We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Need a great gift idea for the most difficult to shop for person on your Holiday Shopping List.    Santa has a unique musical idea that they will never forget.

Make a donation to the SASS Violin Fund and our Talented Young Violinist from SASS and TEC will perform a Live Holiday Musical Greeting  just for them.  They will be unique personalized musical messages from you.   A Musical Holiday Greeting  will be sent live via  Skype, Private Video or Phone.

See a sample of the musical performance our volunteers will play for you on YouTube from our sister Suzuki program at TEC:

You can have one of these ‘one of a kind’  Musical Greetings  sent to a recipient of your choice (with out the big green elf and message boxes) by going to the following page on :  http://www.occtac.org/program/sass

Live Musical Holiday Greetings request page at OCCTAC.org

There you can choose from a variety of Holiday  Carols    (see list at the bottom of the page) and provide the contact and delivery information we need to get the job done for Santa.      Your friend will be very surprised and have something to talk about all through the holidays.    You can send a  live performance of Holiday music to your friends and help us put a violin in the hands of an under served child at OCCTAC.org.    With your help we can provide a new Violin to a Suzuki Twinkler from SASS who is ready to play on their very first violin, just like the child on the front of our blog.

Wouldn’t you like to send a personal live  Christmas Carol to everyone you know?    What a wonderful gift to send to family members during the Holiday season.   Wouldn’t Grandmother just love this.    Or . . . . .    You might be wanting to send something that is one of a kind to an important client, exceptional volunteer or employee to let them know how much you appreciate them.

After you make your  request we need your help to spread the word to anyone you did not send our Live Musical Greetings to.    Please use your favorite social media to send this blog entry or the OCCTAC page above to as many people as you can think of who might help us by sending the spirit of the holidays  around by using this Musical Holiday Gift Idea.

It takes only 10 – 12  of your donations to provide a child with their first violin.   How often do you get to send a Holiday Gift that is tax-deductible, 501 (c)3.   Every message will be a unique performance by some of our Talented Suzuki Violin Students from both SASS and TEC who are practicing to make a difference in the world with their own musical gifts.    You can help them do their part by helping Ms. Cynthia spread the music around.

International

• Bring A Torch, Jeannette, Isabella, French
• Czechoslovakian Carol
• Fum, Fum, Fum
• God Rest Y Merry, Gentlemen, Eng
•  Greensleeves, Eng. 16 Century
• Here We Come A-Wassailing, Eng.
• Christmas Tree, German
• Pat-A-Pan, French
• Ring, Little Bells, German
• We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Eng.

Sacred

• Angels We Have Heard on High, French
• Born is He, This Holy Child, French
• Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, Mendelssohn
• Joy To the World, Handel
• Little Town of Bethlehem, Redner
• Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming, German 15th Century
• Come Little Children
• O, Holy Night, Adam
• Silent Night, Gruber
• The First Noel, Trad.

Popular

• Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire, Mel Torme **
• Deck the Halls, Welsh Air
• Feliz Navidad, Feliciano**
• Go Tell It on the Mountain, African-American Spiritual
• Jingle Bells, Pierpont
• Jolly Old Saint Nicholas, Trad.
• Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Marks **
• Up on the House top, Trad.

Twinkle Variations at Anaheim Convention Center

When Sarah Koh realized that we had an unusual program which made the effort to start children from a young age she offered to do an interview about SASS on her site.   Sarah asked us lots of great questions to help describe the challenges we are faced with.  I want to thank her for recognizing our unique problems as a string program which attempts to start children at the preschool level.  

You can find the article Santa Ana Suzuki Strings  on www.asktheviolinist.com .

The site has many resources and information covering: Violinist on line, Violin Out Reach, Concerts, Music schools, and even a section with Resources for Families.

SASS students were treated to performing with an orchestral accompaniment for their Book I pieces which included Minuet II, Allegro and Twinkle.    Everyone from Twinklers to the Book I class enjoyed playing with the orchestra.

Afterward several of members of the orchestra treated the audience to a performance of more advanced pieces from Book IV and V.   This included the Vivaldi A minor Violin Concerto and the Bach Double in D minor.   The more advanced orchestra accompanied their  coaches as they played the Mozart Sinfonia in E flat Major for violin and viola as well as the famous Mendelssohn Violin concerto.

Check out pictures on our Flickr.http://www.flickr.com/photos/sasuzukistrings/sets/72157626039616511/

or

Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=160188923991691&aid=56772

Our goal is to raise children in at risk communities by putting a violin in their hands as early as age 3.

Music is a technical skill that has been made accessible to a child. Making music requires immediate application. Every performance is a test with instant feed back.

The future requires a generation that is prepared to test their sensibilities and creativity every day.

Not even a flood can stop these kids.   What a great inspiration these young musicians are.   It makes me proud to be from Iowa.   If I had had access to the internet when I was a young musician I would have been organizing a musical movement like these kids.   Because Iowa is such a hard place to get out of, a giant corn field snack dab in the middle of  the country.    I thought nothing ever happened in Iowa.   Well I can’t say that today.

Read their blog on Iowa Makes Music and find out how these kids from river city Iowa are taking their musical abilities out of the practice room and making a difference in their local communities.   If they can be such a hit coming from a place like Iowa what’s stopping the rest of us.

Here’s just one example:

Hi, I’m Kelsey a ninth grader at Rivermont Collegiate in Bettendorf, Iowa. I play the cello and so I wanted to participate in the Iowa Makes Music Arts Leadership Program because I am very passionate for music and I want to spread the sound of it to my community. I will perform my Chinese repertoire at at least 10 different community places in the Quad Cities (Iowa and Illinois). Ex) libraries, book stores,  retirement homes, hospitals, day cares…etc.

