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The 2nd Suzuki India Children’s Music Conference held from 25th April to 30th April
2016 was a spectacular week of learning and fun, and lots of hard work as well,
for 68 students (and their parents!) from Rama Chobhe’s School of Violin in Pune,
Winston Collaco’s program in Goa and for visiting students from Mumbai and
Delhi.
The first three days of the conference were held in Pune and the last three in
Lavasa. The Lavasa portion of the conference, held at the international
convention center, surrounded by beautiful hills and adjoining the lake, was a
fully immersive musical experience with day long sessions and numerous activities
for the participants, teachers and parents.
There were six parallel threads running through the conference, led by
internationally renowned teachers and faculty. The students went through these
sessions in different groups based on their level of experience.
Helen Brunner worked on various pieces of the Suzuki repertoire.
Sarah Walters prepared the students for playing in a Strings Orchestra.
Jessica Zeigler taught the students various Irish Fiddle music pieces.
There were music appreciation sessions, with Mrs Vidya Dengle performing
a concert and sharing her thoughts on Indian classical music and Dr. Kedar
Awati and Arnaud Devic holding a series of discussions and presentations
on western classical music appreciation.
Luthier Andreas Franke took the students and parents through sessions on
violin making and repair. There was an exhibition of Indian musical
instruments by Hemkant Navdikar.
The youngest students in the class, some as young as 2.5 years, went
through an early childhood musical development program with Sarah
Walters, Madhura Gogte, Arthur Fernandes and the team from Taal Inc.
And there was a special series of events where the students themselves got a
chance to demonstrate their own skills, musical and otherwise!!
Perfecting the Suzuki Repertoire
Helen Brunner wove her teaching magic while working with the students on their
Suzuki repertoire pieces. Each of her sessions, whether it was a master class
working with an individual student, or a group training session, was completely
enjoyed by the students, the parents, and even the teachers that were listening
in!
Helen’s passion for teaching and the violin and music was visible throughout the
conference. Starting from her message at the opening concert in Lavasa (Never
Give Up, Nourish with Love, and Learn to put your Ego aside), to her talk to the
parents where she touched upon what violin playing had meant to her personally,
to the closing concert in which she had every member of the audience completely
engaged in the performance, Helen was full of energy and creativity and
brilliance.
One moment of teaching brilliance involved weaving a little story and a sense of
context into a piece that the students were preparing. The group had just played
one of the Sietz compositions from Book 4. All of sudden, Helen had them sit on
the floor and started off with “Once upon a time in a land far far away…”. All of us
were wondering where this was going. And then Helen teacher broke up the song
into small sections and weaved in the Cinderella story! That’s the music of the
trumpeters announcing the Grand Ball, that’s the voice of the big bad sisters,
there’s the plaintive little notes of Cinderella……there’s the stroke of midnight and
there goes Cinderella’s shoe!!! Every one of our teenagers and parents were just
as hooked as the younger students were! You can well imagine just how gorgeous
and full of feeling the music was when the kids played it next! And how the feel of
the song will stay with them for a long time…!
We have been very fortunate to have had Helen looking out for the students in
our school and for Rama teacher as well over many years. Rama teachers
association with Helen goes back over 15 years starting from when Rama teacher
went to Colorado for her own Suzuki teachers training course. The bonds with
Helen have grown stronger over the years, and this is Helen’s third trip now to
India. Helen was part of our first Suzuki conference in Lonavla in 2008.
Our students continue to be enriched in so many ways through our contact with
Helen. A recent example of this is the opportunity for several of our students to
participate in the Suzuki Gala at the Royal Albert Hall in London, which was only
possible because of the special invitation from Helen. This was a truly spectacular
event in an amazing setting! The Gala was followed by participation in the British
Suzuki Associations 3-day workshop where our students got the opportunity to
learn from many of the top teachers from across the world.
When I asked the students what their favorite moment in the conference was, I
(expectedly) got many different answers. But there was one moment that stood
out for multiple students…..playing Bach Double with Helen teacher! Helen
devoted almost a complete session in Pune playing Bach Double (which is an
involved and long piece), not just with one student, but with each one of the 14
students in that group!!! And then again at the closing concert, Helen teacher and
Rama teacher looked like they were getting into their own duet (or was it duel )
while playing the piece!!
Sachin Ajmani helped Helen with the piano accompaniment for the Suzuki
repertoire pieces.
The Strings Orchestra
Sarah Walters spent many tireless hours preparing all the students for playing in
an orchestral setting. Even though our Suzuki students spend a lot of time playing
together, learning how to play in an orchestra where multiple musicians and
instruments complement each other was quite a learning experience. Under
Sarah’s instructions, the students learnt about subduing their own individuality
and ego, learnt to listen to each other in addition over their own playing, and
learnt all about listening to and following the conductor.
