Welcome to Hong Kong!

I am already feeling so welcomed here in Hong Kong, especially by everyone at KinderU.  I am overwhelmed with the beauty of the school and the wonderful families here.  I have especially been enjoying getting to know my students and spending time with the awesome teachers that make up our faculty.  I have also spent lots of time experiencing the variety of dumplings Hong Kong has to offer (which the other teachers and Ms. Lan love to tease me about) and exploring the many different neighborhoods here.

Before moving to Hong Kong in August, I was living and teaching in Philadelphia, PA.  Philadelphia is a wonderful city, which I still love very much, but is so different from Hong Kong.  I used to think the pace of life was fast in Philly (after growing up in the southern US), but Hong Kong is an entirely new level of fast-paced for me!

Summer Teaching and Mountain Climbing

This past summer, I taught in Philadelphia nearly up until the time I left for Hong Kong, but I also spent lots of time with my friends and family who I love all across the US.  I kicked off my summer with a quick trip up to Boston to see friends, and followed that closely with my first ever trip to the Jersey shore!  After spending every summer on the beach in South Carolina for my entire life I was excited to see how the shore compared to what I was accustomed to.  My week at the shore was filled with all sorts of new experiences for me: the boardwalk, eating a local delicacy known as pork roll, and seeing the world’s largest elephant, Lucy!  A few weeks later, I headed out to Colorado for my annual mountain climbing trip.  Every summer I spend about 10 days climbing some of the highest peaks in the continental US, which are mountains over 14,000 feet tall in Colorado.  I spent my time entirely in the backcountry, cut off from most phone connections, backpacking and climbing day in and day out.  One of my favorite highlights from this trip was my first time summitting a mountain at sunset.  It was so beautiful!  After returning from Colorado, I spent a few last days in Philadelphia before driving to South Carolina to see my family.  I was able to spend a few days with them in Columbia, SC before heading to the beach for my last week in the US.  I spent the week surrounded by my family (including my 93 year old grandmother!) and boyfriend, Andrew, and enjoyed running on the beach, playing in the ocean, and being stung by a jellyfish twice!

Heading to Hong Kong after this adventure-filled summer was a whirlwind of emotions.  I have felt so supported and welcomed by everyone here, that it has made the transition to life in Hong Kong wonderful!  I am looking forward to continuing to get to know everyone at KSMA over the next few months as I also work to grow my Cantonese vocabulary and eat all the dumplings!

Violin Studies in Chicago

My Suzuki Summer brought me full circle back to my Suzuki roots. I was able to attend the Chicago  Suzuki Institute where I spent several childhood summers as a young Suzuki student playing, performing, learning and making new friends. This time, returning for teacher training, I once again had time to play and learn, but also to renew some acquaintances with my old teachers and meet some new teachers.

One of the highlights was being in class taught by Nancy Jackson, a friend of Ms. Diane’s and a teacher at one of Chicago’s finest Suzuki schools. I also enjoyed observing large and small group classes taught by teachers whose classes I remembered enjoying as a child. These teachers are still able to get smiles and joy from the students along with solid instruction. It was fun to observe some of the exercises. games and instruction Id’ enjoyed as a student and also to get some new ideas from these master teachers.

Piano Training at KSMA

While at the Chicago Institute, I was able to catch up with my first Suzuki piano teacher, Dr. Suzanne Baker, who was teaching at the Institute,. She was quite excited that I had the opportunity to study Piano Book 1 with Caroline Fraser here at KSMA. This August training was an intense week of reviewing my Suzuki piano roots, observing a master teacher and gathering many new ideas, many applicable to teaching violin as well as piano.

Back to Chicago in the Winter?!

Having Ms. Yuko in class with me for the piano training was an added bonus as we can now discuss Caroline’s instruction and ideas with each other. And, I’m looking forward to seeing Nancy Jackson again for another violin class. This time, the training will be at her school in the Chicago area in January – brrrr!

Stanford – Suzuki Camp Aug7-Aug11 2016

by Olivia Keenan

On Saturday the 7th August my mum, Corinne and I arrived with our good friends, the Roths (Avery, Sloane and mum Monique) at Stanford University, California. The Roth family used to live in Hong Kong and attended our Violin Suzuki school, but moved back to LA a few years ago. It was great seeing them again. They also attended this Stanford Suzuki Camp last year so we decided to go together this year.

We stayed in dorms and went for breakfast, lunch and dinner at the cafeteria.  Each day we attended a number of classes – Orchestra, Master Class, Musicianship, Jazz, Technique and Repertoire).

In Master Class, all the parents attended and wrote down notes about what we needed to work on. We worked on Bow hold and posture; and each of us performed a current piece.

In Musicianship, we wrote down key signatures and scales; so it was mostly writing and reading music. We also played short pieces and worked on scales.

In Technique, we reviewed pieces and worked on teqnique and focused on a piece called, ‘’Ausinn and Nicolette’’.

In Repertoire we worked on our current and recent pieces, and on perfecting each piece until they sounded perfect.

There would also be Honors Recitals each day at break.  These were kids who were selected to perform a polished piece.

My favorite classes were Technique and Orchestra. I liked Technique as the teacher (Brook Moes) was nice and funny, and we played pieces that I enjoyed. I liked Orchestra because the teacher (Kirstin Marshall) was fun and enthusiastic, and I like how she made up ‘Joke Day’ on the last day we where together.

Suzuki camp was great and I liked meeting new people and making new friends.  I met a British family –  Humphrey was my age (11) and Cecily who is 9. Their mom was very nice too. We spent most of the camp together with the Roths. My stand partner in Orchestra became a good friend too. Her name was Nesiya and she was 7. She was excellent at violin and was chosen to play in the Honors recitals.  Her mom was nice as well, and Nesiya made me a bracelet so I could remember her. We also met Ms Adriana (our old Cello teacher).  It was great seeing her again!

In the evenings there were concert performances – some solos and duets.  My jazz teacher, Mads Tolling and his piano friend, Dan Zemelman performed one night and I thought it was really cool.

On a free evening we went off campus with the Roths, Humphrey and Cecily for Pizza and also visited this great store called ‘Paper Source’. I loved this store as it has so many interesting things like Irish spray (You spray it in your mouth and you talk Irish) or Mood Nail polish. (You put the nail polish on and it changes to the color of your mood).  Avery and I bought a pink heart necklace (like friendship necklaces) and following this we went to great book store. Avery and Sloane bought a few things, so did Cecily. Most of the time there,  Avery and I read blurbs from books and it was pretty funny.   After pizza, Humphrey’s family left and the Roth’s and us went to a yummy ice-cream store. I loved the ice-cream!

On the final day we performed in a Grand concert which included everyone’ groups. The Cellos were first, then the Violas and then the Violins. It went from book 1/2/3 to book 8. Corinne performed in the Sibling group which was made of books 1,2 and 3. My friends and I were next followed by Avery and book 6 and beyond. After these performances we played our Jazz class pieces. Our piece was “Watermelon Man”. Following this were the Orchestra pieces. My pieces were “Nightshift” and “Fiddle Finger Frenzy’’.

After the concert was over we had to say goodbye to everyone.  It was sad to say good bye but we all exchanged emails so we hope to keep in touch.

I really liked this camp and I hope to go again in the next few years. I loved the classes, it really inspired me to be a better violinist. It was such a good opportunity I was given. I hope my other  violin friends will go here in the future!

Thank you Stanford Suzuki Camp!