by Caleb Chung and family
Last summer we spent a week in Rochester Vermont, attending the Green Mountain Suzuki Institute (GSMI). We looked at a few institutes in the northeast but decided on Rochester for various reasons – easiest drive from Boston where we would spend our summer, very nice accommodation in a bed & breakfast inn, but most importantly, its smaller student body. Our son Caleb, who was then 7 and just started on Gavotte in G Minor in Book 3, enjoyed it so much that we have decided to return to the institute this year!
Wonderful Location
Rochester town is located at the foot of range of mountains called Green Mountains. Little known to those outside of the northeast Green Mountain is a hiking and biking haven too. Rochester itself has just a population of a few thousand and is unique in a sense that it has just one of everything – one park, one church, one school, one grocery store, one coffee shop, one bed & breakfast, one library etc – and simply self contained. It can’t be more different from where we’re from and we instantly fell in love with it!
Great Scheduling!
GMSI is being hosted by the Rochester Community School, just 10 minutes walk from where we stayed and the school has a large soccer field, a playground and large gym. On arrival, we were greeted by a Suzuki mom who’s been bringing her daughter to GMSI for over 10 years (later we learnt that she has NEVER broken the golden rule of daily practice since 6)! Caleb was handed a customised schedule which featured his daily group, master classes & electives he chose when we registered (chorus, fiddling, music explorations). We were quite impressed by how he’d be occupied with both serious & fun music endeavours on a daily basis and became really excited about our week.
Valuable and Fun Classes
In the group classes, Caleb was probably the youngest (& certainly the shortest) as he was the only student in Book 3, hence a combined book 3-4 class got him polished on his Gavotte in G minor. Though he played less than listening to older students perfect their Seitz Concerto, both me and Caleb were so inspired that it got him to say to himself me: ‘I want to play like them’. We also observed how well poised, serious & musical the students were & most importantly, all listening to the teachers instructions. Meanwhile, in his private classes, his teacher Miss Casey gave him an invaluable suggestion to his posture that up to today we still use that ‘command’ to help him perfect it.
Good for the Whole Family
During the electives, I joined in the chorus with Caleb while Daddy joined in the fiddling with him. While one of us was busy with Caleb, the other one would be taking care of Chloe who was 2.5 years then – daily visits to the park at the Rochester School, the library and short walks around the town – she was just happy to being around us & new friends in the playground. The days passed by quickly though & before you know it, you’ll hear kids playing soccer either in the school grounds or the park, followed by an early picnic dinner at 530pm. One of the highlights was that our entire family joined other Suzuki families in a community contra dance & my my, it was exhausting but totally enjoyable. Performances by both strings students & electives filled the afternoon s of the last two days but most surprisingly, the same serious, musical & well poised students in his group class all played pick up soccer & by the end of the week, they have all become buddies!
New Friends!
Perhaps the most unexpected yet pleasantly surprising experiences was one friendship Caleb formed with a 10 year old boy of the same name. They are also Barca fans & played soccer with each other everyday. We got to know the family well who shared a similar philosophy in the way we embrace Suzuki in our lives. Caleb remains inspired to play like the older Caleb who was already in Book 5, and now and again he’d say ‘I can’t wait to see the other Caleb again’. Perhaps this is the real reason we are returning to GMSI this year after all!