Student Perspectives

Student Writing Contest Finalist, 12-14 age group

I started taking violin lessons at the age of five. Since I played my first piece of sight reading, I knew that it was not going to be easy for me.

Sight reading has always been a challenge for me because when I make a mistake, I naturally pause or go back and try to fix it. This is a problem, especially when I audition for orchestras. Sometimes, there are high notes, odd key signatures, and tricky rhythms in the short sight reading selections for orchestra auditions. These are usually the reasons for my mistakes.…

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Student Writing Contest Finalist, 15+ age group

Sing for the sake of singing
Form the thought of something more.
Your strings are there for you to play
To grow, to learn, to love.

Music is forever, rhythm universal.
We can touch the world
with simple words.
To take them into our hearts
Hold them close, and create our souls—

Something beautiful.

Captured in a child’s smile
The spark of inspiration
To reach out to the world, and perhaps
Hear an echo across time and space—

Something wonderful.

That love of what you do is what shows
That the heart is where talent grows
Something… something…
For one to discover by…

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Student Writing Contest Finalist, 6-8 age group

I have a music family:

My mama plays violin and my papa plays violin and piano, and my sister plays piano and violin. But my family is bigger than that!

In piano I have Mrs. Lee as a teacher. She is like a Music Aunt. Her teacher was Mr. Thompson, who studied at Dr. Suzuki’s Matsumoto institute in Japan. My violin teacher is Mrs. Payton, and she is like another Music Aunt. She studied with Mrs. Schrieber who also studied in Matsumoto with Dr. Suzuki. And my third Music Aunt is…

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Student Writing Contest Finalist, 9-11 age group

When I was eight, my mom asked me and my little sister if we wanted to learn how to play the violin. I was a little nervous, but at the same time I was extremely excited because I had wanted to learn the violin. Even though I started out with a great interest and excitement, there were a few times when I felt frustration.

The year 2009 was the most traumatic but the most thankful year in my ten-year life and will be unforgettable for the rest of my life. My family had a terrible…

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Student Writing Contest Finalist, 9-11 age group

One of my most memorable Suzuki moments happened at the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp Suzuki Institute. On a sunny afternoon during repertoire class in the Pavane, we had a very special visitor. The Pavane is a rustic rehearsal building with a cement floor, and no windows or doors. As we were playing on of our pieces, a medium-sized brown snake slithered right into the building! We all stopped playing because we were really excited! Some frightened people got up on their chairs, and parents were frantically taking pictures.

The…

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Memorizing forty digits of pi? No problem. I’ve already memorized Toccata by Khachaturian when I was eleven and Concerto No. 1 by Bach last year.

Choreographing counts of eight for my gymnastics floor routine? I already know how to count beats of music and subdivide beats to order to incorporate dance moves easier.

Competing a Yurchenko vault that may take me three years of working on it every summer? Sure, I have already memorized four Chopin songs on the piano even though it took nearly a year for each.

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On my fifth birthday my sister came home with a violin. That was how it all started. This is how I came to know Martin Goldman. This is how I came to know the violin.

At first, I hated it. I didn’t like going to class and I didn’t like playing. I would hide under my bed so my mom wouldn’t find me when it was time to practice, among other things. If it weren’t for my mother’s persistence and my teacher’s easygoing manner, I would have dropped out a long time ago. Today I thank my mother and Martin that I didn’t.

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I had been preparing for this trip for a long time. Whether it had been in practicing my instruments, (piano and violin), learning Spanish, or packing clothes, I had done a lot of it, and there was no reason whatsoever to feel nervous about not being ready for my first trip out of the U.S. Needless to say, on the morning of our flight, January 1, 2010, I was so tense, I nearly threw up.

Back in August, I accepted an invitation from Caroline Frazer to come to the 25th International Festival in Lima, Peru. Caroline Fraser, the director of the…

Read more of Reflections on Attending the 25th Annual Suzuki Festival of Lima, Peru »