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Health & Fitness

The Hartt Community Division continues its magical holiday tradition with Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker

“Practice-a-thon” encourages community service through music

West Hartford, CT –Suzuki students from The Hartt School Community Division will take part in a Practice-a-thon from November 18-24, 2013, to raise funds for Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford. In the weeks leading up to the fundraiser, young violinists, violists, cellists, bassist, pianists, guitarists, and flute players in the Hartt Suzuki Program will seek sponsors who will sponsor donations based on how much they practice during the Practice-a-thon event. Sponsors may also make a flat-rate donation to Connecticut Children’s.

The most present objective of the Practice-a-thon is to support a good cause. But the underlying goal of this event is to encourage young children to use music to help the community. Dr. Shinichi Suzuki, the famous Japanese pedagogue and violinist, once said, “Teaching music is not my main purpose. I want to make good citizens. If children hear fine music from the day of their birth and learn to play it, they develop sensitivity, discipline and endurance. They get a beautiful heart.” This philosophy is the foundation of the Suzuki method for music education. It also inspires students, parents, and teachers to share the joy of music as often as possible. Jessica Meyer, Hartt Suzuki violin faculty member and violinist with the West End String Quartet, will encourage her students to do their best to raise funds to support Connecticut Children’s, but she also hopes they will learn a different lesson from the experience. “In this Practice-a-thon, I want to help my students work to get pledges to raise money for the Hartford Hospital,” says Meyers. “Every time they practice for the Practice-a-thon, I hope they can take a minute to reflect on how lucky they are to have the chance to study music to be able to use that music to bring about good in the world. ‘Character first’ is one of Dr. Suzuki’s most famous quotes, and this is a chance to put that into immediate practice!”

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Giving children a chance to participate in their community through music also instills a lesson about communicating and making meaningful connections with others. “I feel it is important for our students to realize that by sharing their music and the fruits of their hard work, other people’s lives are enhanced” says Teri Einfeldt, Chair of the Suzuki Strings Program at Hartt. “Pablo Casals said ‘perhaps it is music that will save the world’.  I strongly believe that communication between people is the essence of understanding each other.  Music is a way to reach from one person’s heart and soul to another’s.”

Each year, Hartt Suzuki students give a variety of community performances ranging from playing the national anthem at Rock Cats games to performing in retirement homes to pre-concert recitals at the Bushnell Performing Arts Center. This fall’s Practice-a-thon is the first community fundraiser since the last one in 2011, which benefited the Peninsula of Tōhoku after the Japan’s massive earthquake. In January, 2014, the Hartt music community will come together again to give a performance celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Hartt Suzuki String Program.

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About the Hartt Suzuki Program

The Suzuki method is a way of teaching music to young children, based on the way they acquire language. It is also referred to as the Mother Tongue method. Much like the way a child learns to speak, in the Suzuki method students learn to play music through listening, repetition, and encouragement from the parent. As the student progresses and advances in his studies, note reading is added to the lesson curriculum. In the Suzuki method, the parent, child, and teacher all work as a team. Parents are required to attend lessons and practice with the child at home.

At Hartt, a Suzuki teacher’s long term goals are to help the student play well, self-analyze and correct, and eventually become musically literate and appreciate the beauty of the instrument and its repertoire. The Hartt Suzuki Program offers instruction in violin, viola, cello, bass, guitar, piano, and flute for children as young as four. As in standard methods of instrumental instruction, students are given weekly private lessons with one of our faculty members. Suzuki string and guitar students also attend weekly group classes; Suzuki piano students attend monthly group classes. Children have the chance to perform in monthly recitals, group concerts and community presentations.

The Hartt Suzuki Program is directed by Teri Einfeldt, Hartt faculty and violinist with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. Hartt also hosts the annual Hartt Suzuki Institute which brings students and teachers from around the globe each summer.

 

About the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center

Connecticut Children’s Medical Center is a nationally recognized, 187-bed not-for-profit children’s hospital serving as the primary teaching hospital for the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. Named among the best in the nation for several of its pediatric specialties in the annual U.S. News & World Report “Best Children’s Hospitals” rankings, Connecticut Children’s is the only free-standing children’s hospital in Connecticut that offers comprehensive, world-class health care to children. Our pediatric services are available at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford and at Saint Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury, with neonatal intensive care units at Hartford Hospital and the University of Connecticut Health Center, along with five specialty care centers and 10 other locations across the state. Connecticut Children’s has a medical staff of nearly 1,100 practicing in more than 30 specialties.

The Hartt School Community Division (HCD) of the University of Hartford is a comprehensive community arts school that annually provides performing arts instruction to more than 2,000 students.  HCD offers a variety of lessons, classes, and performance opportunities in music and dance for students of all ages, experience levels, and abilities.  For more information on The Hartt School Community Division, visit www.hcd.hartford.edu.

The Hartt School is the performing arts conservatory of the University of Hartford that offers innovative degree programs in music, dance, and theatre.  Founded in 1920, Hartt has been an integral part of the University of Hartford since its charter merged the then Hartt School of Music, the Hartford Art School, and Hillyer College to create the University in 1957.  2010 marked Hartt’s 90th year of providing world class performing arts education to students in Greater-Hartford and around the world.  With more than 400 concerts, recitals, plays, master classes, dance performances, and musical theatre productions each year, performance is central to Hartt’s curriculum.  For more information about The Hartt School, visit www.hartford.edu/hartt.

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