CROATIAReport from Croatia 2007-2008.
The Croatian Suzuki centre continues violin teacher training program with Jeanne Janssens and has succesfully organised and completed the second International workshop in Selce, Croatia.
The attendance of this workshop was not as big as last year when we had three teacher trainers (Jeanne Janssens, Tove Detrekoy and Bela Detrekoy) and over 20 children as well as six trainees from Belgium, Macedonia, Slovenia and Croatia.
This year we have focused on two teachers who trained with Jeanne Janssens for levels 1 and 2 (Alexandra Dimitrievska – Macedonia) and level 4 (Marko Mađarić - Croatia) who decided to continue with Suzuki.
Peter Nys (Belgium) was kind enough to spend a lot of time teaching children.
During the year, theSuzuki children of Croatia had many great solo concerts in Zagreb, and the selected ones performed various pieces accompained by the Zagreb chamber orchestra (Christmas concert and Concert for the end of the school-year).
We have suceeded in creating huge media interest and were guests on numerous TV shows and newspaper articles promoting Suzuki method in Croatia. Besides that, we have only one certified teacher and a waiting list of 100 children willing to start violin! We hope to have more teachers because they are needed.
Upcoming events for this year, besides the organization of children concerts and upgrading the teaching quality are further trainig with Jeanne Janssens and organization of other workshops in Croatia. We plan to send two trainees to Belgium for examinations in February 2009.
DENMARK
From 1-4 November 2008 the first European double bass teacher training course started with Virginia Dixon (USA) as teacher trainer. The Danish Suzuki Association and Albertslund Music School are very pleased to host the course which has 9 trainees coming from 7 different countries: France, Iceland, Italy, Holland, Switzerland, UK and Denmark. They are all very enthusiastic and full of energy, so we are all looking forward to the next session in March 2009.
Following the resignation of Claus Kanneworff the Danish Suzuki Institute (DSI) has appointed Dorte Nørgaard as new leader of the Institute. Dorte is a former student of Tove and Béla and she has met Dr Suzuki on several occasions in Denmark and abroad. Dorte passed level 5 in November 2008.
On 3 May 2009 DSI is going to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of their first first concert in Tivoli. Former students have been invited to join the concert. Among them is Andreas Brantelid whom BBC Radio 3 during the next two years will introduce as “star of tomorrow” in the BBC New Generation scheme. The 21 year-old cellist will be profiled at concerts in Wigmore Hall, as soloist with the orchestras of BBC, with recordings and participation in the Proms.
Teacher training in 2008: Besides the double bass course there have been 12 violin and 2 cello trainees on the DSA courses.
At the National Workshop for strings in Aarhus in November Marja-Leena Mäkilägave a two day introductory course. 7 flute teachers attended.
ESTONIA
Thanks to the nine new Suzuki violin teachers (Level 1) there are now over 50 new Suzuki violin students in Estonia. Some of them already participated in our annual Christmas concert, but we hope to gather as many Suzuki violinists and pianists together as possible when we celebrate the Estonian Suzuki Association's 10 Anniversary. The main concert will be held in the beautiful Glass Hall of the Song Festival Place. Anyone who has heard anything about Estonian Song Festivals, will understand the significance of choosing this particular concert venue. We hope for the concert to be the grand event of the year. It will be held on 25 April 2009.
The most heart-warming news from us is, that there's a beautiful young baby girl, Adeele Mirjam, growing in Karmen's family now, She was born on Jan. 10th. Congratulations!
with best regards,
Sirje Subbe-Tamm
Estonian Suzuki Association
FAROE ISLANDS
In the Faroe Islands there are two Suzuki violin teachers, Annette Nielsen and Sámal Petersen. We have approximately 65 students. We have one national Suzuki workshop every year with guest teachers from different country: Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Iceland. In June 2008 we had Lilja Hjaltadottir and Ewa Tosik from Iceland, and Leif Elving from Sweden as guest teachers. Normally we have around 45-55 students attending the National workshop every year.
