European Suzuki Association - Teachers Newsletter Vol 38 2018

27 made, and the young filmmaker responsible was in attendance and filming for part of the course, with a special emphasis on ‘Galaxies’. We have since 1991 included multi- piano coaching in our Summer School. Always on grand pianos and in this case three Steinway D’s. We choose grands so as to promote tone production and an awareness of how to use the body. Lucie ob- served Caroline working with our Book 1 students on Suzuki reper- toire unison playing, (which is a great way of distilling the essential pedagogy), and later performance. She was able to observe the results of the composition elective that 8 of the teenagers took at the work- shop, both at the play-through where the instrumentalists and singers gave feedback to the young composers, and on the last concert day when all the pieces received a miraculous transformation in final performances. Lucie also had some time, along with the other observer from Paris, with Caroline Gowers in CPD ses- sions where Caroline shared her expertise with focused work on Book 1. After the course, Lucie kindly wrote to me to say, “it was such a unique, inspiring, flabber- gasting summer course’. The guiding force of each Summer School is making music together, and sharing, and learning to listen, whether that is through playing on three pianos in unison, to sing- ing in the Kodaly classes, to taking part in chamber music. Lise, the piano teacher observer from Paris, had come for three days specifically because she had heard my pupils play when they took part in the ‘Brin d’Herbe’ competition for young pianists in Orléans. This competition is for music from 1900 to the present day, and my pupils have been 1st prize winners, and awarded ‘prix d’excellence’, and won the special prizes, such as the one for ‘improvisation’ at this competi- tion. So she came to learn about the contemporary music that we do at CSYM, but she ended up being more interested in the Su- zuki teaching having observed multi-piano and chamber music coaching with the younger stu- dents, and was won over not least by the experienced pedagogy and wise manner of Caroline Gowers! The last observer came from the USA, and was on holiday in Lon- don, so she made a special trip up to Cambridge. In the end, she could only spend the morning ob- serving but I think she found it interesting. It transpired that she had majored in voice, and since that morning the vocal concert took place, she could exchange some ideas with our soprano. For the first time I had invited Gabriel- la a soprano and singing teacher, and Richard Gowers (a former CSYM student), now studying accompany- ing at postgrad level at the Royal Academy of Music, to help the 9 teenage students (ages 12-19), with collaborative pianism. The students each learn a song, by Britten, Cam- po, Debussy, Faure, Rodrigo, and Strauss, rehearsed with Gabriella and Richard and then performed in concert on the last day. A success- ful experiment that we will build on next year. Each workshop has a core that is similar, but no two are the same and I add and subtract. Next year we will have a percussionist for the first time on the staff in the person of Richard Benjafield (head of the wood, brass and percussion depart- ment of the ‘Guildhall School of Mu- sic and Drama’ in London). For July/August 2019, I will again offer a CPD course for Suzuki piano teachers, at which the teachers will follow a guided pathway through the Summer Workshop. My experi- ence from the past is that each teacher takes away something different as suits their needs and personality. At best, I hope it in- spires and helps them in their teaching, or at least raises questions about Suzuki, music pedagogy and piano playing and enables personal reflection. Continuous Professional Development Courses Suzuki Multi-Piano Course, Cambridge UK Stephen Power contd /2