What a Nice Week at MacPhail

We had the MacPhail Suzuki Institute last week. Annette Lee, Fay Adams and I rounded out the piano masterclass faculty. We also got to play together on the recital, selections from Ravel's Mother Goose Suite. Annette got to do all the glissandi at the end--so she did get the glory. And the blisters. Adrianna and I also got to play together for the first time--a Chopin cello and piano sonata movement. I'm not sure why it took me so many years to realize how much fun it is to collaborate with others. I really enjoyed the recital. I was actually there, in my body, seeing the black dots on the page, feeling the smooth keys and hearing the tone coming out of the 9' Steinway in front of my peers and students. That made me happy.

The piano kids were great. There are some great kids who come year after year. I really love it.
We made popcorn, real popcorn, in the group class. It was to demonstrate the idea of different kinds of staccato. I also blew soap bubbles and let them pop on the children's faces.

I got to take a class from Fay, along with some piano friends! That was super fun.

Having your own child at an institute where you are teaching is it's own adventure. Talk about transparency. But Mary loves Fay and Annette and Wynn-Anne and Sue and L.A the drum guy. She just loves the institute. And she loves the piano kids.

Disclosure. It took every single solitary ounce of self-discipline for me to come home at the end of the day and watch the video recording of her lesson with Fay and diligently follow through on the teaching points. But we did it. Every night. I did at one point in the week resort to paying Mary a nickle a phrase for perfect reps with gentle endings on the Chopin waltz which we so responsibly started ten days before the institute. Because I'm just that perfect of a Suzuki mom.

I'm so proud of Nandani, Preston, Úna, Ella, Walt, Britta and Mary for all their hard work. I'm sorry Walt was feeling sick most of the week and missed out.

We do these institutes to get a boost. I hope the Minneapolis kids got what they came for. I sure had a good time. Good kids, good music. Good friends. Good memories.

Tonight, I'm writing from Connecticut. Got in last night at 2:00 a.m. I'm gonna go to bed and sleep. And get up tomorrow and continue my observation of Diana Galindo's Book One Teacher Training class. And meet the Connecticut kids out here.

When I pulled into the the parking lot at the Hartt school today--a wash of flashbacks overtook me. My kids were four and seven again and Calvin was chasing after Alexa with the long red twisted braids and Mary was hugging her friends in the courtyard and crying her eyes out when we left. This is the stuff. Marina Obukovsky was telling Calvin not to wake the baby in Cradle Song. He was singing the right hand to the Beethoven Moderato while he played the left hand of Cradle Song--playing the distraction game with himself. . . and Catherine McMichael was telling me that it was all going to be  okay--Mary was only four after all. There was a long path ahead. Mary Had a Little Lamb was going to be okay.  Calvin was scoping out every piano in every practice room and telling us about them for hours and hours and hours at dinner while we tried to have adult conversation with Chris Liccardo. This is the stuff.

Institutes. Good kids, good music, good friends. Good, good memories.
Good night.