Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Summer Students

Can it be July already? It seems like the summer is flying by.

Last week I kept a busy teaching schedule working from 8:45 am until around 3 pm each day at a summer music camp - this in addition to my usual afternoon private teaching. The summer music camp was a real success. This was the first year this particular camp has included an instrumental program, so there were just three violinists in my little ensemble, but they were a real pleasure to work with. Rachel, age 9, was finishing Suzuki Book 6, and Chae, 9, and AJ, 13, were both in Book 4. Their ability levels were similar enough that they were all able to greatly enjoy playing little chamber pieces together with aspects that were challening for each of them. They were all charming, motivated, well-behaved kids that made me look forward to each day's rehearsals. The week culminated in a concert. The violin kids performed Mazas, Pleyel, and Bach with good intonation, nice tone, vibrato (!), and much cuteness (particularly emanating from the little Asian girls).

I finished the week with pride in the students' accomplishments, a happy heart, and a special keepsake - an origami notecard reading:

Dear Mrs. S___,
Thank you for teaching us violin at the Summer Music Academy.
We plan to come against next year!
Love,
Rachel and Chaeyoung

2 comments:

  1. awwww... I taught a really encouraging lesson to a 5th grader earlier this week, too! Don't you love it when the students are into it. :)

    ~ Holly

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sarah! i miss you! i was hoping I'd find you online tonight. i hope you're doing well :) :)

    ReplyDelete