Oregon Suzuki Institute ~ 2014

This past week the girls and I were in Newberg, OR at Suzuki Institute. This was our second year to attend and we all had a great week. The camp is held on the campus of George Fox University - it's a small, Christian college very similar in size to EMU. 

Last year the girls had the same classes and same schedule...this year, every single class was different (except orchestra). Here was our daily schedule...

8:15 am ~ Kayleigh's group class  (Sydney and I would go practice during this time)

9:15 am ~ Sydney's arts and crafts class (Kayleigh and I would go practice during this time)

10:15 am ~ Kayleigh's master class   /    Sydney's group class  (I would watch some of both lessons)

11:15 am ~ Sydney's master class   /    Kayleigh's dalcroze class

noon ~ lunch

1:15 pm ~ student recitals / practice time

2:00 pm ~ orchestra

A master class is a mini, semi-private lesson you share with 2 or 3 other students. You get a 10-15 minute lesson every day while the others watch.  A group class has about 10 students at about the same level as you. Dalcroze is a music and movement class. This was the girls' first orchestra experience...it was a bit advanced for them, but they did a great job and learned quite a bit (I think). 

Here are some photos from our week.

Kayleigh's Week....

Kayleigh had Lucy Shaw for group class...she was FANTASTIC! I think she was my favorite teacher from the week. She worked the kids hard, but had a great personality and way with the kids.

Kayleigh had Gail Acosta for her master class. I know Gail from way, way back - more than 10 years ago! I met her in NC at the institute there. She still goes to teach at the NC institute and is headed there next week.

Kayleigh playing with a teeny, tiny bow...these are called "Twinkle bows".

Sydney's Week....

Sydney's group teacher was Tracy Helming. She's fun and full of energy and Sydney loved her class. I didn't get to see much of Sydney's group class, but I did manage to catch their "review parade". The took turns leading the class as they paraded around campus. 

Sydney's master class teacher was Yoko Acheson from California (originally from Japan). She had the opportunity to study directly with Dr. Suzuki when he was still alive and teaching. She was a great teacher and had a fun sense of humor and teaching style. 

The girls made some new friends and on Friday they got to go out to ice cream together. Adam, the guy in the picture, is the camp accompanist (piano) and went to ice cream with them. (it was an auction / fund raiser for the scholarship fund). The girl in yellow lives in Portland and the other girl lives up near Seattle but was born in Burlington, VT just like my girls!!

We also got to spend quite a bit of time with our good friend, Josiah. He and his mom stayed in the same hotel as us.

I'll post some videos tomorrow...