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It’s Time
Time to start thinking about how to keep your child(ren) practising for the long summer months ahead.
My studio has already started filling up with brochures for Suzuki Summer Institutes. These are camps for Suzuki students and their accompanying parent, held at universities around Canada and the U.S. They are approved by the Suzuki Association of the Americas, and most of the teachers are excellent.
The camp is a very busy week of private and group lessons, concerts, parent events, and options such as choir, jazz improvisation, drama, fiddling, etc. Many institutes now have teen programmes such as chamber music, orchestra and drama. Teens need not be accompanied by an adult. In general, this is a week where you and your child are steeped in music from morning to night, and a very rich and rewarding experience. Later on in the SUZNEWS you’ll find a listing of Suzuki Summer Institutes in this area; feel free to talk to your teacher about these different programmes.
For those of us who want to stay closer to home this year, I’m proposing a series of music barbeque/Play-Ins. These could take place in local parks or back yards for the string instruments, and closer to home for the pianos. Before summer rolls along, we’ll be distributing questionnaires to interested families, and preparing a list for the summer. It would only take 8 families to plan a party for each weekend of the summer – so the possibilities are endless!
How about finding a teen-age practise buddy for your budding pre-twinkler over the summer months? Pay them like a babysitter, but instead of having them put on a video, ask them to do PRACTISE AND REVIEW.
This could also be the time to search out some new music for your older child. Order something they’ve been wanting to play, or just browse through a music shop for something that might catch their eye.
Whatever you want to do this summer, this is the time to start thinking and planning for it.
Judy Olmstead-O’Regan