Meet My Students!

(above) Betsy's lesson with Beth Goldstein-McKee at the 2009 Suzuki Festival in Lima

Giving Betsy a lesson

After our Christmas concert in 2008

Cellist Picture!
Gillian, Keyla, Diana, Betsy and me

I taught cello in Trujillo in two different locations: the Regional Conservatory and a local NGO (non-profit) project on the outskirts of Trujillo. With the non-profit project, I gave private and group lessons to beginning students (new-2 years) and at the Conservatory, I taught beginning students, intermediate students and upper level conservatory students who were earning their certification in music. In the NGO, we worked primarily with Suzuki methodology and were able to take the kids (my cellists along with a group of 15 violists and violinists) to the Suzuki Festival in Lima in 2009, where they were able to meet string players from all over Peru and Latin America! My students made friends with a girl from Brazil and made very good friends with her! It was the first time they had ever met another kid their age from another country. They learned a bit of Portuguese and taught her some Spanish and exchanged email addresses at the end of the festival. They were so sad to leave her and are still in touch to this day. At the conservatory, I worked with cellists of all levels and cellos of all levels. In Trujillo, there are no luthiers and few musical supplies (strings, instruments and accessories) for string instruments, so when something breaks, we sometimes have to get VERY creative! I had an upper-level student working without an A string for weeks because no one even had an old one they could lend her (I had already lent two of my old A strings to other cellists in the orchestra). I had several students playing on cellos too small or too big for them, many with missing fine tuners or broken pegs that couldn't be turned, and rock stops were very hard to come by! I will never forget the day I saw one of my 6 year old students, Rosita, arrive on her lesson on the back of her dad's motorcycle....and her cello tied to the back (unfortunately, I had no camera at the time)! To my knowledge, no damage has ever been done to the cello, but you can imagine my shock seeing it for the first time - her cello tied to the back of her dad's dirtbike! In any case, the kids are happy to play and when I go back to visit I always try to bring donations of things that are most needed: bow hair, strings, rock stops and other accessories. Although there are many cultural differences and realities, cello is the same in any language. I hope to go back some day to have my American and Peruvian students meet!