UpDate - Vol. 16, No. 6
October 10, 1996
Oct. 16 open house to explain Suzuki method of learning

     The Suzuki method of flute playing will be offered for the
first time this fall at the University's Community Music School.
     An open house to explain the program will be held at 7:30
p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 16, in Room 211 of the Amy E. du Pont Music
Building.
     The internationally renowned Suzuki method, which can be
undertaken by children as young as 4 or 5, is based on the
principle that every child has innate ability that can be
developed to a high level.
     The Suzuki teacher, in conjunction with parents, uses a
"mother tongue approach" to music learning.
     Children learn music the same way they learn their own
language, surrounded by a musical environment where listening and
imitating are components of the learning process.
     At home, parents use recorded music and techniques developed
with the teacher to guide their child's practice. Parents attend
lessons and group classes with the children, making the lessons a
great family activity.
     The UD classes will be taught by Colleen K. Law, a graduate
student in early childhood music at Temple University and an
instructor at the Temple University Community Music Program. She
also is an instructor in the Hockessin School of Music.
     Law won numerous awards while a music student at Queens
College in Flushing, N.Y., including a National Endowment for the
Arts professional studies grant and a fellowship for study in
Germany from the New York Goethe House.
     She won a scholarship to the Peabody Conservatory in 1983-85
and was a graduate student in education at Long Island
University. She also attended the Eastern Tennessee Suzuki Flute
Institute, where she studied with Toshio Takahashi, creator of
the Suzuki flute curriculum, and became certified to teach the
Suzuki method.
     Most Suzuki classes are evenly mixed between boys and girls,
although in the U.S. the flute is often stereotyped as a girl's
instrument, Law said.
     For more information, call the UD Community Music School at
831-1548.
                                                     -Beth Thomas