weekend retreat

Iris has been working really hard at her violin, and this weekend we spent a couple of days at the Wisconsin Suzuki Winter Workshop in Madison.  Iris and I both attended classes and workshops.  Parents as "practice partners" is key to the philosophy of the Suzuki method, so there were workshops for parents and kids together, as well as some parent talks and panels for just the adults.  There was a lot of violin playing, but also time in the pool, and plenty of time to walk around the Capitol Square and State Street.   The girls had fun seeing the campus and some of the houses and apartments I lived in when I went to school in Madison. 

The final concert of the weekend happened in the Capitol Rotunda.  Someone was pretty excited about that!

There were master teachers from across the country working with the children this weekend, and Iris found a few that she clearly admired. 

It was more than tricky to capture the full 140 students playing together.  The sound was truly beautiful.  I was so excited for Iris to have these many moments of watching, listening and playing with others.  I think she truly enjoyed it.  She went to bed tonight full of eagerness and the non-stop humming of tunes yet to come in her repertoire.   

If you care to hear/see any of the concert you can click here for some of our video (if you make it through the first couple minutes Andy moves up to the balcony and you can actually see close-ups of the kids--Iris included (with black headband)--playing).  (You'll have to listen to some running Elsa Mae commentary, the video camera is still novel when you are 4).   We wish we had been able to record the whole concert because the advanced student pieces were truly lovely.  You'll only get the "twinkle" pieces here, although with the entire student body as is the way with Suzuki.

It was a pretty full and tiring weekend, but one we won't soon forget.  Off to bed....

 Happy Monday all.