Suzuki Music Academy of Hong Kong

"Music Exists for the purpose of growing an admirable heart" ~Shinichi Suzuki

Reflections of the Performers: Alice Wan and Stacey Fung, Book 4 & 5 Violin Recital

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Alice and Stacey worked together to prepare and perform their Book 4 & 5 violin recital. It was the first time they got to combine their friendship with independent responsibility for learning and preparation…here are their thoughts about the experience!

~from Stacey

I was so happy when I knew that Alice and I were going to have our book 4-5 recital together. This was a really big milestone for both of us. At the start of the preparations, Alice and I had planned perfectly how we were going to prepare for this recital, but we had a very busy schedule so sometimes we would have to reschedule.

Some joint pieces were enjoyable while some were very challenging. For example, the bach double. I always thought that it was really hard to listen to others while playing and matching my part to theirs. The Bach double requires lots of listening, practice and communication. Alice and I first tackled this piece by practicing separately then using the music to play together, this really helped us match our two parts together. But as we had a lot of other activities, we couldn’t always have consistent rehearsal times, we would often make mistakes in the bach double and it would become very frustrating. In the end, through lots of feedback and practice, we managed to get more comfortable with this joint piece and even add on great dynamics and communication in our piece. Right before we performed the bach double, it was super nerve racking, Alice and I recited the key details of this piece and went on “stage” . Thankfully, our bach double was played beautifully with no mistakes!

Other than the joint pieces, I struggled with one of my solo pieces in particular, which was the vivaldi concerto in A minor, this was the first time I would have to play an entire concerto in one go. At first I thought that it would be the hardest piece I could do. I slowly got used to the length of the pieces and was able to play the piece comfortably. But I was missing something. I was missing a lot of dynamics! I had to go back to each movement and work on the dynamics for each part of the piece. Although the process was tedious, I managed to polish the concerto and could perform with Miss Sonomi. I think my best piece on the day of the recital would have been this piece since it had so many different elements and it really developed me as a violin player. I learnt so much about the timing between each movement and how to settle into the mood of each movement. I also really enjoyed playing Seitz 5. 1. This piece was my favorite piece in book 4, it was such a pleasure to play this with great dynamics and energy at my recital. During this piece, I focused alot on my elbow and the energy of the song, listening back to the videos my parents took, I was really happy to be able to play this piece.

  Lastly, I would like to thank all the people who have helped me prepare for this recital. I would like to thank Ms. Diane, for teaching me and setting the standards higher than ever. Ms. Sonomi, for accompanying with me(she basically saved me 17 times in my life).Ms. Marie Ann, for organizing everything you could ever imagine. My mom and dad, for always supporting me in my practice. And Alice for being such a great friend and partner to complete my book 4-5 recital with. Thankyou!

~ from Alice

I gave the book four and five recital with one of my friends Stacey. Overall it was a really fun experience, but it was a very special book recital and definitely challenged us a lot. One thing that you need about the book 4 and five recital is the preparation process. Unlike the recitals that we have given before, the book 4 and five recital requires a lot of independent preparation. We had to arrange our time ourselves and practice without any adult guidance, which started out to be quite a challenge, because me and Stacey are both very energetic people that get distracted easily. We also had a lot of trouble with hard pieces because we didn’t know how to practice them at first, and without supervision from Ms. Diane, things could go off the rails sometimes. One of the hardest pieces, the Bach Double, which we had trouble finding ways to practice and make progress on during our practice sessions. However, we were able to overcome this challenge eventually and stayed on task during most of our practice sessions. We made a lot of progress during the sessions and we also learned how to work and collaborate with each other. The preparation process really taught as how to explore different practice methods and identify areas of growth within our playing.

Another thing that the book recital taught us was about performance skills. During our dress rehearsal we stopped and started many times, which we had to eventually overcome by putting in more work, forcing ourselves to keep going, and communicating with each other and our accompaniment pianist miss Sonomi, who is also an amazing teacher. We also had to learn about how to play an entire concerto and how to switch moods in between movements to engage our audience. We also developed skills like following each other and communicating while playing. A good example of this is when we had to pay the Bach double and because it’s a duet, and we had problems communicating with each other, when we performed for the first time it was very messy. We improved this by communicating more often and it solved the problem. Something else that we learned we had to learn the hard way. Our seats while we weren’t playing between the pieces were behind the piano, so we thought no one could see or hear us when we were there. We were whispering a lot, and turns out not only could you see it, you could hear it too! We only realised this halfway through the recital when the audience appeared to notice our communication behind the piano. Now we learned to always be cautious and never talk or snap out of performance character onstage.

While there were a few hiccups along the way, the recital taught me a lot about collaboration, performing and playing the violin. It was a great experience with many takeaways and we had a lot of fun! (Plus there was a reception with all sorts of delicious food and drinks.

