were offered at the Bogota Suzuki Festival this past June. Ten participants, all from Bogota, attended the Book 1 class. For the Book 2 class, three of these participants continued into the second week of the festival, and they were joined by Laura Nino and Tarcicio Andrade, who studied Book 1 at the Lima Suzuki Festival in January 2007 and 2008, respectively. Gloria Millan and Diana Bettin had previously taken Book 2 training in Lima (with David Gerry and with Kelly Williamson), and chose to attend the class for a second time in Bogota. And finally, three teachers, Gloria Millan, Diana Bettin, and Juan Manuel Acosta Salazar, participated in the Book 4 class, all for the first time. It was fantastic to have such a large group of teachers, all with excellent playing skills and diverse experiences, come to share with the Suzuki flute community.
Festivals
Articles 1–20 of 23
First International Suzuki Festival in Patagonia
The Festival in Patagonia took place in San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina, from the 10th to the 13th of September, 2008. 40 participants attended the course on Suzuki Philosophy given by the Scottish teacher Caroline Fraser from Perú. Three participants traveled from Caracas, Venezuela, and the rest came from the Argentine cities of Mar del Plata, Neuquén, Cinco Saltos, Zapala, Caviahue, San Martín de los Andes, Villa la Angostura and Bariloche.
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Building Community: The International Suzuki Guitar Festival
On July 7, 2008 we began an exciting new event in the development of Suzuki Guitar in North America: the first International Suzuki Guitar Festival, held at the Santa Clara Convention Center in sunny California. No one knew quite what to expect. This Festival, brought together by the excellent organization and leadership of Frank Longay, director, and Kim Buller, administrator, hosted Suzuki teachers from Sweden, Australia, Spain, Mexico, Canada, Argentina, Chile, Peru, New Zealand and from every corner of the United States. There were 60 students, and 29 teachers taking training. Frank Longay taught Book 1 and ECC; MaryLou Roberts, Book 2; Mychal Gendron, Book 3; and David Madsen, Book 5. Brazilian Drumming and Guitar Styles was taught by Celso Machado, Pickin’ and Grinnin’ by Mark Marston, Chamber Ensemble by Zeah Riordan, iJAM by Michele Horner, and Jazz Improvisation by Seth Himmelhoch. The teachers involved in training sessions were treated to a great variety of teaching styles to observe, with the teaching of Harald Söderberg, and Andy LaFraniere who were teaching student masterclasses.
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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.
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.
Flute at XXIII Festival Internacional de Musica Suzuki in Lima, Peru
Flute Books 2 and 3 were offered for returning teachers, including participants from Peru, Colombia, and Chile, and Book 1 was offered for new Suzuki flute teachers from Peru and Colombia. A new course, Introduction to Flute, was also offered for one teacher who is interested in taking Book 1 next year, but who needed to acquire basic skills on the instrument. As is usual at the Peru festival, all courses save Book 1 and the new introductory course include ten additional hours of “teaching strategies”, in which teachers have the opportunity to give lessons to children participating in the festival, and explore opportunities to develop their skills using the teaching descriptors developed by the SAA.
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V Suzuki Music Festival of Buenos Aires
The 5th Suzuki Music Festival of Buenos Aires took place from September 14th to 23rd, 2007. For the first time at the Buenos Aires festival, there were teacher workshops in flute, thanks in great part to the efforts of Fernando Formigo, who brought a large group of his students to the festival two years ago to give a workshop. Two teacher classes for flute were offered: the Book 2 class had six participants, and the Book 1 class had seven. Teacher participants came from all over Argentina (Patagonia, Bahia Blanca, La Plata, Cordoba, Rosario, and Jujuy as well as Buenos Aires). Two teachers from the January 2007 Book 1 class in Lima also came to Buenos Aires for Book 2, from Colombia and Chile.
IV Suzuki Festival in Guanajuato
Three young festival participants.
Etna Diemecke, Festival Coordinator, reported the following highlights from the IV Suzuki Festival in Guanajuato, Mexico, November 11-15, 2006.
A Gift Across the Miles
Shortly after I returned home from teaching students and training teachers at the 2005 Festival sponsored by Suzuki Association of El Salvador (ASUSAL), one of the new guitar teachers sent an email. She was invited to begin a program at a school nearby, but seventy-five students had signed up and there were only three guitars! A few weeks later at the Colorado Suzuki Institute, I learned that through the “Viva Suzuki!” program, several guitars had been donated. Fortunately through the generosity of this program, three of the guitars were available to be given to the Suzuki Association of El Salvador.
El Salvador Festival, February 2007
After being in sunny, warm Lima, Peru, in January for the Suzuki Festival and returning to winter in the U.S., I was looking forward to more tropical weather in El Salvador three weeks later. And I was not disappointed. Not only was the weather and the countryside beautiful and agreeable, but I was also pleased to see that the Suzuki program is flourishing and growing in this small Central American country. This was the fourth Festival in El Salvador, as they are programmed to happen every other year. Julio Rodriguez, the president of the Suzuki Association of El Salvador, along with his team of parents and teachers, put together a great event for all the participants.
