So I have been in Blenheim for a week now and a lot of things have happened!
Listings in school newsletters, invitation to play at school assemblies, an article in the Marlborough Express, students on board, meeting music teachers and students - wow!
Off to the library today to talk through something for their Under 5s programme :)
Article in the paper:
Children have returned to the classroom for another year and a new teacher in Marlborough is ready to enhance their studies with the Suzuki methods of music.
``Many studies in America and England have shown that students who learn an instrument achieve at a higher level,''says Hannah Cone. She moved to Blenheim last Friday after four years' work and performance in Auckland.
She believes she will be the only person in Marlborough teaching the Suzuki method, developed in Japan last century by Dr Shinichi Suzuki. His father manufactured violins and young Shinichi taught himself to play the instrument. When he was asked to help a young boy, he started thinking about the way children learn.
Lessons were then modelled on the steps children naturally take when learning to speak their first language. Key factors were: Listening, motivation, repetition, memory, parental involvement - and love.
Hannah agrees parental involvement is vital for the best results. She identifies a ``parent-student-teacher triangle'' in which a parent's support and encouragement is as important to a child's mastery of music as their teacher's understanding and skills.
``And Suzuki's idea was `success breeds success'.''
Hannah grew up at Pleasant Point near Timaru and music lessons started for her when she was 4. She had wanted to learn the violin but there wasn't a violin teacher so her first instrument was keyboards. Three years later, a violin teacher arrived who taught the Suzuki methods.
``It's been a natural progression for me to continue teaching it that way.''
At Otago University Hannah studied performance violin and viola and primary teaching. She now has a double degree in music and education and holds a primary school teaching diploma.
After working in Invercargill and South Canterbury, Hannah went to Auckland where she joined the education department of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. Her shift to Marlborough followed a trip to Blenheim to see a friend last September.
``It's gorgeous [here]. There's so much energy and creativity ... I want to tap into that.''
Contacts have been made with Marlborough primary schools and she is aware of groups like the Marlborough Music Society, the Blenheim Musical Theatre and the Marlborough District Brass Band.
She plans to start a teaching and performance programme for string instruments and is already pencilling in an April concert date. Hannah is also ready for some solo performance spots: ``Maybe under a tree while people eat lunch or dinner at a winery restaurant!''
Classical music is her specialty but she also plays folk music - and listens to everything from rock to metal to alternative grooves.
What makes music important?
Hannah smiles. ``It's everything. It's soul; it's the breath of life ... I don't know what I would do without it.''
For more information about the Suzuki method of music, Hannah Cone can be contacted on 021 024 03190 or hannah@planetnz.com
Who knows what this week will bring!
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