Reflections of the Performers: Sander Day and Ayden Siu Book 4 & 5 Violin Recital

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Ayden and Sander performed their Book 4 & 5 recital together. Quite an accomplishment, as the level of responsibility for this recital is quite a bit more than students have had previously! Please enjoy their reflections on the experience.

~from Ayden

This book 4 & 5 recital is very different from all my past recitals. It not only encompasses two Suzuki books, but also student-led responsibility. We are responsible for working on all joint pieces preparation and making plan independently without parent involvement. I had to organise multiple practice times together with Sander for our joint pieces before joint lessons. During this process, we encountered challenges, like how our schedules conflicted and how to make plans on individual practice for areas like tempo, dynamics changes etc. This is especially evident in Bach Double where we needed to pass the melody back and forth, and where we had to phrase different parts together which was difficult to work on.

Reflecting on the book recital, as I had dedicated extra time to commiting quality practice to my solo pieces according to Ms Diane’s comments from lessons. I felt the solo pieces, although at the start had a lot to work on, were not very challenging during the recital. One of my favourite moments during the book recital was having the opportunity to perform the entire Vivaldi Concerto. This became my most memorable solo piece. The Vivaldi Concerto starts from Allegro, to Largo back to Allegro. This big change in mood required me to spend enough time to change the atmosphere before starting. I thought I have done it smoothly during the book recital. Furthermore, I also thought that I had used vibrato and created dynamic contrast well throughout to help set the atmosphere. 

Overall, I enjoyed the process of collaborating with Sander as a new student-led experience and felt our work and dedication towards performing during the recital to be accomplishing and successful.

~from Sander

Looking back on the process as a whole, I have a few large takeaways, a few of which are positive, and a few of which are areas of improvement. 

Firstly, in terms of large ideas, I think that a positive of the recital was how well not only Ayden and I prepared (grew to the occasion to efficiently and effectively do so) and performed the pieces sounding in most cases together. In terms of a large area of improvement that I would note, I think that in many of the pieces, the parts that had previously come out as areas for improvements sounded generally good, however, parts that had not had as much attention seemingly may have had mistakes in them while playing them during the recital, even if they had not in previous practicing.

Moving on into individual piece feedback, going chronologically, I felt that Country Dance was good in terms of the energy that I was able to bring out and character. Overall it felt solid, except for the rhythm section where I kept going back and forth (I suppose that is simply because I was not confident enough with it at the time). 

Next, in terms of Seitz (5.3), the piece overall felt good. I had a special focus on dynamics and character at the beginning, and I felt the articulation of the double stops was sound, however, I did notice that the tempo was not always consistent (i.e. the tempo did not get back to a tempo). 

Further, on Vivaldi (all movements), (similar to what we discussed in lesson) the parts of the piece that we focused on for significant amounts of time no matter if they were challenging or not, seemed to go well. This may have been slightly due to tempo shifts (similar to Seitz). As well, I knew immediately when I started the third movement that I had forgotten to leave the breath in between, even though it had been something we and myself had practiced and tried to internalize. 

Lastly, for German Dance my only notable comment on the piece was that it felt it was going well until I started to, I will say, overthink the fingering, and then it led to the piece sounding partially sloppy and incoherent.

Reflections of the Performers: Isabel & Chloe Book 2 Recital

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Chloe and Isabel gave their Book 2 Recital on the last Saturday of our Spring Term! Here are their reflections on the experience:

~from Chloe

    I was really excited when I heard my partner was Isabel, since we did our Book 1 Recital together too!
        Isabel and I were both really nervous in the beginning, since there were 5 guests who came to watch, and it was a lot more people than in the dress rehearsal. Consequently, during the first piece—Happy Farmer, Isabel forgot that I was leading, and led the bow, and gave the cue. So of course I was really confused, and messed up the beginning. Fortunately, we somehow managed to start again, with me giving the cue, and the rest of the piece went really well. 
        Our other two joint pieces—Twinkles and Musette was really good. In Twinkles, we both remembered to have eye contact after every section. In Musette, we didn’t forget to do the dynamics and phrasing we were working on the last few weeks. The only thing I think we could have done was a bigger retard and diminuendo in the end.
        I think part of why the joint pieces were really great, is because we practiced them over and over during all the joint lessons, dress rehearsal, and our practice-playdate. Yup! On June 10, Isabel went over to my place and we practiced all our joint pieces with our concert dress on! After 45 minutes of practice, we decided that we were fine, and started to play games! She even stayed for lunch! 
        Anyways, back to the recital. Slowly but surely, I got more confident throughout the performance. I think my best piece that day was Two Grenadiers, since I used my whole bow, did the crescendo, and used my elbow for the up bows, to create a grand forte sound. I also really liked Chorus from “Judas Maccabaeus”, because I used my thumb and elbow together to create beautiful tone. In Boccherini Minuet, I did a lot of dynamics in the C, D, and E sections, but I could definitely make the trills sound clearer. In Hunters Chorus and Gossec Gavotte, my eighth and sixteenth notes were kind of mushed together. I really liked Gavotte from Mignon’s pizzicato ending as well. I did elbow circles, and pulled the strings sideways. 
        After the recital, we had a lot of snacks, drinks, and candy, at the reception. Everyone was just chatting, laughing, and eating. 
        Lastly, I want to thank all the people who have helped me make this recital happen. Ms. Diane, for teaching me all the pieces I performed. Ms. Marie Ann, for organizing everything. My family, for supporting me along. Ms. Sonomi, for collaborating with me. Isabel, for being a great friend and partner. And Isabel’s parents, for bringing the amazing food!
        All in all, the whole recital was a fun and enjoyable experience, and I look forward to my future Book 3 Recital too!