“Music is the bridge between different cultures and generations.” Like they say, one person can make a big difference. I hope that I can inspire some of you to do so as well!

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Check out the Iowa story on From The Top.

http://www.fromthetop.org/content/iowa-makes-music

They are planning to have a booth in the Irvine Global Village Festival on Saturday, Oct. 3 from 10:00 to 4:00 in the Kids Village.    But now Both SASS and TEC  have been invited to play for the  Cultural Demonstration Pavilion at 4:00that day for 20 minutes.   This will be located near the Cultural Exhibits in the front of the Park.   Now we can play all of the other Twinkles  and Book One pieces that we didn’t have enough time to play for Mayor Kang.   There will be a sound system so we can play our accompaniments and talk about the Suzuki Method with the audience.

This Festival will be lots of Fun for the Whole Family, with Exhibits, Entertainment, International Marketplace, children’s Activities and International Cuisine.    Admission is Free. Food tasting tickets will be available for purchase at the event.     See the link above for parking and shuttle information or bike parking.

We will also be signing up Violin Students  in Sept. for Suzuki Festival which will occur on November 7th.

Stay tuned.   This is going to be a busy year.

TEC and/or  SASS can be engaged to do community service activities for occasional non profit events.    Please contact Ms. Cynthia at TEC or OCCTAC.

My biggest worry was whether everyone would make it there on time with the extra craziness of the first week of school.   But everybody was there ready and tuned for the sound check.    I want to thank all of the parents that got them there calm and ready to play.

Even Dr. Jimenez made it back from her office at OCCTAC to see us play.   She was very pleased to see all of the children and parents working together for such a great purpose.

We got an applause from members of the audience just for doing a sound check.  There’s nothing like a little applause to calm down the butterflies in our stomachs.  Then they put us back in the green room for the longest 10 min. we ever had to sit through, while they started the meeting.    Everyone was so quiet with anticipation.   Finally we were led back into the hall with all of the students from age 4 and up.

It was our first time letting someone else run the volume controls on the sound system.   I don’t think they realized how big our tone was going to be so we restarted the Humoresque after they adjusted the sound levels.    When my students could hear the piano part they quickly regained their confidence and opened up their tone again.    The ensemble playing on the video is best after the first few lines  of music when we finally all begin to synchronize, including the sound guy.   Its not every day that he gets practice adjusting the sound for violins at a City Council Meeting.   Not to worry.  He picked up the violin sound with microphones so he could ballance it later.

The audience was very appreciative.   We got a wonderful applause.   The Mayor  was really great with the children.

Link to Irvine City TV Media page:

http://irvine.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=22&clip_id=2111

Look for the    Jump To . . . . . .  drop down box below the screen and go to the line where it says:

 Musical Presentation just above   .2  and just below Moment of Silence  in the jump to menu

The meeting was broadcast live within the city of Irvine on Cox Communications Channel 30.   And will continue to be available on demand using the ICTV menu:   http://cityofirvine.org/cityhall/citymanager/pio/ictv/city_council_meetings.asp

We played :

America the Beautiful,  Humoresque – by Dvorak and Twinkle A 

We finished Twinkle with our traditional game of  ‘Up like a Rocket’ with our Gummy Life Savers on the tip of our bows.    It was one more chance to make the Mayor laugh.    Then we all took some pictures with  Mayor Kang.    With all of those parents in the auditorium taking pictures this took almost as long as the music.

SASS and TEC Suzuki Students with Irvine Mayor Kang and his City Council Members

Councilmember Beth Krom  was right.  It would be really cool if Mayor Kang picked up his bow again to play Twinkle with us.   Maybe next time he’ll remember to bring his violin.  He has a standing invitation to join us for any of our sessions.    Group  Lesson is every Saturday at 3pm @ OCCTAC and our next joint public performance with the TEC students is going to be at the Irvine Global Village Festival on Sat. Oct. 3rd.

It all went by very fast.   And the children had such a wonderful experience.   They were so excited when we got back to the green room to put everything away.   What a wonderful story they have to tell their friends and family members.   It was even more wonderful to see children from both the Irvine Suzuki program and the Santa Ana Suzuki program playing together for such an audience.   I think they are all  fired up to do it again some time soon.

You may wonder . . .  How did we get an invitation to play for such an auspicious occasion as the first City City Council meeting of the school year?

Last April our Suzuki Studio participated the Irvine Day In the Park.    It was early in the morning and it wasn’t very crowded yet.   Only two Twinklers, Jacob and Sophie were there to help me with our booth which we moved under a tree.    That was because my advanced students were all at orchestra rehearsal and some people were on Spring Break.

Mayor Kang was expected to open the event and afterward he always circles the booths and visits with everyone.   When he got to our tree he saw the children playing their violins and asked if he could play on my  violin.   How could I couldn’t resist?   Before you know it he and the kids were playing all the Suzuki songs that they knew.   

 My students discovered that this Mayor was not only an education mayor and a culture mayor.   He  was also a Suzuki Violin kid at heart.     We are very lucky to have a Mayor of Irvine in Orange County who grew up playing the violin.

I want to thank Mayor Kang for inviting us, as well as  the City Council Members and everyone that  came to hear the children play.   You were a wonderful audience.   Thank you for giving our students so much encouragement and allowing them to share their abilities and enthusiasm with the local community at your meeting and on your media service.   It was a privilege.

Mayor Kang is always welcome to come by and borrow my violin anytime he needs a break from the office.     TEC is just down the block from the Civic Center between the District and the Diamond Malls.

Ms. Cynthia