Keepviolinin

It’s been a while since I last had a duet with Austin…so we sight read a few today and we enjoyed them:)

Merry Christmas Everyone ~~

Dec. 21st, 2013 I took some of my Mountain House/Tracy students to a senior living center called Emeritus Heritage Place in Tracy, CA and we gave a 45 minute Holiday Concert to the folks that lived there along with parents and friends.  Here’s a collage I made of the students performing and a group photo in the end along with a video of us playing and singing ‘We Wish You A Merry Christmas’

Here’s the video link to ‘We Wish You A Merry Christmas’:

Through this event, I hope the children enjoyed the gift of giving during this holiday season instead of always receiving gifts from their family and friends.  I know I enjoyed hearing the applause from the audience during the end of each performance:) 

I wish everyone out there have a safe and joyous holiday season as our family reflect upon the wonderful gifts God has given us throughout the Year 2013:)

Mountain House Suzuki Strings had another successful performance at the Wicklund/Bethany Halloween Carnival in Mountain House, CA yesterday. The students played Witches’ Dance, Ghost of John, and Scary Twinkle along with some Play-in pieces from Suzuki:) Enjoy the phot:)

Enjoy these photos from our Flash Mob in Mountain House’s Central Park on Aug.18, 2013.

Attending the Suzuki Institute has become our family annual summer event, and what better place to attend than the nearby Santa Rosa, CA.  It is a place where the faculty really focused on bow exercises and tone quality. I also learned a ton of new bow exercises from Cathryn Lee’s course that will help my students improve their tone tremendously:) I can’t wait to try them out!!!:) I appreciate the Suzuki teacher trainers thinking of easier ways to help us as we continue to try to allow our students to enjoy music by creating less tension in their bodies.  Big thanks to Cathryn Lee and Donna Lim for organizing this year’s Suzuki Institute in Santa Rosa:) Enjoy the photos below:)

First day of Institute:

Flash Mob at Santa Rosa Farmer’s Market

Last Day of Institute:

Dance Class Performance:

Mariachi Class Performance:

Repertoire Class Performances:

A Photo with Mrs. Cathryn Lee and Mr.Joe Kaminsky

Photos with friends he made at the Institute:

Thank you for visiting my page!

~ Keep Violinin’

As I prepare for my next lesson, I started to organize some of the past photos of my students and came across this one:) I was surprised with home-made cake pops from a parent on my birthday:)

My student recital will be next Saturday and I’m super proud of each and every single one of my students for their hard work that they’ve put into their solo pieces.  Their accomplishments would not be possible without the support from their parents.  I just want to wish all my students the best and I am so proud of each and every single one of you for trying your best to make beautiful music from your hearts.

~ Keep Violinin’

Yay!!! Spring is here once again in the bay area:) I’ve been pre-occupied after coming back from the Asia trip that I seldom blog anymore.  However, I should start again and share with all of you the success stories of my pre-twinkle students and book 1 graduates, since that’s the main purpose of starting this website:)

One story that I want to share with you which I found extremely encouraging is how one of my students went from playing Twinkle for almost a year with me to getting passed Perpetual Motion within 2 months.  This student was struggling with being consistent with the daily practice and listening for a very long time.  I really want my students to be able to play all of the twinkle variations fluently before moving onto the rest of Book 1.  If students are able to grasp all the concepts from the variations, they should not have too much problems getting through the rest of the book.  I want to encourage all the teachers out there to really spend quality time with your students on these twinkles before moving onto other repertoires in Suzuki. It does take quite a bit of patience though from both the parents and the teachers. 

Recently, our Mountain House Suzuki Strings students performed at the local Lunar New Year celebration. Here is a photo of me with the twinkle group getting ready to perform ‘Painted Face Role’ from an excerpt of a Beijing Opera:

Happy Spring Everyone!!!:)