This past weekend my girls and I drove back and forth a couple of times between our home and Quincy, IL for a day and a half of classes with artist teachers Gabe Bolkosky and Christie Felsing. We finished with a recital—the first half featuring Gabe, the second half featuring all the kids who participated in the workshop—and returned home full, spent, and with new resolve. I don’t think you could ask for a better couple of days.
As always, I have a million thoughts rattling around in my head. Here are a few I was able to catch:
• Realizing you are bound by music to a bunch of kids you’ve never met is pretty cool
• So is running around like a maniac with them between classes
• Work—careful, detailed, technical work—can be a joy
• The above is especially true when you’re doing that work in a group
• Cultivating technique as a tool for expression = giving a child power and a voice
• Striving for excellence is so not boring
• Teaching is as much a craft as playing violin
• Ditto for parenting
• This is more about lifestyle than it is about extra-curricular activities
• This is more about who we are developing into as people than anything else
"The heart that feels music will feel people." --Shinichi Suzuki, Ability Development from Age Zero
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