Dear Parents,

Welcome back to a new school year at the Suzuki School of Newton. We are so grateful for all of your families--your support, your energy, and your care for the education of your children means a lot to all of us. Your gift of time and music to your children and to yourselves will never be forgotten! Please send us your photos, videos and stories about your musical journeys during this historical pandemic.

We have a new website, a new registrar Christina Tavella (christina@suzukinewton.org), and a new musicianship teacher Stephanie Lamprea. We are so grateful to all those teachers and staff whose careers have taken them in new directions---we wish them well and hope they stay in touch!

We are looking forward to a fantastic fall that will motivate your students, elevate the quality of our learning, and ensure safety for all our students. The music program is 100% virtual and the Suzuki Preschool is open and in-person (we still have openings!).

Let's motivate our students. We are looking for interviewees for Suzuki Radio--children say the most interesting things. We are also planning a system of practice buddies as a way to get students to help one another practice! We want to support our parents with coffee hours or happy hours--join us for some virtual chat sessions, ask questions about practicing, or vent your stress! Spooky Suzuki is returning via the outdoors (if allowed) or virtually via Zoom or Facebook Live. The faculty concert is coming to you virtually on Sunday, Nov. 15th plus many more events. Best of all, we are planning some group classes that can meet "in person" outdoors on the lawn while the weather cooperates. We have heard you, and we are innovating new ideas!

Let's elevate the quality of our playing. There will be a school wide project that each student should choose a Suzuki piece and record their very best performance of that piece. This will incorporate multiple "takes" of the piece with feedback from many sources, but mostly by the student themself. Each student will listen for "evaluators" and work towards improving their piece throughout the course of the year. There is no deadline, but our final projects will be posted on either Suzuki Radio or our Friday Upbeats. Let's elevate Musicianship via a special composition. All our young composers will be encouraged to work towards a special composition as a way to understand that composing is a craft just like playing an instrument. It takes practice and polishing to reach excellence and pride in the final result.

Let's ensure everyone's safety. We are organizing small outdoor and occasional indoor lessons for our music students. Please wear a mask, wash your hands and follow the requirements that are outlined in this Handbook, and also will be clarified by your teacher. We know that following these requirements ensures everyone's safety and we have been open and using these protocols since July 6th and I am happy to say we have maintained healthy staff and students!

Let's make a scrapbook of videos, photos, audio recordings, drawings, and more. We are making history living through this pandemic. This will be a remarkable year, and I am very excited for all that I am learning about technology and the better ways we can teach and learn using a combination of all the skills we know. We think we have a solution to virtual chamber ensemble coachings and small group ensembles through special software programs.

Welcome back to the Suzuki School of Newton!

Sachiko