On Saturday, April 20th we had our second annual studio recital.
I teach as one faculty member of a large Suzuki school, Ithaca Talent Education. Our school hosts monthly solo recitals for students to perform their polished pieces.
Last year, for the first time, I gathered all of the students from my own studio together for a studio recital. It was an extraordinary feeling to have all of the students I teach and families I work with in the same room at the same time.
I knew that I wanted to do the same thing this year.
The theme of the event was the 5 senses. I wanted students and parents to engage with the felt experience of music making. You’ll see below that I wove this theme through a few elements of the event.
LOCATION
We hosted at the First Unitarian Society of Ithaca which had a couple of advantages. It is indoors, so we weren’t at risk of getting rained out. There was plenty of provided seating without needing to rent and set up chairs. One of our studio parents is the music director there and she was familiar with (and we were able to use) the grand piano and organ in the space. The organ became a really big element of the performance. The solo I performed used organ, and the first student on the program played Musette with organ. After the concert Stephanie, our organist and pianist, showed them how the organ works and let them experiment with playing it a bit.
PIECE SELECTION
I asked each student to choose one review piece to perform. We chose these about a month out and then used the next four lessons to prepare and polish the pieces. I provided a repetition coloring chart for them to track how many times they played the piece before the concert.
In my studio I have a span from Twinkle up to late Book 6, so I didn’t have the challenge of programming long works. In the future I might need to have two recitals that are each about 45 minutes long.
I had each student rehearse with our pianist once before the recital. These happened on Saturday mornings around the group class schedule.
PERFORMING
I didn’t do this last year, but I decided this year to perform a piece and put it first on the program. I think this is something I will do every year for a few reasons.
First, it allowed me the chance to really play for my families and show them the seriousness of my own commitment to music.
Second, it allowed them to see me getting nervous and then play anyway. I loved being on the same page as them.
Third, it gave me the opportunity to program a piece outside of the Suzuki canon. In other words, I was able to get a woman and person of color on the program!
PROGRAM BOOKLET
I printed our program using the school’s big Toshiba copy machine. My partner and I, along with our cat (see above), bound the booklets with twine. It included the list of pieces, a short bio of each performer, acknowledgments, and a selected quote on the back.
Included with the short bio was a statement from each child about which sense their piece made them feel. I loved getting this window into their perspective. Here are a few examples…
When Saisha plays Waltz it feels like swinging on a swing at night by yourself.
When she plays Allegretto she says it feels like a Groundhog coming out of the ground and seeing the sunlight for the first time.
He says Long Long Ago feels like moving your fingers through sand.
RECEPTION
I love sharing food and drink together at the end of a recital. Food makes everything more fun! We picked up a variety of 75 gluten-free, vegan cupcakes from our local co-op grocery store. The real highlight, though, was a selection of ten herbs from our friends at Fun Acres Herb Farm in Erin, NY. I decorated a bag for each student with their name and two character traits that I really appreciate about them. Their job was to take the bag and fill it with their own unique blend of herbs to make an herbal tea they could enjoy at home. I encouraged them to really look at and smell the varieties of tea as they made their blends.
The studio recital has really become my favorite event of the year. It is infinitely rewarding to see all of my students celebrating each other at the same time. The more our studio culture solidifies, the more we are capable of.
I’ve already started to plan next year’s studio recital.
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