We started to teach with the Suzuki method in 1995-96 with help from Tove and Bela Detreköy. In 1998 Annette and Samal passed the first exams and in ten years we have had some really good results. Several students are studying abroad and more are to come.
We have a national symphony orchestra, where Suzuki students are a good supply to the orchestra.
The 2009 National Suzuki workshop was held on 16-18 January 2009.
Sámal Petersen
FRANCE
Association Française Pédagogie Suzuki (AFPS)
Our new national association was created in November 2007, with a new president from Marseille, Jean Claude Latil, and a new board. This new association is functioning with a new regional dynamism. Teachers from the same region led by three vice presidents in Paris, Lyon and Marseille meet more regularly, getting to know each other better and also functioning with more local projects. Concerts have been held in all the different areas with successful collaboration among the teachers. People feel less isolated; questions are being debated locally with a better chance for each teacher to give his opinion and to participate to the life of the Suzuki pedagogy in the area.
Our goal is to keep this new spirit alive, and to focus also on national projects through concerts, and national teacher meetings where special topics are chosen by the teachers each year: new editions, introducing reading, and studying together in instrumental teams.
A new journal is being published twice a year spreading information about our local activities and national concerns. We are happy to have become members of the Suzuki family in Europe after an absence of a couple of years. We want to express a special thank you to our executive officer Birte Kelly who supported us during this difficult time and also our chairman Haukur Hannesson for his understanding.
Christophe Bossuat.
French representative to the ESA board.
GERMANY
The German Suzuki Institute opened a Download Shop for Suzuki Teaching Material. We can offer our products on very low prices because the Downloadshop is a non-profit enterprise.
Our goal is to produce graded teaching materials and Play along MP3 files which suit the needs of Suzuki teachers, students and their parents. Our start items include among others:
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Pre-Twinkle Songs for young violinists (Sheet music & MP3 files)
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Play along in three tempi: Seitz, Vivaldi, Bohm and Bach Double etc. (MP3 file & sheet music)
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Ensemble music for string players: String Duos, Trios and Quartets with and without piano, Folk music for 3 violins and piano etc. (Midi or MP3 files & sheet music)
We are working on many other items and hope to present you regularly new helpful teaching materials.
COMING SOON:
- Note-Reading for young violinists, vols. 1 and 2
- Basics for young violinists
Vol. 1: Tonalization and First Shifting Exercises
Vol. 2: Basic Vibrato Exercises
Vol. 3: Scales (1 and 2 octaves)
We invite all European Suzuki teachers to work together with us. Any suggestions are welcome!
Best wishes from
Kerstin Wartberg and the German Teacher Trainers and Assistants
GREAT BRITAIN
In 2008 the British Suzuki Institute celebrated its 30th anniversary.
We are now in our fourth year of the national graduation programme and held two concerts in 2008 to accommodate all the graduating students, one in London and one in Manchester.
The National Workshop was a great success again this year. As usual, all the teacher trainees came together alongside the children’s workshop and many teachers and trainees from the UK and Europe came to observe. We had a number of visiting overseas teachers again this year; Yuriko Watanabe from Japan and Pamela Davenport and Ed Kreitman from the USA joined BSI teachers and visiting teachers from Europe Riitta Kottinurmi, Anne-Birthe Andersen, Anke van der Bijl and Ruth Miura.
Our teacher training courses continue to grow and flourish:
· We now have three violin courses running, in London, Midlands and Scotland with a total of 43 trainees.
· The piano course has 20 trainees and includes a new extended Level 4 programme to encourage teachers at this level to return to training.
· The cello and flute courses have 9 and 11 trainees respectively. The flute course has been greatly assisted this year by Anke van der Bijl and Marja-Leena Mäkilä
· This year saw the start of the Recorder Teacher Training course with 3 trainees who will take their Level 1 exams in April 2009. The recorder course is being run by Nancy Daly and works closely with the Flute course.
· We are in the developmental stages of an Early Childhood Education programme which we hope to start in 2009.
