Flute Teachers inspired by Workshop!

The sun shone on all the Suzuki Flute Teachers from Holland, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Poland, Iceland, Belgium and the UK, when they gathered together for two days of Professional Development in Aarhus, Denmark.  The workshop was organised with some financial help from the Marian Mogul Fund.

It was a great opportunity to share ieas, stories and talk together, meet and greet old colleagues and make new Suzuki friendships, something we have not been able to do for a very long time.

There were presentations about tone, development of Flute embouchure, the importance of Tonalisation, Group Lesson ideas, ideas how to work with young children and how to develop musicianship.  Everyone joined in with great enthusiasm and there was much laughter and discussion.

One of our German Suzuki Teachers, Britta, presented a wonderfully witty book she had written for young children to enable them to hear the Flute family and promote Flute learning.  Danish Flute teacher, Anna also presented a project she has been using with young children.  Gerda ,a Dutch Suzuki Flute teacher, presented pre-Suzuki materials with the ‘Little Bird’ project.  Marco, an Italian Suzuki Flute teacher, got us all singing and dancing with his musicianship development project for young children.

Playing together was wonderful.  Rieneke, a Suzuki teacher from Holland, had prepared some wonderful Flute Choir arrangements of repertoire in Book 4 and 5.

We had some fruitful discussions about the repertoire and Anke was able to bring us up to date with information about new editions and recordings.

Yummy snacks were provided by the teachers for the breaks and the splendid lunch time food provided by our Danish hosts was delicious.  We enjoyed a dinner out in a local restaurant.  Great food and good company!

What we all appreciated most of all was the time to be together.  Newsletters, Zoom calls and emails are all something we have had to do, but meeting together face to face was very special indeed.

Thank you to all the presenters, Anke, Marco, Nikki, Gerda, Britta, Rieneke, Anna, Machteld and Sarah for their presentations, talks and discussions.  We are all so appreciative of your creativity and work.

The biggest ‘Thank You’ goes to Anke who made this all possible with painstaking arrangements, endless phone calls and emails. Thank You!  It was worth all your hard work.

I personally hope we are able to have another meeting like this in the not too distant future and that many more of our Suzuki Flute colleagues will be able to join us.

Sarah Hanley, ESA Flute Teacher, UK