The students played multiple pieces in the final concert led by Sarah, including
The Happy Squirrel, Show Some Pluck, Bourree in D Minor, and the Western
Fiddler.
This conference was Sarah’s second visit to India. Sarah and Rama’s association
goes back to the days when Rama Chobhe and a group of her students went to
the Suzuki World Conference in Melbourne in 2009. Sarah’s interest in India and
common friends brought her to India in 2011 when she conducted her first
workshop in the Suzuki school in Pune.
Sarah also took time out from her orchestra teaching to talk to the parents about
Character First, Ability Second. In a moving session that was interspersed with a
lot of personal pictures and anecdotes, Sarah reminded the parents of all of the
character that the students were in the process of building up as part of their
violin learning. These included the ability to achieve great heights by solving and
correcting one small problem at a time, developing a strong sense of
commitment, resilience and a long term relationship, developing the ability to
learn from others, and having the courage to make mistakes, accept them and
learning from them.
Fiddle Music
Jessica Ziegler worked with the students throughout the conference and had
them literally dancing to the sounds and rhythms of Irish folk music and dances
like the Gigue and the Reel. By the time of the final concert, the students had
made some remarkable progress under Jessica’s guidance.
To give you an idea of what was involved, the Suzuki method repertoire that our
students learn is mostly music that is focused on exact notes and rhythm. A lot of
the Fiddle music that Jessica was teaching by contrast was folksy and dance-y
with a lot of subtle improvisations to give the music its character. Jessica’s way of
teaching was different and refreshing for our students and they absorbed it and
responded to it without any problem at all --- You’ve got a long note in the piece:
well, throw in a couple of intermediate notes or a triple in the middle of it! You
want to make it zingier - casually throw in some notes that are an octave lower
and get this wonderful harmonic feel!! And the students just lapped it up and
delivered! Every once in a while, you’d hear Jessica go: “Wow, I feel like I’m in
Ireland”, and that would bring a smile to the kids faces!!
Jessica also had the conference attendees enthralled with her own special
breakout session for all the students, parents and faculty where she played
various Irish fiddle pieces, and related the playing to various Irish dance forms.
The students had a great time with Jessica and we are looking forward to having
her back again!
Starting them Young
The Early Childhood Music program sessions in the conference were put together
with the goal of giving the younger participants (some as young as 2.5 years) an
early start into the Suzuki musical journey and into developing a long lasting
appreciation of classical music.
The session with Sarah Walters introduced children to music and games, musical
notes and the musical alphabet. Sarah held their attention by playing the guitar
and the violin and they participated with shakers, bean bags, drums, rattles, bells
and anything they could get their hands on!
Arthur Fernandes and the team from Taal enthralled the children and parents
alike with their percussion sessions. While the team from Taal introduced the kids
to the djembe and its beats and sounds, over the 2 days with Arthur the kids tried
a variety of percussion instruments from drums, tambourines, djembe, shakers,
music box, Tibetan gong bowl, thunder box, lejhim and many more! A complete
stress buster and a great way to pick up the adrenaline for a packed day ahead!
With Madhura Gogte the children sat down to creative craft and made their own
instruments and then jumped up and danced to some lively tunes. Madhura also
introduced the children to songs from the Grammy nominated album Beethoven’s
Wig, which puts simple and fun lyrics to the finest classical pieces. The little
toddlers put up an act on Midnight Snack based on Carmens Habanera and also
enacted the Schumann Family musical evening with Harmony!
An Evening of Indian Classical Music
Mrs. Vidya Dengle, Rama teacher’s teacher for over 20 years, together with Rama
teacher and the tabla accompanist (Ganesh Tanawde) enthralled the conference
participants with a selection of Raag’s including Raag Bhimpalas, Raag Sohoni,
Raag Mishra Bhairavi. Vidya-tai also talked about her perspective of the intricacies
and the state of Indian classical music and also of the guru-shishya parampara in
Indian classical music.
Vidya-tai’s session was beautifully complemented by several little children who
had selected to perform Indian classical pieces as part of their creative
performance session. We had Jayosthute, Vande Mataram, beautiful renditions of
classical Marathi songs, and Raag Kalawati. Young Aarya Jagdale’s performance of
Raag Bhimpalas in particular stood out – it was performed so gracefully and
confidently.
Western Music Appreciation
During the conference, Dr. Kedar Awati and Arnaud Devic took the participants
through sessions on western classical music and appreciation.
Dr. Kedar Awati gave three different lectures during the conference. He
introduced the youngest students to the orchestra using Benjamin Britten’s “A
Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra” including sharing his favorite pieces of
western classical music. And when he asked for questions – every hand from the
students must have shot up!! The best one of course was this cute little voice
saying “What’s the instrument that is played with the Tom and Jerry theme song”.