There continues to be numerous Suzuki workshops and concerts run throughout the country.
ITALY
Continuing their tireless work, the founders of the Italian Suzuki Institute are now collaborating with younger teachers to safeguard and develop Suzuki experience in Italy.
The Italian Suzuki Institute has renewed its board. New ideas and beautiful initiatives contribute to the motivation and innovation. The many Italian schools and teachers meet more often; and the Institute is organising a Suzuki Method National Convention to be held in Florence in April 2009.
The activity of
our teacher training continues with new interested teachers for all instruments;A new and functional web site has been created www.istitutosuzukiitalia.org
Marco Messina
LITHUANIA
Use this link to article onTeaching and Teacher Training by Koen Rens
THE NETHERLANDS
Suzuki Vereniging Nederland 2007-2008
Membership:
Membership numbers remain more or less constant with 15 A members, 13 B1 members, 16 B2 and 17 B3. In addition there are 305 C members.
Workshops and events 2007-2008
· October : ESTA Netherlands organised a day about Suzuki method for strings. Guest teacher was Sven Sjögren. During this weekend Sven also taught Dutch trainees and teachers.
· Suzuki violin workshops for pupils were held in Nijmegen , The Hague and Amsterdam.
· A Suzuki flute day was organised in Gouda . Parents and pupils collected 126 Euro for a Suzuki project by Betsie Meyer at an orphanage in South Africa as well as 66 signatures to nominate the “ mother” of this orphanage as Woman of the Year 2008.
· The SVN Website was renewed and updated by Suzuki parents Bas and Bea Rubingh.
Our magazine “ Suzuki Nieuws” appears 4 times a year ,editor is Suzuki violin teacher Olga Hamer.
There were some changes in our board. New board member are Jaap Delver and Esther van Eijk. Anne van Laar resigned. The SVN board has taken up the project of organising a national workshop in 2010.
Chairman Martin Loose is in charge of our successful Suzuki shop The SVN Suzuki shop generates a steady flow of new members (attracted by member discounts). Turnover continues to grow from year to year. So far, all profits have been invested in the shop's stock, which comprises a full range of Suzuki books, CD's and related materials.
POLAND
We have currently over 600 violin, piano and guitar students and 61 teachers in our Polish Suzuki Association.
Violin and Piano Workshops were held in January 2008, in Tychy for and in July 2008 in Koscierzyna
New groups of piano and violin trainees are going to start their courses in summer 2009. Unfortunately, we could not start flute teacher training in year 2008 due to low numbers. Nevertheless we hope to start cello teacher training with Anja Maja in 2009.
Polish Suzuki students took part successfully in competitions for children and in Suzuki events outside Poland. 12 violin students took part in the 7th National Workshop in Switzerland, about 20 violin students in Berliner Suzuki Tage.
SOUTH AFRICA
Link to SASA Newsletter
Link to article on Projects in Deprived Communities in South Africa
SPAIN
The general news from Spain is good, but not as good as we hoped it would be!
The first aspect of good news is that the piano teacher training was very well developed with Stephen Power as Teacher Trainer and Nuria Cullell as Instructor. Two Spanish piano teacher-trainees passed their exams in Belgium. We have had problems with the budget, but that has now been resolved. Now we need some more trainees!
‘Cello teacher training has been good with Arantza Lopez as Teacher Trainer. Four Spanish ‘cello teacher trainees passed levels 1 and 2 in France.
In violin teacher training, we have the same problem as four years ago: the instructor Mª Jesus Cano can’t afford to teach on weekends or school holidays in Madrid, due to family reasons. Because teacher trainees, who are teaching in schools or Conservatories across Spain, are already working on weekends and school holidays, it is not possible to arrange this. Any advice would be helpful.
All over Spain concerts, workshops for children and conferences were held this year.
