Pianos Return to the South Island

by Katie Dey

In July I taught piano at the Suzuki Winter Workshop in Christchurch — and it was a pleasure to see piano making a strong comeback in the South Island.

This year there were 13 piano students enrolled — more than in recent years — which is a great sign. Classes began on Monday with a group session on the keyboards. This is always a challenge to keep together! We spent a lot of time in group class working on listening to each other and staying in time. In masterclasses, the younger kids enjoyed the colourful eraser counters that I brought, and the older students enjoyed the wrap-ups.

A highlight was seeing the two older pianists join the fiddling class on their keyboards — something new this year! They had a great time reading from the guitar chords and playing fast enough to keep up with tutor Marion Burns.

By Wednesday’s playout concert, the piano group class had improved a lot. What had begun as a rather chaotic play-in ended in a confident and quite polished performance. Several people commented on the improvement—and rightly so. Well done, pianists!

It was a great few days of music-making and Suzuki community connection. I hope to see even more of you next year!