The Write Note for Summer
Past Months in Review:
A lot has happened in the past few months! Here’s everything we’ve done since we were last in person:
Senior Recital on March 15th
We were able to have our Senior Recital just before everything shut down!
Elise Chamberlin has been studying violin with Mrs. Blum for 12 years. She has been the concertmistress of the Bolingbrook Home School Fine Arts Orchestra for two years. During the summers, she plays rock music in Mrs. Amanda Nelson’s Garage Orchestra. Elise intends to major in education with a minor in history, but continue practicing and performing whenever possible.
Watch Elise’s senior recital on our YouTube channel.
Daniela Hernandez
has been in Suzuki since she was 5 years old. She has been in the Elgin High School Symphony Orchestra for four years, being concertmaster for the last two years. Daniela will be graduating from Elgin High School and will be attending Loyola University in Chicago where she wants to major in Public Relations/Advertising.
Shelter in Place
Students and teachers had to adjust to online lessons during the lockdown. Luckily, everyone has proven to be very flexible and willing to learn!
Here’s a picture of Nora Day at her lesson with Lamar Blum.
100 Day Club
We had many families use the shut down to make progress on their daily practice goals! Students who practice 100 days in a row get to join the 100 Day Club! Students who practice even more than that also get their achievements noted. Let’s acknowledge our hardworking students!
100 Day Club
Alison J.*
Daniela J.*
Felicity M.*
Michael S.*
Selah P.*
Hannah D.
Norah D.
Sophie C.
200 Day Club
Kayla B.*
Annie B.*
*denotes students who recently achieved their goal!
If your student has recently achieved their 100 days, send an email to our 100 Day Club Chairperson, Kristin Chamberlin for their prize!
We have a new website!
Welcome to our new site! Some of our website is geared toward new visitors, and some of it is meant for continuing students and families. Feel free to explore all the new pages! We’ll be adding a few new features as we go, but already we’ve added our school calendar so you can look up important dates during the year. We also have a blog where we can share ideas with each other.
From Our Blog
Our blog already has some posts in it!
Check out our Teacher Tip for this month:
Check out our Parent Post for this month:
Looking Ahead:
Along with our new website, we’re starting a newsletter, which is what you’re reading! This is a revival of our print newsletter, except now we’ve moved online.
For the summer, our newsletter is primarily devoted to sharing resources and activities with all of you.
Suzuki Plus
Every summer, our Suzuki Plus leadership rotates, with some people’s terms coming to an end, and some starting a new position. This is a great time to get involved if you’ve been considering it! Visit our Suzuki Plus page to get an idea of the open positions. If you’re interested in participating, please contact Julie Beu or attend the next Suzuki Plus meeting.
Upcoming Online Events
Because of the pandemic, all of the in-person summer institutes this year have been canceled. However, we’ve collected information for some institutes and organizations that are running virtual events instead! Click on the links for more information about the individual events.
Virtual Play-Ins
The Community Youth Orchestra of Southern California is hosting online play-ins every Thursday and Friday. They are for violins Book 1 and Book 2.
Virtual Suzuki Institutes
The Inside Music Academy is doing 5-day sessions throughout the summer. They have two weeks of Suzuki Intensives in mid-July that prioritize Suzuki students of violin, viola, and cello, but the other weeks they offer also include some Suzuki classes.
The Pennsylvania Suzuki Institute is hosting a two-day online music camp for all book levels, July 24 & 25. Their program includes classes for violin, viola, and cello.
Peabody Preparatory is offering two weeks of virtual summer camp in early August. Their camp is for violinist, violists, and cellists, ages 6 to 13, for Books 1 - 5.
Virtual Music Classes
Brooklyn Conservatory of Music is running several virtual classes over the summer. These are classes that meet on a particular day and time each week for 6 weeks, some that focus on specific instruments, and some that are just geared toward learning about music. Some interesting classes are Dr. Suzuki’s World of Composers, Basic Music Theory for Parents of Young Children, and many others! Registration for classes is open now.
It’s no question that things have changed in the past couple months. How can our practice time adapt during isolation to maintain old skills and build new ones?