Piano Report from Spain from Stephen Power, ESA Teacher Trainer
The Spanish Federation Piano course consists of eight weekends a year. Following the ESA guidelines the trainees work with me to create a natural physical basis to their playing, based on the teaching of Dr Kataoka, which is in its turn based on Dr Suzuki. Pedagogy is illustrated through example, with analysis and study of children’s lessons through the use of DVD’s of Dr Kataoka’s lessons, (and those of other respected teachers such as Bruce Anderson, Esther Lund Madsen, and DVD’s from the studios of Betty and Stephen Power). Lessons with local children also serve as examples of how to teach young children.
DVD Concert footage is used both to inspire, and also to encourage high standards of playing and presentation.
We are lucky to have the services of an advanced Suzuki student acting as translator (who would also like to train as a teacher in the future), for most of the time, so that the philosophy (which is so intertwined with the pedagogy), can be explained. The practical realities of running a Suzuki studio are also covered: parent education, timetabling etc.
At present 6 teachers are enrolled on the course in Barcelona. Two teachers passed their examinations at level one in April this year.
As long as the teachers remain working in a committed and steady way (and do not focus too much on the exams) then they will develop as Suzuki teachers with the necessary musical, pedagogic, and performance skills in place.
The task now is to attract more people to the course so that we have a strong basis that can grow in quality for the sake of the children.
SWEDEN
156 students, some very relaxed, took part in the workshop at Södra Vätterbygdens Folkhögskola, in Jönköping 23-27 June 2008, playing violin, viola and cello. 11 teachers were teaching and the course included both folk music, dance and rhythmics. Foreign guest teachers on this student course were Christophe Bossuat, France and Anne-Berit Halvorsen, Norway on violin and Chantal Darietto Latil, France, on cello. Every day the students had lessons and concerts. The schedule also included dancing and a visit at the nice swimming arena in Jönköping. The teachers’ concert the final evening was highly appreciated by the students and parents.
SWITZERLAND
There is no doubt that the 7th Swiss National Suzuki Workshop in May was a great success, not just in terms of quantity (we have had over 200 students and more than 30 teacher observers, another 200 companions such as siblings and parents), but also in terms of quality! According to the feedback, this Workshop was an inspiration for all the participants and the organisers’ greatest wish is that the seeds sown at this workshop will be carefully nurtured during the two year period until the next National Workshop.
The Swiss Suzuki Institute is very proud to have produced our first two flute teachers, who passed their first ESA examination. Although as in other countries the Suzuki method is much more famous as a method for strings, it is crucial for all of us to introduce the method to various other instruments. As the first wind instrument, it will be a challenge, but if successful this will be a great enrichment for the Suzuki movement here in Switzerland.
A third important step in enlarging the Swiss Suzuki Institute was the first teacher training course for violin, lead by Agathe Jerie. As a result of cooperation, we managed to have a very fine group of new teachers, as we saw in the examinations during the Workshop. In such a small country, with influences from so many different training backgrounds, the teacher training course will still be a major area to work on! Especially for establishing teacher training by-laws, the Swiss Suzuki Institute is looking forward to having a stronger ESA in its background.
Last but not least I take this opportunity to point out one major problem that the development of Suzuki programmes in Switzerland has right now. With very few exceptions, most Suzuki teachers in Switzerland are working privately, in a country which has a very dense network of subsidized public music schools. Depending on where you live parents are paying up to 50% more for Suzuki lessons, whilst the teacher still earns 30% less, than in a public school. The possibility of offering Suzuki programmes within music schools is still limited by the practice of “group class teaching” in order to spare the budget! Although the University of Zurich has a very influential department of neuropsychology, which did several surveys about the influence of music in the child's development (some of them specifically with Suzuki students), it still takes time before politicians and leading people within the vast field of music education discover the potential of this method. With regard to offering teacher training, it will be a major issue for new teachers to learn not just how to start a career as a dedicated Suzuki teacher, but also “how to survive” with it.
The more we, as the European Suzuki teacher community, work together; the more realistic it will be that our common vision will come true! Thank you for being part of this community!
Martin Rüttimann
President of the Swiss Suzuki Institute
