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Recital Time

June 2, 2008 at 8:13 AM

Though I've been teaching for over 10 years, I only recently relocated to Southern California last fall and set up a brand new teaching studio. Last Saturday was my Studio Spring Recital and it was awesome! We laid out a spread that my in-laws would be proud of. It was quite the event. I kept thinking to myself, "next time, Recital Committee... recital committee..."

Here is a great little excerpt from a Thank-you card from a 4-year old Pre-Twinkler (as dictated to her mother):

"Dear Mrs. Salisbury,
I know that you love me. And you're the best! You know that I love to play the violin and I love to play Allegro. Thank you!
- Emma"

Some interesting studio demographics.
Total students: 34, (some attend lessons more than once per week, others for longer lengths)
Total teaching hours per week: 20, plus some extra for group classes
Languages spoken: 10, including French, Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Tigrinya and Hebrew.
Age range: 3 to 45. There are 16 students under 6 years old.
Playing level: Mostly Books 1-3, with a few in Book 4. There are 20 students between ground zero and various stages of Twinkle.
Attendance at Spring Recital: 120 family members and friends.

In my "wrap it up" speech, I remarked to the audience at the amazing diversity within the families in my studio. In a world where we are divided into races, religions, socio-economic status, education, political affiliation, age and marketing groups, Music serves not only as the universal language but also a great unifier. My 7 member Twinkle Graduating class showed just that: Japanese, Korean, Chinese, El Salvadorian, Mexican, Blue-eyed and Redheaded children can all play the same tune and speak as one violin. I'm finally starting to understand some of the vision that both Dr. Suzuki and Casals had - it might just be music that saves the world after all.

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Carrie Salisbury is from San Gabriel, California. Biography

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