Suzuki Festival Lima 2010

(above)Suzuki cello students from all over Latin America learning and connecting...

(below)Book 1 Cello Teachers from all over the Americas!

Suzuki Certified

Dr. Tanya Carey and little Violeta

4 year old Violeta practices string crossings from Perpetual Motion

I attended my second Suzuki Festival this January in Lima, Peru. This year, the Suzuki Association of Peru celebrated 25 years of Suzuki Festivals, and to celebrate they assembled a orchestra of kids from all across the continent! The orchestra included 180 Suzuki students from different regions of Peru, Mexico, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, and the US! The program included classical repertoire and traditional music from the participating countries and the students performed in their countries' traditional costume. It was so moving to see children from so many countries making music together. Whereas last year I only observed the Cello Book 2 class, this year I registered for Philosophy (Every Child Can!) with Caroline Fraser and Cello Book 1 with Tanya Carey. Every day we observed Tanya's classes with a 4 year old little girl from Argentina named Violeta. It was so beautiful to watch them interact through music since neither of them really spoke the other's language and so amazing to see how much Violeta could accomplish! Many conceptual activities we practiced in class were much easier for Violeta than they were for the cello teachers! What a wonderful experience. I am so excited to return home to Arizona and share all of the things I learned with my students!