~from Isabel

I think that my book recital with Chloe was successful because we worked well and we could identify what problems there were in our joint pieces and we practised this more when Chloe invited me over to her house and we mostly practised Musette because we needed to practise being in sync. After that, we played with Chloe’s little sister and ate lunch. I think this was a very fun experience and I would like to do another recital with Chloe.

Reflections from the Performers: Lincoln & Miles ~ Book 2 Violin Recital

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Miles and Lincoln were excited to welcome the largest in person audience to a Book Recital since before COVID! They have some thoughts to share about their experience together:

~from Lincoln

I believe that the recital was quite successful. One of the reasons is that there were no major mistakes and I firmly believe both me and Miles played beautiful music that allowed the massive audience to clap loudly. In Twinkle, I think I should have paid a little more attention to Miles as I was completely focused on myself. I would like to thank you for helping me develop my music and Ms Sonomi for being piano accompaniment. I think that I have prepared a lot for my recital in the 20 mins of time to practise. I think that I should have practised more pieces  rather than just a few. I believe my playing with Miles of Musette has significantly improved. We were together more and we played it better than the last time. I firmly believe that overall, the recital was a success, however had some flaws such as the twinkle where I accidentally played theme instead of harmony for a few seconds in variation E. 

~from Miles

My recital went well, and I am proud of how I did. I think I worked well with my partner and have done good ques for both Ms.Sonomi and my partner while leading. Overall I did much better than last time, and hope all future recitals are as good as this. The main concerns I had when I was told the recitals’s date was me forgetting the forms of the pieces, but after getting used to the pieces again, I found the forms not too difficult. The joint lessons also helped a lot as we focused a lot on ques and how to lead, which neither me or my teammate really did well before the joint lessons.

Reflections from the Performers: Amy and Hugo ~ Book 3 Cello Recital

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Amy and Hugo performed their Book 3 cello recital together. It was Amy’s first-ever Book Recital! The two students worked together with Ms Silvia to prepare their joint pieces, as well as working on their solo repertoire. Here is what they each have to say about the experience:

~from Amy

I heard this new was on January 25. That was so challenging and exciting for me because it is the first time I have to play so much music at once. 

Initially, I played most of my time for my recital while I was free. Sometimes I was not at home, and I could not bring my cello I would take the music with me, and once I was free, I could take a look on it and played on my mind. 

There were also some difficulties to solve before the recital. For example, I often mixed up how to play accompaniment of Allegro Moderato cause there are some alto clefs in the music, and I have already remembered the cello 1 of Allegro Moderato, they are quite similar. Thus, when I was playing with Hugo, I often forgot to play my part. The bowings of Twinkle are proper. Actually, it corrects some mistakes that have been affecting me for long times. I need to put my bow closer to the bridge and use the prescribed section of the bow. These can make my tone more resounding and stronger. Fortunately, these issues were resolved with the help of Ms. Silvia. Ms. Silvia carefully taught how to solve these problems and promptly reminded me whenever they occurred.

Before the recital started, I feel so much pressure because I afraid that I would screw up the concert and there were so many people rooting for me, so I pretended I was a professional cellist who has appeared in concert many times. That is so funny.

It was surprising that I gradually feel relaxed when I was performing. I tried to show the beautiful tone as best as I can. There was a voice in my heart to remind me and said, ‘you can do it’. I hope I can do better in the future concert than this time and let them unforgettable. For the whole concert, one thing I must change was I do not wait for Hugo before I started play Minuet in G. I feel deeply regretful after the recital, and I promise this sort of things won’t happened again.

Finally, thanks to all the audiences who came to see the recital and Hugo and all the teachers who helped me to finish the concert.

~from Hugo

This was a very difficult recital to prepare for as I was not able to play cello for a week as I fractured my ankle, this not only meant that I lost one week of practice but i also forgot a lot of things that we worked on and we had to start over, so I had to practice a lot more than I intended to, but i was able to persevere through and successfully complete my recital.  I really liked working with Amy as I can tell she is really dedicated which is something I lack.  If I could do this recital again I would practice more so I feel prepared and calm before the recital, I think I played quite well but I could definitely do much better as I was very nervous and was playing faster than we practiced and probably could have played better if I was more calm.

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