This year, instead of making a pancake breakfast and cleaning house on Saturday mornings, we drove the 45 minutes into downtown to partake in MacPhail's Suzuki program for strings. Groups began at 9:15, followed by orchestra or note reading class, a lunch break, then individual lessons.
Sunshine's note reading class (a pre-requisite before beginning orchestra) performed the Tallis Canon.
They also teamed up with Dancer's orchestra for Weber's Hunter's Chorus.
These performances were scheduled after the "play-in" in which all the violin students stand in a large room and play every piece they know from Suzuki books 1-4. Unfortunately, their backs were to the parents so I didn't get it on video, but it's pretty impressive to realize how much a child can play from memory. I've read article after article about how the memorization skills promoted in the Suzki method will serve them well later in life, regardless of the career.
We are looking forward to the fall semester, but enjoy having our Saturdays back in the mean time!
