European Suzuki Association - Teachers Newsletter Vol 36 2016

14 S omething wonderful happened at the Royal Albert Hall, London on Easter Sunday, 2016: the British Suzuki Institute hosted a Suzuki Gala Concert. 1,300 young Suzuki musicians came from all over Europe and beyond to perform in this prestigious venue to an audience of over 5,000. Teachers and young musi- cians came from Australia, Belgium, Can- ada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Isles, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, USA and Zimbabwe. It was a mighty and impressive turn-out. Whoever would have expected such an overwhelming response to this Suzuki event? We were completely astonished by the extraordi- nary number of so many thousands of children and teachers. For this reason, we decided to take over the Royal Col- lege of Music and then the Imperial Col- lege of London as well, to cope with the continuing avalanche of Suzuki children. With the swelling numbers, nine smaller Playtogether-Concerts were planned in addition to the Royal Albert Hall Gala Concert. I am very proud to say that we did not have to turn any child away. The occasion was truly amazing, raising the bar for Suzuki performances all over the world. We did it! You did it! Thank you to all the BSI Teachers and the liter- ally hundreds of Teachers from the rest of Europe, - thank you from the bottom of my heart, for the ceaseless hard work that went into creating this new land- mark. Suzuki Team GB won Gold! The energy from the children created an afternoon of sublime music. All Suzuki instruments were represented in this concert: Violin, Viola, Cello, Double Bass, Flute, Recorder, Piano, Guitar and Harp, as well as our two newcomer Suzuki in- struments – the Mandolin and the Organ. Of course, a large proportion of the chil- dren did not speak English, so it was a sheer miracle that all the Suzuki Teachers were able to demonstrate that music really is the common language of the world: Suzuki Philosophy exactly. The Suzuki Gala Concert was unforgetta- ble for everyone taking part. The profes- sional DVD is available and might give a clue, but no one could possibly have imagined the strength and power to come from those young Suzuki musi- British Suzuki Institute Gala Concert Helen Brunner cians. They dazzled the packed audi- ence. Every moment was thrilling and sweetly touching. Picture 120 violinists in the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, a stage full of 100 cellists playing The Swan, Mozart’s delicious ‘Arietta’ with 20 perfect little pianists, and a rousing Monti Czardas for 400 players, which brought the house down. The audience were in tears much of the time. Tim Murray united the crossover pieces (when all the instruments played together) with his clever Piano and String accompaniments. These were performed by the Gala Ensem- ble, a group of young professional ‘ex’-Suzuki players. Tim’s ‘Medley’ which closed the first half was bril- liant. Eight different Suzuki instru- ments were highlighted one by one for a few minutes from their Book 1 Repertoire. The melodies were linked into the whole medley by his imaginative orchestral writing. Just genius. Thank you Tim Murray. Although the children spoke over 22 different languages, many of them spoke no English at all. The signifi- cance of Dr Suzuki’s common reper- toire was wonderfully manifest in front of our eyes. Music was the common tongue. This was the power of the Suzuki philosophy in practice, in action, for real. No words were needed for the concert or the re- hearsals. The music spoke for itself. The concert was compèred brilliantly by the charismatic and beautiful Clem- ency Burton-Hill. She too was a Suzuki kid, and it was lovely to see her hastily grabbing a fiddle to join us in the Bach Double and in the Czardas too. Clemency spoke so eloquently about the purpose of this concert reaching out far beyond the music to the heart of Dr Suzuki’s in- tention to help make the world a better place through a fine education. We invited the finest Suzuki teachers from all over the world to come and lead the Albert Hall pieces and to present the Playtogether-Concerts at the Royal Col- lege of Music and Imperial College. We were honoured that Professor Koji To- yoda, Dr Suzuki’s first student, accepted our invitation to come from Matsumoto, Japan for the Gala. Koji opened the con- cert, conducting Dr Suzuki’s ‘ Wishing - for the happiness of all children’ , with every single player. He was the perfect embodiment of his own great teacher. How Dr Suzuki would have loved this music packed weekend in London! “We are coming to the end of inarguably the most spectacular week in BSI history! The Gala Concert was, as promised, inspi- rational and in a different league to any- thing attempted before. We are in awe of the energy and vision.” “That was a truly outstanding concert at RAH last week. My mind has been filled with such wonderful memories of it. I keep seeing the fabulous view of all those many children inspired to come, standing there playing beautifully. It was such a treat for us to be in the audience and to witness such a display of love, unity and