MAY studio news
Sunday, April 27, 2025 by Cortney Baker | Uncategorized
May tuition
is due at your first lesson of the month. Consult your monthly invoice for the exact amount.
Ways to pay:
- IN PERSON at your lesson
- MAIL CHECK: 814 Pineland Dr, Cary, 27511
- ONLINE PAYMENT: Venmo & Zelle
May Schedule
There are no regular lessons scheduled on May 26 & 27.
2024-2025 lessons end on May 30. (2025 summer lesson schedule will begin in June 16.)
Log in to your MyMusicStaff portal to see your specific lesson dates, times and location. Also included in your account: the link to access the Zoom webpage, previous lesson notes, the monthly studio news, and much more!
Summer Lessons
2025 summer lesson sign up sheets will be handed out at group class on Friday. Sign ups are due by May 16, 2025 in order to receive your choice of lesson times. Sign ups handed in after the date will have to fit around lessons already scheduled.
Musical March Madness
This is the FINAL week to turn in your Musical March Madness brackets!! Feel free to send me a picture of your completed bracket if that is easier to remember. 😊
Students who complete their bracket will be recognized at our May 3rd recitals. Looking forward to see which of your pieces made it to the WINNERS circle!
Group Class
Group Classes will meet on Friday, May 2nd. Location: Saint Francis UMC. This month our Friday class time will serve a dual purpose: as a piano rehearsal for the solo recital the following day and as a regular group time. Book 3+ students should expect to play their solo. Book 1&2 students, your time will include group pieces and a review of concert etiquette. 2965 Kildaire Farm Road, 27518, Sanctuary.
Group schedule:
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*plan to arrive 10min prior to your assigned group time to unpack and be ready to tune.
May Solo Recitals
When: Saturday, May 3, 3:45 and 5:00
Where: Saint Francis UMC.
RECITAL ATTIRE:
Men/Boys - nice pants and shirt, dress shoes preferred (dark tennis shoes are fine)
Ladies/Girls - dresses (with a below the knee hemline - our "stage" is at eye level for our audience, so please plan accordingly) or dress pants and nice top, dress shoes preferred.
ARRIVAL: Plan to arrive 15min prior to your assigned recital time to unpack and tune.
Recital participants:
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Families are invited to attend the recital they are not assigned to and support all the students in the studio. Join us for the final piece, if you are there!
The recitals will be recorded and a link shared for family and friends to watch and support the performers! All studio participants are expected to participate in our 3 recitals each year.
Outreach Concerts
All students are invite to participate in our outreach concerts this year at Spring Arbor of Cary. These events will require 14-16 studio participants. We will prepare (during weekly lessons) a 20-min concert for the residents on either the upper or lower level. If you did not participate in the September outreach, consider joining us on May 18th, there are still spaces remaining.
As of today, no one has signed up to perform at the 1:00p outreach concert. Are you available? Join us!
To participate, log into your MMS account. Go to the studio calendar tab and add your name to the event on the month you are available (See the How to Register for an Outreach Concert file in the online resources for more details).
Local Summer Music Camps
Lamar Stringfield Music Camp: https://stringfieldmusiccamp.com/home
Day camp Session 1: June 15-20
Day camp Session 2: June 22-27
A great opportunity for introducing your student to music camps and/or playing in a string ensemble. Past students have enjoyed the energy and excellence the camp faculty and directors pour into this week of music making. Plus, it's in our backyard! Take a moment to read more on their website.
Triangle Youth Music Camps: https://www.triangleyouthmusic.org/summer-programs
String Orchestra Half/Full Day Camp (all levels)
July 14th - July 18th Peace Presbyterian Church in Cary
Triangle Youth Music runs the largest, multi-level music education organization in Raleigh. During the school year, they host 5 orchestras, 4 jazz bands and multiple smaller ensembles. Their summer camp is a great way to experience their program on a smaller scale. Take a moment to read more on their website.
Suzuki Summer Institutes
Registration for SUZUKI Summer Institutes is underway! Use this link to view all of the options around the country for summer study: https://suzukiassociation.org/teachers/teacher-training/institutes/
What is an Institute? It is a 5-day family camp. Each day, students have a Masterclass lesson and 2-3 classes (group repertoire, group technique, chamber music, orchestra, fiddle, etc) depending on the level of the player and their ability to read music. Want to know more, please ask me!
I want to encourage everyone to look at the dates and see how you can fit one of these amazing camps into your schedule this summer. Several students have attended the NC Institute (which doesn't look like is happening this summer), others have attended virtual camps - there are LOTS of these to consider.
