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.

Sunday’s Key Note speaker, Martin Rüttimann, from Basel, Switzerland presented inspiring and thoughtful insights in his talk entitled: “Suzuki in a Changing Environment.” Martin, the first European to give the Key Note to a SAO Conference, included in his talk moving testimonials from Dr Suzuki’s discussion with William Starr, several humorous reflections of his own childhood as a not-so-easy Suzuki student… as well as what he has learned in his many roles including former Chair of the ESA and ISA.

Yes, the environment is a familiar term to Suzuki teachers but Martin also wove many Suzuki concepts into his eye-catching screen presentation, challenging the viewers to re-think each one. Heraclitus wrote: “you can never step into the same river twice” so how do we Suzuki teachers distinguish the concepts of ‘repeat’ and ‘review’?

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.

Ontario includes a vibrant community of Suzuki teachers. Martin suggested each of us acknowledge our own strengths and weaknesses as teachers while doing the same for all our colleagues. Striving to better appreciate the MANY strengths of each colleague will
benefit our entire Suzuki community in Ontario.