Pineland Suzuki Strings

JULY Studio News

Tuesday, July 1, 2025 by Cortney Baker | Uncategorized

July 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

July Schedule

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!

Group Class

Group Classes will be on break for June, July and August.

Local Summer Music Camps

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

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.

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. Keep recording those listening days! A new round of summer listening awards will be handed out at the September group classes,

****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:

Constant and varied listening experiences, both active and passive, are crucial for developing a child's musical ear, fostering familiarity with the repertoire, and nurturing a love for music.

Take a look at this article for an even deeper look at the importance of listening:

https://pluckyviolinteacher.com/listening-to-the-suzuki-recordings/

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 Antonio Vivaldi. (see notes below).

There are other recordings - enjoy looking around and learning more about this great composer.

Please share these with the kids.

Enjoy!

Antonio Vivaldi

Vivaldi was 25 years Corelli’s junior and became his primary virtuoso rival during Corelli’s latter years. Vivaldi’s music faded into obscurity after his death, until Fritz Kreisler and Alfred Casella revived it in the 20th Century. Today he is one of the three most popular Baroque composers, alongside Bach and Handel. He seems to have had asthma, which prevented him from learning wind instruments, but not the violin, and by his twenties, he had become well known in much of Italy and France as a virtuoso of nearly unrivaled technical artistry.

Even without that virtuosity, he would have landed a spot on this list for introducing the idea of “tone painting,” or representing images through music. This he did marvelously with his “Four Seasons,” which are four concerti intended to depict, in four movement each, the appearances of nature throughout the year. With the solo violin, which he played in their premieres, he depicts birds singing, lightning and thunderstorms, frozen lakes, etc. The technical demands in these pieces are quite high.

Vivaldi: Four Seasons/Quattro Stagioni - Janine Jansen:

https://youtu.be/zzE-kVadtNw?si=GPh_t3C8IdfE8Md8

Vivaldi: Winter from The Four Seasons | Netherlands Bach Society (Baroque instruments):

https://youtu.be/31tkGPvdMjs?si=B82gVjj4or3zer26

Vivaldi: Concerto in D Minor for two violins & cello RV 565 |

Voices of Music. Moore, Wong & Skeen (Baroque instruments):

https://youtu.be/XEvsYkTSekY?si=VO0KwPpkFW3ypTeX

Vivaldi: Concerto for 2 Violins in A minor, RV 522 (Op. 3 No. 8) | Brian Lewis, Caroline Smoak

https://youtu.be/VbFv0PXKbQ4?si=Y30GRc5zoVluYRPc

Vivaldi: Concerto for 4 Violins, Op III No. 10 | Shlomo Mintz, Gil Shaham, Maxim Vengerov, Menahem Breuer, violins | Zubin Mehta, conductor:

https://youtu.be/9nvYfmqIbWU?si=cZJfUCm2EGt8JcW9

Local Performances