I will be on faculty at the Greater Washington Suzuki Institute again this year, June 23-29. I would love for you to consider joining me near our nation's capital. Lots of fun sightseeing and history to observe when you are not in class! Here is the link for more info: https://gwsuzukiinstitute.org/
I will also be teaching at the Univ of Louisville Suzuki Institute, June 8-13. Here is the link for more info: https://louisville.edu/music/outreach/suzuki-studies/suzuki-string-institute
Our state has a local institute! Consider heading a little east to join them for a week of music making! North Carolina Suzuki Institute, July 13-18. https://www.ncsuzuki.org/ncsi-home
Several students in our studio have taken advantage of these opportunities in the past. Each one has come away with a major boost in motivation and confidence! As my colleague David Strom has frequently expressed, "institute participants come away from an institute having gained one whole year of musical growth in just one week!"
Studio Videos
Reminder: link to our YouTube folders: https://pinelandsuzukistrings.mymusicstaff.com/Video-Links
For now, I have posted links to the Pre-Twinkle videos, Book 1 accompaniment, Daily Do (for Music Mind Games class), and Christmas Carols.
Parent Education
I have loaded several articles to the Library & Downloads page in your MMS portal with articles and handouts for parents. Find a title that interests you and read it! I highly encourage you to take a moment this month to choose one and read it. There is so much value in motivation for the Suzuki parent. Let these articles give you that blessing!! This link might help to take you there: https://app.mymusicstaff.com/Student/v3/en/online-resources
The Year of Listening
It has been exciting to see the progress of everyone's listening journey on our studio chart. There are a few more weeks to log listening days. In fact, if you don't complete the next 50-day chart by the May 3 recitals, Keep going!! Awards will be handed out anytime you complete a chart from now until we restart for the 2025-26 Listening Challenge!
****Everyday is a new opportunity to listen.****
****When you complete your second, third OR fourth 50-day chart,
please hand it to Dr. Baker in your lesson.****
A reminder of why listening needs to be a focus each week:
This year, to encourage and build healthy habits, we will hold three Listening challenges. Each semester, there will be a 50-day listening challenge and throughout the winter a 100-day challenge. Students who complete a challenge will be recognized during the recital at the end of each timeframe, with a MASTER LISTENER award being presented at our May recitals to students who achieve the maximum 200-day listening challenge.
Special Listening
Just a reminder that wonderful videos and audio recordings of professional performers can be seen/heard on YouTube. Use this as the Special Listening assignment for each week. Starting this month and throughout the summer, we will focus on famous composers of violin literature.
This month's famous composer is Giuseppe Tartini. (see notes below).
There are other recordings - enjoy looking around and learning more about this great composer.
Please share these with the kids.
Enjoy!
Giuseppe Tartini
Tartini lived from 1692 to 1770, and his journey to becoming a musician is unique. His parents wanted him to be a friar, since that was one of the few careers that would guarantee he didn’t starve. All monasteries taught basic music as part of their schooling. He took up fencing at the University of Padua, where he studied law.
He went to the monastery of St. Francis of Assisi, and began studying the violin. He took to it well and had quite a talent for it. As the story goes, just when he considered himself a master, he went to a performance of Francesco Veracini, whose playing made Tartini flee to Ancona and practice a lot more. By 1821, he was famous all over Europe for his impeccable trills and tremolos and the primary performance rival of Antonio Vivaldi.
His most famous work makes extensive use of trills: the Devil’s Trill Sonata for solo violin, in which the performer must play rapid, grueling double-stop trills. Many professionals today cannot handle it. Some say that Tartini heard the devil play it in a dream, and his composition the next morning was terrible compared to what he remembered.
Augustin Hadelich* performs: Giuseppe Tartini: Sonata in g minor "Il trillo del diavolo" (The Devil's Trill): https://youtu.be/XIm3h5ykSlE?si=1Kiy-4dcc7iGpyI6 (original composition)
Itzhak Perlman performs: Sonata in G minor "Devil's Trill" (arr. Fritz Kreisler): https://youtu.be/KMQut2Khfcw?si=mUWdJ0QpSpv1RYTT
Andrew Manze (a Baroque specialist of our time) performs Tartini: https://youtu.be/codgEyXS5NA?si=XOTrbDIwuRFY_oQF Consider listening to the ending few tracks (around 1:09:28) ... can you tell that the violin is tuned differently than we tune ours? This Pastorale is for scordatura violin, meaning it is "mistuned" at the composers request.
Violin Sonatas of G. Tartini: https://youtu.be/xzhyBI9rKa8?si=u3suH6KIzgLCNKPQ This is a long recording, use the links in the description to move around between the movements. Choose a few to listen to!
*Augustin is the recording artist for the most recent recordings for Suzuki Volumes 4-6.
Local Performances
NC Symphony upcoming concerts webpage: click here
*denotes Dr. Baker is performing