Dr. Awati’s other sessions included “Another way of listening to Music…the
Classical style” and “Some examples from 20th Century Western classical music”.
Arnaud Devic’s sessions were also a lot of fun for the kids. Arnaud, who heads the
Poona Music Society, and has been associated with the Suzuki school of Violin for
many years had multiple sessions with the students and the parents during the
conference. In these sessions, he covered various different aspects of classical
music. He also had a selection of musical instruments that he introduced to the
students and of course every student wanted to play each and every instrument
that Arnaud was talking about!!
Creative Performances from the Students
One of the high points of the last two days in Lavasa was the Creative
Performance sessions put together by the students themselves!! When the event
organizers were looking to find some open time slots on the calendar, there were
some thoughts that there wouldn’t be enough entries for the Creative
Performances. The organizers got that completely and totally wrong….there were
eventually some 50 entries from the 68 students present here and the Creative
Sessions were absolutely the most popular ones for the kids.
And they were truly creative…we had medleys from Bollywood, Goan folk songs,
medleys from Hollywood, a Wedding song from South Africa, Darth Vader come
to life, beautiful pieces like Ode to Joy, and even a little Paganini herself that
performing possibly the toughest song for a violinist – 24 Caprices!!!
During the panel discussion with the entire faculty there was an involved
discussion between the parents and the faculty about motivation for young
children to keep them engaged and practicing….looking at the creative entries
and performers there is no lack of motivation in the students!!!
In the non-violin creative performances as well, there were a lot of songs….to the
point where Advait and Hriddan were fighting over the mike while singing a
supposed duet together. Young Payoja mixed multiple passions together by
playing Long Long Ago performed on the Waveboard!!!
Musical Instruments
We had several breakout sessions going through the conference. Andreas Franke
who runs a violin workshop in Bangkok had several invaluable sessions on how to
take care of the violin, and multiple sessions describing how violins are built.
Every spare breathing moment in between was consumed fixing violins, fixing
pegs, and cleaning up bows. We’ve got a lot of happily re-furbished violins
courtesy Andy and his colleague from Franke Violins!!
The Indian musical instruments exhibition and session staged by Mr. Hemkant
Navdikar on the last day of the conference was also well attended and well
received.
Staying Fit
Dr. Sharmilee Rao Jadhav, a practicing physiotherapist, took multiple sessions
with the students, parents and teachers. She had the students loosened up and
made aware of why it was important to warm up, what sorts of stretching
exercises to do, and which parts of the body violinists needed to work on. And she
did it in the most fun and engaging ways – there were balloons, and play-doh, and
resistance bands, and dancing, and Simon Says games!!!
A Conference to Remember
In a moving opening address at the Lavasa portion of the conference, Rama
teacher had said that one of her goals for the conference was to put together an
opportunity for the students and parents to learn from the very best.
Every one of the faculty and the invited speakers at the conference was world-
class and worked very hard to make sure that the conference met Rama teacher’s
vision and goals.
We had so many moments of brilliant teaching throughout the conference. It’s
difficult to even pick examples: getting students to come up and lead the
musicians in the middle of a piece and watching them do it marvelously without
dropping a note, weaving stories into the songs, getting into different orchestral
groups and playing with the students, using analogies and memory aides and
examples to drive the point across….anything to get the students to be engaged
and to learn!! And the one technique that was devastatingly effective –
threatening to give a kiss to a young lad in case the vibrato wasn’t perfect !
All of the teachers put in a phenomenal effort throughout the conference. They
each handled 68 students over 6 days for almost 10 hours a day, without once
losing their cool and staying just as bright and cheerful and positive at the end of
a 10 hour day as there were at the beginning. Some of the faculty changed their
travel plans so that they could be part of the conference! It was obvious that a lot
of effort had gone into preparing for the individual sessions from each of the
faculty as well.
Beyond the brilliant teaching and the effort, the other thing that stood out was
the sincerity and honesty and complete engagement on the part of the teachers
and the guest speakers as well as the parents and students. The heart-felt
speeches from Rama teacher and Helen at the opening concert and again at the
closing concert, a very special and poignant moment at the panel discussion
where Jessica gave her own perspective as an ex-Suzuki student, the sessions with
Sarah and Helen teacher during their meetings with the parents that touched
upon so many personal moments, the involvement of the parents and senior
students as organizers and session coordinators….
This was truly a world class conference and workshop that has enriched us in so
many ways that we cannot even imagine – the scope and execution were truly
visionary. We will certainly remember this conference for a very long time and
even though it will take a while to digest and internalize the learnings over this
conference, we’re already looking forward to the next conference, and meeting
up with the faculty again!!!
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