Cello Unit 1
Feb 11 – May 6, 2018 in Toronto, ON, Canada
at Royal Conservatory of Music

Open to new and experienced cello teachers!

Duration: 8 sessions—28 hours + observations

Dates (10am-3:30pm for all / including breaks & observation time):

• Sunday, January 21
• Sunday, January 28
• Sunday, February 11
• Sunday February 18
• Sunday, March 4
• Sunday, March 11
• Sunday, March 25
• Sunday, April 8

NOTE: The registration deadline for Unit one is two weeks before the start dates listed above. All audition materials for Unit 1 Courses must be submitted 10 days prior to course start. Please click here to visit the SAA website for the requirements of the audition video tape.

Unit One Topics will include:

• How to set up a child on their instrument
• The basic bow and left hand techniques involved in Book one repertoire
• The development of technique and tone.
• Strategies for working with young children
• Group classes strategies.
• How to enable the parent to both work with their children and establish regular home practice.
• Discussion of how to establish and build a Suzuki Studio
• A detailed study of the Suzuki repertoire
• The role of the group class in the Suzuki Method
• Research into Early Childhood Development
• Discussion of the Parent/Teacher/Student triangle
• Musical motivation—how to create it in the studio
• Use of supplementary materials

Prerequisites:

• A high school diploma
• Active membership status in the Suzuki Association of the Americas
• Completion of ‘Every Child Can!’
• Approved videotaped audition through the SAA at the appropriate level for the course by the required deadline. Please see more details at: https://suzukiassociation.org/teachers/training/

Course Preparation:

• All participants in the Teacher Development Program are asked to prepare the repertoire to be studied to the point of fluent performance. Memorization is not required but is recommended.
• Participants should be conversant with the ideas presented in Dr. Suzuki’s book Nurtured by Love.

Course Requirements

• 100% in class attendance is required in all of the Unit courses.
• Teacher participants are required to observe lessons given by the trainer as well as those of other teachers. Participants will have the opportunity to do some observations by video; the trainer may provide videotapes of students having lessons in the trainers’ home studio.
• Repertoire will be performed in class as part of the study of each book.
• There will be some written course work.
• Participants will have the opportunity to have a short one-on-one consultation with the Teacher Trainer.

About the Instructor:

Susan Gagnon is an SAA Cello Teacher Trainer, holds the SAA’s Certificate of Achievement and was 2010 Conference Chamber Music Co-Coordinator. Susan Gagnon holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Western Ontario. Susan was the recipient of a Canada Council grant to attend master-classes at the Banff School of Fine Arts with Janos Starker, Aldo Parisot, and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi. She has played with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra since 1983. Ms. Gagnon has been on the faculty of the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto since 1984 where she is the Suzuki department coordinator and a core member of the Young Artists Performance Academy faculty. She is an examiner for the Royal Conservatory of Music, authored the last three Cello Syllabi and compiled the 2013 RCM cello series books. She also is a member of the Canadian Federation of Adjudicators. Susan is past Chair of the Suzuki Association of Ontario. She has taught at Suzuki Institutes in both Canada and the United States and at Music at Port Milford, a chamber music camp for teens, since 1995.