XXII International Suzuki Festival
Lima, Peru, January 8-27, 2007
One of our most inspiring participants was Cecilia Zarate, a former Suzuki piano and violin student from Cordoba, Argentina, home to one of the oldest Suzuki programs in Latin America. Now a professional violinist and teacher, she had studied as a child with Eduardo Ludueña, now Latin America’s newest violin teacher trainer. Cecilia had come to Peru for Nancy Lokken’s course on “How to Teach Musicality,” and for Roxana del Barco’s and Lucha del Rio’s course on “Early Childhood Music.” At the Festival, Cecilia offered to play in the Teachers’ Orchestra that would accompany the student soloists. She asked me to give her the program a little early, a day before the first rehearsal. I had to tell her that it hadn’t yet been set. The program was announced on the morning of the first rehearsal. As she sat in the orchestra that afternoon, during the rests she lightly ran her fingers over her Braille transcriptions of the music. Afterwards, she apologized for occasionally confusing the bowings. A few days later, Cecilia played the entire orchestral concert repertoire from memory. Her serenity and joy was an example for us all.
Experiences in Lima, Peru, 2007
My first experience in Peru was teaching at the XXII International Suzuki Festival in Lima. Two of the three courses I taught while I was there were pedagogy units in violin. Each unit was followed by a 10-hour Teaching Strategies session that was included as part of the unit course. Therefore, the five-day unit course became seven days long.
XXII Festival Internacional de Musica Suzuki
In January 2007, Kelly Williamson joined a faculty of many different Suzuki instrument areas to teach at the XXII Festival Internacional de Musica Suzuki in Lima, Peru. Books 1, 3 and 4 were offered for flute teachers, as well as masterclasses for students.
Flute Book 1 class at XXII Festival Internacional de Musica Suzuki.
III Festival Suzuki, Guanjuato
September 14th-23rd 2005
Pre Festival course, Doris Koppelman writes:
This summer, I was invited by the Suzuki Association of Mexico, to give a workshop for teachers at the University of Guanajuato. The subject was “Technic Through the Repertoire,” which follows the development of technique from Twinkle through the demands of advanced literature. Two of my teenage students, Erin Gable and Adrienne Kwan, came with me. The teachers, some of whom were new to Suzuki, came from various parts of Mexico. Their excitement, enthusiasm, and desire for more knowledge were impressive—even to the point of persuading me to extend the course by several hours!
Suzuki Festival: Great things are happening!
It is amazing what can happen in a country when a whole team of violinists decides to work together for the happiness and growth of the children. I have been honored to be a part of this kind of work in Bogotá, Colombia. In June I taught a great team of violinists for the eighth year in a row. There were 18 teachers enrolled in the Book 7 Teacher Workshop Course, and they all worked hard to master this level of playing and teaching. In the Latin American courses, the teachers play the whole book for the trainer in order to register the course, and almost all of them did this for me. The ones who didn’t will send me a videotape or play next year. There were two teachers who played Book 6 after taking that course last year. So everyone continues at their own pace, as prescribed by Dr. Suzuki, and we keep working toward common goals knowing that we will all get there.
XXI International Suzuki Festival held in Lima, Peru
January 10th-25th, 2006
The Suzuki Association of Peru is very grateful to the SAA and to those who donated to the Latin American Suzuki Scholarship fund. The results of this generosity of spirit are immeasurable and far-reaching. Over sixty foreign scholarship recipients returned to their countries following the festival, with a new vision for their teaching. Many see the Peru festival as a model for their own teacher training programs. This year we hosted teachers from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, México, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.
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Suzuki Festival, Santiago Chile
This past February from the 2nd to 7th, a small Suzuki Festival took place in Santiago de Chile. Its location was the Conservatorio de Música de la Universidad Mayor, which is run by the famous Chilean pianist Roberto Bravo. The prestigious teacher Yasuko Joichi travelled from Chicago to give the piano Book 1 teacher training course. Six teachers received teacher training and ten children took part in masterclasses. These children had the opportunity to complement the excellent classes given by Mrs. Joichi with interesting and entertaining group lessons taught by the Chilean teacher Blancamaria Montesinos. The Festival was organized and…
XXI Festival Suzuki del Perú comentarios de los participantes
Paso a contarte del festival de Lima, Perú, en cuanto a mi experiencia es sumamente rica dado que el nivel encontrado en mis compañeros y en el profesor de capacitación es un nivel alto…muy conforme con todo…creo que volveré el año entrante a cursar otros libros es muy provechoso estos festivales. No quiero dejar de agradecer a la SAA por su colaboración en las becas.
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III Suzuki Festival, Buenos Aires
7th-18th October, 2005
28 Cello Teachers in Argentina!
The first Suzuki cello teacher training course in Argentina was held in Buenos Aires from October 10-16 in beautiful spring weather. Twenty-seven cellists were enrolled: 25 in Book 1 and two in Book 9. Patricia Pasmanter, cellist and president of the Suzuki Association of Buenos Aires, and her staff ably provided for the needs of those enrolled. Four cellists had taken cello teacher training in other countries but they came to audit Book 1 again. This seems to be a pattern in cello study in South America. Patricia and Andrea Espinzo, currently in the Book 9-10 class, have studied Book 1 nine times!
VII Suzuki Festival, Bogota
June 20th-July 5th, 2005
Students from the music reading demonstration class.
Dilva Sanchez, Vice President, Suzuki Association of Colombia writes:
The VII Suzuki Festival of Colombia ended and, as happens every year, we are left feeling satisfied after seeing new teachers taking courses and new students participating in the festival. Many teachers have consistently continued their training. This year we had 16 violin teachers in Book 6, six in piano Book 4, and in the second year of offering guitar, we had six teachers in Book 2.
