Summer institutes

I just received an emailing about a Suzuki summer institute in New England. If you're interested, you can check out the program on their website at

http://www.newenglandsuzukiinstitute.org/

I'll have more information about summer institutes later when the institute listings come out in the Suzuki journal this spring.

Fiddle Music

Hi Everyone,
Everyone should have received their fiddle music in lessons by now. However, I'm also posting this semester's music here as well. I will not be posting the mariachi tune just yet since we're still working on getting the violin 2 part done. If you do need an extra copy of the violin 1 part, let us know. I'll have both parts here soon. I'm also not posting "Redwing" from the Mark O'Connor method book volume 2.

All files are now in my idisk folder so there won't be any advertisements. When you go to the link below, click on "Fiddle Tunes spring 2010. The songs will show up. Click on any of the songs you need and select download when prompted.

http://public.me.com/laurayeh

Since this is the first time I've used this program, let me know if you have any trouble with it. I'm still learning my way around it. I will also have the sound recordings of the tunes available quite soon too. I apologize for the delay.

Fiddle group will have it's first class on Saturday, February 6th at 3pm. Please note that the time is later than last semester. Students should definately be prepared to work on The Mason's Apron and La Cumparsita. We'll also review some of last semester's music to warm up our ensemble skills.

Can't wait to see you all and make some music together!

Welcome Back

Hi everyone and Happy New Year!

I wanted to welcome you all back. We'll be starting up lessons again today and we're excited to see you all and hear about your break!

We'll be handing out recital scheduling forms this week in lessons so we can get your recital dates assigned as soon as possible. We also need to know which extra classes (if any) you'll be signing up for this semester. We'll need that information no later than this Saturday, January 16th since your semester invoices will be going out next week.

We hope you had a great vacation and we're excited about another semester of progress!

“The Road to Carnegie Hall” Benefit Concert

Hi Everyone,
Here is the information for an upcoming concert here in St. Louis to benefit local music education. It looks like a good line up of musicians.


“The Road to Carnegie Hall” Benefit Concert

Tuesday, Dec. 22 7 p.m.
KHS Keating Center
Enjoy performances by musically gifted KHS orchestra alumni, including members of the St.
Louis Symphony Orchestra, during this wonderful night of music. Proceeds benefit the KHS
Symphonic Orchestraʼs trip to Carnegie Hall next Spring. Several district orchestra students
from the elementary, middle schools and high school, will also showcase their talent alongside
these former Pioneers:
* Cellist Patrice Jackson, media-proclaimed music prodigy and daughter of Symphonic
Orchestra Director Patrick Jackson;
* St. Louis Symphony Orchestra members Felicia Foland (bassoon) and Rebecca
Boyer Hall (violin);
* The Freivogel Family Strings - siblings Meg, Liz, Ben and J, will reunite for this one night;
* Emilee Newell, graduate of Indiana Universityʼs renowned music program; Sarah
Drake, a fourth year music major (violin) at Indiana;
* Joe Kaminsky, elementary strings teacher for the Kirkwood School District and
violin instructor for 30 years;
* There will also be a special performance by Kirkwood Orchestra
director Patrick Jackson!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW!
Ticket prices include a dessert reception following the concert.
NAME: _________________
Phone: _________________ E-Mail: _________________________
Address: ___________________________________________
$20 for Adult Tickets
X No. of tickets ______
$________
TOTAL: $________
Open seating for all tickets. Please mail this form to: KHS Orchestra Benefit Concert, Kirkwood
School District, Attn: Carolyn Pierce, 11289 Manchester Rd., Kirkwood, MO 63122.
Make checks payable to KHS Orchestra Benefit Concert.
All tickets will be held at the Will Call table in the Keating Performance Center and may be picked
up the night of the concert.
Please call 966-5350 for more info!

Recitals and Fiddle

Hello all,
Next weekend we have some recitals going on and you are all welcome to come see the students play (regardless of if you are scheduled to play or not.) The students have been working hard to prepare their pieces, so it should be a great set of recitals. Saturday, December 12 at 11am will be our first recital and it will include a performance by our fiddle group. The fiddle group will be performing 6 fiddle tunes including, Celtic, Bluegrass, Old-time, and Klesmer tunes.

The next recital will be Saturday, December 12 at 2pm, and our last recital will be Sunday, December 13 at 1:30pm. After all of our recitals we'll have goodies to eat and would love the chance to visit with you, so feel free to stay. We hope you have a great week and hope to see you at the recitals!

Toy room at St. Timothy's

The secretary at St. Timothy's church has asked me to remind everyone who comes in for group classes, fiddle, and recitals to be sure to put things away in the children's room upstairs if their kids go and play in there. They've had a few Sundays now where the toys have been left out after we've been there.

Let's keep things nice and neat so the church will continue to enjoy having us use their faciltiy. Thanks!

Fiddle Rehearsal Saturday

Hi Everyone,

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

We'll be meeting for our dress rehearsal this Saturday, December 5th at 2:30pm. We are anticipating that the rehearsal will be approximately one hour. We'll be at St. Timothy's as usual. Since this is our last rehearsal and we have a lot to do to get ready for the recital, we need to have everyone there. Thanks everyone for making such a commitment to fiddling!

A few notes for practice speeds this week:

Sally Gardens - practice with metronome at around 70=quarter note

Back Up and Push - practice second half (cross shuffle) with metronome set at around 104=quarter note

Johnny's Gone to France - Slow tempo practice with metronome at around 92= quarter note. The second time through will be twice as fast for everyone who can play it really fast, so the tempo will be 92=half note. (You'll fit 4 eighth notes into each beat instead of two.) For those of you who still would like to count quarter notes, the metronome marking will be 184=quarternote.

Other notes on practicing this week:

King of the Faeries - please look over your notes and bowings this week. There are a few memory lapses and intonation issues happening that hopefully will be mostly sorted out before we meet on Saturday. We'll get the ending worked out Saturday too so be sure to practice that!

Sally Gardens - please be sure to count on all half and dotted half notes. We're still not quite all together sometimes. In the group, if you are not sure, just watch Maggie's bow and don't change before she does.

Back Up and Push - besides metronome practice to keep our speed steady, please check bowings this week and watch that Fs and Cs are not too flat.

Orientalische - Great job off beat people!! Melody guys, let's check bowings and make sure we're playing the second half in tune; there are some sour notes in there at times.

Thanks guys and happy practicing!!