We are eagerly preparing for our annual STRING FESTIVAL on SUNDAY, APRIL 14 at 4:00pm at ANSCHE CHESED SYNAGOGUE, 251 W. 100 Street and West End Avenue.
Festival concerts are incredibly inspirational events where all of our Suzuki violin and cello students perform their shared repertoire together.
REHEARSALS: held at Silver Music
Friday, April 12 – CELLO REHEARSAL, 4:30-5:30pm
Saturday, April 13nd – VIOLIN REHEARSAL, 4:00-5:00pm
DRESS: Concert dress: white top and dark (navy or black) bottoms, no sneakers.
ARRIVAL TIME: Students must arrive at the hall by 3:15 pm for tuning and set-up. Please be on time as there are over 45 students involved in this concert and the logistics are formidable. Unless you are a parent volunteer or your child is four-years or younger,
you will drop your child off at 3:15 and leave the hall until 3:45 when the hall will open to the public.
SEATING: There are no tickets or assigned seats for this concert.
There is ample room for family members and guests, with open seating in the hall.
CELLO STUDENTS: All cello students need to bring a cello anchor so their endpins don’t slip on the stage. If you do not have an anchor, you can order a Xeros Endpin Anchor from Amazon, Johnson String, or Shar Music. All cellists who play on a small size chair will need to BRING THEIR CELLO CHAIR to the concert. Please email Ellen if you do not have the right sized chair for your child or if you are not sure whether your child needs to bring a chair (students playing ½ sized cellos or larger do not need to bring a chair). All chairs, endpin anchors, and instrument cases should be clearly labeled.
FOOD POLICY: There is NO outside food allowed in the hall as Ansche Chesed is a kosher facility. Please be aware of your child’s food needs and make sure to bring a satiated child to the 3:15 set-up and tune. There will not be another opportunity for your child to eat until after the concert at 5:30. We will have water and emergency snacks available. We will NOT have a reception, but will have small “goody” bag for each participant.
What is a Suzuki “play down”?
One of the staples of the Suzuki method is the festival performance with “play down” format. A festival is a group performance with all the students playing selected pieces from the Suzuki repertoire as an ensemble. It’s a wonderful aspect of our shared Suzuki repertoire that we have this amazing opportunity to make music together, even at such a young age.
In order
to show case all of our students and to highlight our group music making, we organize the festival as a “play down”; this means that we start the performance with the most advanced students on stage and as we go backwards in the repertoire, each student comes up as we get to their “entry” piece. We will determine each students’ entry piece in the weeks leading up to the concert. If your child is a pre-Twinkler (is not yet comfortable with the left hand), they will play in our special opening pre-Twinkle presentation, and they will also play at the end on the Twinkle Variations on open strings.