#cello Archives - Suzuki Music Academy of Hong Kong

SMAHK Cellists Join 70th Anniversary Concert in Tokyo!

April 30, 2025 By Diane Slone

by Ms Silvia

2025 is the 70th anniversary of Suzuki cello this year! Three weeks ago, on the Sunday of April 6th, I was so lucky to participate in the 26th Suzuki Method Cello Grand Concert at Tokyo together with three cello students.

The concert was took place at the famous Bunkyo Civic Hall with the attendance of Her Imperial Princess Takamado. It started with the Rachmaninoff cello Sonata performed by Mr. Hiroyasu Yamamoto (Suzuki Method lecturer in cello department), followed by student cello ensemble performance. One of the highlights was seeing our dear “teacher on CD” Mr. Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi. Yes! The cello master who recorded book 1-8 Suzuki cello CDs. It meant so much to all the Suzuki cellists to finally meet him in person. Mr Tsutsumi was originally asked to perform, but due to his ongoing treatment of arthritis, he gave an on-stage talk instead.

The second half of the concert was the grand play in. It started from Book 9 Haydn Cello Concerto first movement. There were about 40 students playing the solo part accompanied by the Suzuki student orchestra. Although it is a very advanced and technically demanding repertoire, they made it looked so easy and sounded so perfectly together. Then it was the traditional play-in which show case a selected repertoire from Book 8 back to Book 1. The last performance was the Twinkle Theme and Variations. There were more than 200 students on stage at this moment. Twinkle is always the last performance of all Suzuki Play in, no matter how many times I hear the students play, I always feel deeply moved at this moment. I was so impressed by the pure intonation and great passionate energy from all the students. The rich warm cello tone filled the hall and gave me goosebumps.

After the concert, I rushed back to the backstage to congratulate my students. They all looked so excited and their eyes filled with joy. Lucia kept saying to me “it felt like the whole world was thrilling resonance with me! And how did so many little ones played so well and advanced? They must practice very hard! I need to go home and practice right now! ”

This was a truly memorable experience for all of us to be part of this great event.

Here are the official event photos: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EuFfzq2Qi/

Reflections from the Performers: Cristal and Ursula Book 1 Cello Recital

March 4, 2025 By Diane Slone

Cristal and Ursula performed their first-ever Book Recital together! Here’s what they had to say about the experience:

~ from Ursula

I have been learning cello for a relatively short time, so let me share my experience: I hope my pitch is correct, I will play each note with my heart, make each note have life, and finally let the listeners communicate with me through the music. Although it is difficult to make the listeners feel the emotions I want to express in the music, I am trying my best.

~ from Cristal

My first book recital went brilliant! And I’m really happy that I didn’t do huge mistakes. I think that Ms. Sonomi and Ms. Silvia helped me a lot and the beats of our joint pieces with Ursula become much stronger and steadier.

My family supports me a lot and I was so excited to have my little brother and cousins joining my recital. When we played our solo pieces, I felt I performed good for Allegretto, Lightly Row and French Folk Song. However, my bow got stuck when I was playing O Come Little Children because there was no space left with my long bow.

At last, we played the two joint pieces, I didn’t feel nervous any more and I enjoyed our performances very much. I felt so thankful to everyone who helped me during our practice and I hope I can have our second recital with Ursula very soon.

Reflections of the Performers: Eric, Hugo & Wesley Book 2 Recital

November 8, 2022 By Suzuki Music Academy of Hong Kong

Wesley, Hugo and Eric worked together to prepare and perform their Book 2 recital. Here are their reflections on the experience.

~from Eric

From this recital, I took away three things.

Firstly, I noticed how important it is to listen to each other when playing our joint pieces. An example is when you mentioned the balance all three of us needed to achieve in Musette. I needed to listen to Wesley to balance with him and then look at Hugo’s bow so that I and Wesley can balance Hugo. This made me realize how important listening and adapting to each other is, in any group performance.
Next, I noticed how a small pause is sometimes the most powerful way to start or end a piece. For example, when I ended Waltz, I wanted to pause after I finished the last note, to let the ringing tone sink in before I took a bow. I feel like this was a perfect ending touch to this piece. Silence is truly a part of music.

Finally, I noticed how much work we put into this recital. We planned, practiced, and improved over and over again until we had it perfect. This made me realize how much effort is put into a performance, and not just in music. The amount of teamwork and dedication needed for any performance we see is probably a lot more than how much we think it is. To conclude, I want to thank Wesley and Hugo. They were amazing to work with and we collaborated together really well. Furthermore, I want to thank Ms.Diane, Ms.Sonomi, and Ms.Mary Ann because they work hard every day to help us. Ms.Diane works for many hours a day and doesn’t even have time for a proper lunch on Saturdays. Ms.Sonomi accompanies so many pieces, and without her, our performance would not have been possible. Ms.Mary Ann assists countless things and gets so many things done for us to keep our school running.

~ from Hugo

I am proud of myself for completing my book 2 recital, I spent a lot of time polishing and improving my pieces and I am relieved it is over.

I think Eric, Wesley and I worked well together when we were practising our joint pieces. This is a rare opportunity to be able to play a trio with them, I also learnt something from each of them, I think Eric is very dedicated and loves his music a lot, and Wesley is very hard working and takes practising seriously. These are all good things I should follow.

At first, our trios were not very good, but after some individual practice at home, we got better each time we played together.

I overall enjoyed the experience even though there was some pressure during the process, especially in the week before the recital.

~from Wesley

Saturday’s recital was very good, I had one mistake for every piece and I think it was because I’m nervous when I was playing the first piece of the recital, my legs were shaking but I felt better afterwards. I think I also need to add more emotions to the piece, like swinging my body while playing the song.

As a group playing with Eric and Hugo, I learnt that when playing at a recital I have to put more emotion to the song. And for the joint pieces I have to match both Eric and Hugo’s rhythm, for both pieces. I also think I did well on the special notes in Judas since I could really hear the sound loud and clear around the room. For Musette I think I did decent with the overlapping bows. I can do better by really bringing up the overlapping sound more. For Gavotte, I think I can do better because I don’t think I did very well with the sixteenth notes.