Suzuki Music Academy of Hong Kong

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

Reflections from the Performers: Viola! Book 2 ~ Yeh Joon, Linnaea and Aslan

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Linnaea, Aslan and Yeh Joon worked together to prepare their Book 2 recital, starting from the beginning of the Fall Term. All of their efforts culminated in their performance on Saturday. Here are the performers’ reflections on the experience:

from Aslan

Over the course of the past few months i have been preparing for my book 2 recital and thought it went better than i thought as i didn’t mess up as much as i thought i would, I put a lot of effort into bochorreni minute as i couldn’t get the slurs to be fast enough or long enough and in the recital i executed it quite well. With the help of Linnea and Yeah Joon we got to play chorus from Judas maccabaeus in harmony which in my opinion sounded quite nice plus we also got to play musette as a harmony too. My three solo pieces are quite nice as i didn’t mess up as much as i did before and i remembered the trigger notes of D,D,B,B in Bourree. In the two grenadiers i thought i had great dynamics and showed the different moods of the piece. Although in witches dance i messed up a bit but i still kept on beat and continued playing the song. Twinkles were great. 🙂

from Yeh Joon

In this book2 recital, I felt more nervous than book 1 recital because they are harder pieces. One thing I enjoyed the most about this book recital was how we as a group collaborated well with one another. In my Gavotte from Mignon, I rushed the piece and my best piece was Long Long Ago. I learned that I should prepare more to make me feel better when preforming. Will remember this for next time.  

from Linnaea

Reflections from the Performers: SANDER & STEPHEN

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Sander and Stephen gave their Book 3 recital on Saturday, 6 March, 2021. They each had one parent and their private teacher as part of the live audience, as well as family and friends joining on Zoom. Here are their thoughts about the experience:

from Sander

Recently I shared a book recital with Stephen. It was a fun and enjoyable experience playing at the recital and practicing/preparing for it. I learned one important piece of information about practicing for a performance in the process, and that is the importance of perfecting the beginning as everything stems off of it, so if you have a solid and confident beginning the piece will sound great.

from Stephen

Before the recital started I felt really nervous but when it started I felt more anxious. On the first song martini govatte I felt ok because I had been practicing it. After that I felt ok with the over songs until  Bach Bouree before I even played that song my hands started to sweat because when  I practiced Bach bouree it was the hardest song to practice. After Bach Bouree I felt ok again and after the recital finished I felt Happy. I loved playing the pieces that either Sanders would play the harmony and I play the melody or Sander would play the melody and I play the harmony, because I don’t feel so nervous playing with Sander even if I feel a bit nervous when I play the hard parts in Bach minuet or Govatte in G minor. When it  was picture time I made silly faces because I love doing that when it comes to picture time.

Reflections from the Performers: Book 1 Viola Recital ~ Aston & Yeh Joon

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A chance to perform the Book Recital live in person with Ms. Sonomi…on Halloween! We were so fortunate that our October Book Recitals were able to be held in person. Each student had a parent attend live, as well as family joining by Zoom.

~ from Aston

Is great to have my book 1 recital this year! Is great to have Yeh Joon perform with me! 

~ from Yeh Joon

I felt a bit nervous. I liked it and I was happy when it was finished. I was happy that there was no more tension. I think that I could do better in my next recital. It was hard to play with a mask and I hope that next time we could play without one, I also thought that it was more special because it was on Halloween.

Reflections from the Performers: Book 3 Violin Recital ~ Margaret and Stacey

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~from Margaret

This recital was such a learning curve. All throughout the past month or so we have been planning trying to make a recital in the situation we are in. I learned that making videos for a recital and having to play things virtually without a live accompaniment is really hard. When you play without someone beside you playing the piano can also be hard. When not on a speaker it can also affect not being on time with the piano like in the recital. I could not hear the accompaniment to Humoresque that is why I did not end on the same time. I and Stacey both did things wrong sometimes one started too early and somehow in the Twinkle we were not together. In Humoresque my speaker was not working and the pitch in the slow me downer app but then we fixed it on our side. 50% of the things that went wrong I blame me but the other half is because we were doing this online. I really enjoyed making this with Stacey but also hope I can do my next recital in person.

~ from Stacey

The coronavirus made our recital really hard to handle, We had to do it online and record videos in order to make me and Margaret’s duet work.

We had a lot of difficulties when making videos and practicing, for example for the duet videos we got notes and bowings wrong sometimes so we had to record all over again and I need to listen to Margaret and Miss Sonomi’s left hand while I play the Minuet duet.

I practiced hard and memorized my bowings and notes so I would not play it wrong when I am recording the videos, I also requested help from Miss Monica when I feel confused about the piano parts.

I understand that the coronavirus is making big changes in our life but I still enjoyed our virtual recital because I get to invite family and friends to my recital, unlike real life we can’t. The only part I did not like about the online recital was that I and Margaret could not really congratulate each other after playing and we always need to be on mute!

Next time I think I should focus more on my dynamics when recording and playing so that the audience can hear my rich strong tone also my light heavenly tone. 

Thanks to Suzuki my book three recital was still pretty perfect.

Stanley Christmas Market Performance!

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String students finished off 2019 with a fun – and windy! – performance of Christmas, Chanukah, and Suzuki repertoire at the Stanley Christmas Market. They reorganised everything this year, spreading the booths and activities out throughout Stanley Plaza and Murray House; the performance “stage” was both smaller and in a different location much closer to Murray House. This made it much easier for the students to manoeuvre from the set-up location to the stage…especially helpful in the windy conditions! It also brought our audience closer to us. It was a great way for us to kick off the holiday season! Our best wishes to all for a joyous and relaxing holiday.

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