Conference 2022 Announcement

We are excited to share that we will be hosting an online conference for 2022. Unfortunately, we are not able to offer an in-person conference in 2022 due to Covid-19 travel restrictions and public health concerns.

Now that the arrangements to hold the conference online have been finalized, we are contacting the 2020 Conference Coordinators to begin planning for the spring. Stay tuned for updates!

While we will miss seeing everyone in-person this year, we look forward to being able to gather online. We will be hosting an in-person conference in Minneapolis in 2024. Please look out for future updates in Short Score and on our website.

	GIVING TUESDAY

This Giving Tuesday, the SAA will be launching a donation campaign for people of all ages. Suzuki members should keep an eye out for an email and are encouraged to invite community members to help with a donation of any amount. The campaign will run through the end of the year.

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	PIANO PRACTICE CHALLENGE

The First Online Piano Practice Challenge of the Americas will take place from February 27 to March 27, 2022. The event will strengthen the Suzuki Piano community of the Americas through a shared practice experience, providing motivation to practice in a different and fun way. It will also encourage sharing cultural music between countries, creating a rich communal archive. To learn how to get your students involved.

To read the full event description in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

	IN MEMORIAM

It is with great sadness that we share the passing of Suzuki community member Lorraine Ellen Greenfield Westermark. She taught more than 280 private students and lived by the motto “I can and I will.” Her obituary can be found here.

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	COMMUNICATING HONOR FOR DIVERSITY

Nineteen SAA members from 12 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces made up the second cohort of Communicating Honor for Diversity that completed its seminar on November 7. They practiced five communications strategies that address bias through appreciative inquiry, nurture conversations among people with different views, and develop learning-in-action plans to increase diversity in every environment. Four geographic groups have begun learning processes in these areas:

• Ensure that Suzuki families know how to access information about the philosophy, parent contributions, and practice methods in the language they best understand
• Compile and commission pedagogically appropriate materials by diverse composers 
• Develop an instrument bank and low-cost lesson structure
• Create cards that feature First Nation/Indigenous musician and composers

Both cohorts will continue to meet once per quarter to share and reflect on their projects to identify and overcome potential stumbling blocks together.

-Nwandi Lawson of the Virtues Collective

	ASJ NEWS

The next issue of the American Suzuki Journal is coming to your mailbox soon! This issue celebrates first-time authors who have never submitted to the publication before. Here’s a sneak peek at our feature, where Suzuki piano teacher Jean Kountz digs into the captivating story of the only woman composer represented in the Suzuki piano repertoire. SAA Members can read the article here.

February 1 is the next deadline for submitting to the ASJ. We welcome submissions from any members of our Suzuki community — even, and especially, if you’re “not a writer.” We hope to increase representation in our pages from authors who are diverse in terms of instrumentation, geography, race, ethnicity, gender, ability, age, and more. Manuscript guidelines can be found here.. Please email questions to allie@suzukiassociation.org.

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	SPA

Looking for a SPA course?

Suzuki Association of Utah

Springville, UT
Jan 27-28

Instructor: Jane Kutscher Reed

Click here for details.

	READ THIS

The Talent Education Journal Archive is online, courtesy of the International Suzuki Association. The journal has original articles from Dr. Suzuki on pedagogy and philosophy and is worth digging into if you haven’t already:

https://internationalsuzuki.org/tej-archive

	CANADA

Hot Off the Press: The SAO celebrates a weekend of firsts

This past weekend, Canada’s only Chapter Affiliate, the SAO (Suzuki Association of Ontario) hosted its first ever virtual Conference with clinicians Mark Mutter, Myra Leung, Carmen Evans, Sally Gross, and Nicole Wilton offering very successful Saturday classes to 137 students hailing from all over the province of Ontario.

Kudos to the Conference team: Debbie Hammond, Geneviève Schirm-Joyce, and Rebecca Ashworth for organizing a stimulating November 2021 Conference. Sincere thanks also to the rest of the Board of SAO, who this past year worked diligently to update the organizational and governance structure of the SAO to better reflect our current provincial laws.   

Sunday’s Key Note speaker, Martin Rüttimann, from Basel, Switzerland presented inspiring and thoughtful insights in his talk entitled: “Suzuki in a Changing Environment.”

For a full update on Martin’s talk and a French translation from the Canadian Suzuki Visioning Committee, click here.

	SUZUKI SUGGESTIONS

Are you reading anything good that you’d recommend to other Suzuki community members? Share what you’re reading at this link (Suzuki-related or not) and we’ll feature responses in the next newsletter: https://forms.gle/Vz1u4ZkhhzcykQd26

	SHORT SCORE SUBMISSIONS

Please send content to be considered for Short Score inclusion to allie@suzukiassociation.org by the 10th of each month. While we cannot promote individual events or studios, we welcome short reflections on teaching and learning, cultural celebrations, book or podcast reviews, etc.

	MUSIC TEACHER EMAIL SCAMS

The SAA is aware of growing concern about email scams. Please be informed that any time you have your email address online, including posting your information on our Teacher Location search, you are open to receiving these sorts of emails.

One specific scam currently circulating requests lessons for a child traveling from abroad, whereby the parent plans to send a check to the teacher. The teacher is instructed to cash the check and keep their fee, but send the rest of the funds to a “caregiver”.

If you receive email that you believe to be deceptive or suspicious, please forward it to spam@uce.gov . The Federal Trade Commission uses these spam reports to take law enforcement actions against those who send deceptive email. Other valuable information about limiting the amount of spam you receive and protecting your personal information may be found at the FTC website.

	OUR SUZUKI COMMUNITY

Have a great picture to share? We are looking for photos of students performing in their community. Did you invite the neighborhood to a book recital? Or the general public to a group concert? Have you played in an assisted living facility, street fair, or mall? Submit your own picture today!

Many thanks to our

Premier Business Members:

Alfred Music

Clarion Associates, Inc.

Johnson String Instrument

Shar Music

William Harris Lee

If you are interested in becoming a Premier Business Member please contact Terrence McKenzie.

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The Suzuki Association of the Americas is a nonprofit organization of teachers, parents, and educators dedicated to the advancement of the Suzuki Method in the Americas.

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Suzuki Association of the Americas
PO Box 17310, Boulder CO 80308
Phone:1-888-378-9854
https://suzukiassociation.org