annual report 2016 - suzuki music annual report.pdf · suzuki music annual report 2016 4 suzuki...

Annual Report 2016

Suzuki Music Annual Report 2016 4

Suzuki Music Annual Report 2016

Contents

President’s Report 5

Treasurer’s Report 5

Professional Development 6

Cello 6

Flute 7

Guitar 7

Piano 8

Violin/Viola 9

Voice 10

Committees 11

Membership 11

Financial Statements 12

Suzuki Talent Education Association of Australia (Victoria) Incorporated

trading as Suzuki Music Registered Association No A5744 ABN 14 080 413 955

Suzuki Music Council

President Toni Robson Secretary Lisa Loh Treasurer Peter Wan Teacher Vice-President Margaret Bland Parent Vice-President Lisa Loh Cello Representative Vacant Flute Representative Kate Bergen Guitar Representative Rob Turton Piano Representative Miriam Choi Violin/Viola Representative Moirsheen Kelly-Keesing PD Representative Margaret Bland Parent Representatives Francesca Di Muccio Lisa Loh Glenn Stokol Peter Wan David Yong

Suzuki Music Staff

General Manager Kathryn Bond Events Co-ordinator Rosemary Fuller Administrative Assistant Amanda Hsu

Life Members

Hilary Bergen Marguerite Brand Julia Breen June Brown Carolyn Coxhead Christine Fasham Maria Gallery Noela Hogg Lucille Kidney Peter King Nehama Patkin Marie Scott Lois Shepheard Robert Turton 89A Canterbury Road Canterbury VIC 3126 Phone 03 9830 0433 Fax 03 9830 0577


The Association incurred a net operating loss for the calendar year ended 31 December 2016 of around $48,000.

Total income earned for the calendar year ended 31 December 2016 was very much in line with that of previous corresponding period. This was largely due to a 15% decrease in fee income offset by a significant increase in ticket sales for events in the course of 2016.

Total expenses has increased by 6 % over the previous corresponding period. This is mainly driven by the increase in venue costs resulting from the hire of the Melbourne Recital Centre for the Suzuki Celebration Concert and other related expenses arising from this major event. There has also been some expense relating to bursaries and scholarships in 2016. These increases have partially been offset by lower professional fees in 2016 in comparison to previous corresponding period. Despite the above, strict control measures over expenses have always been maintained by management.

Lower interest income earned driven by lower cash reserves coupled with lower interest rates on term deposits offered by financial institution in the Australian environment.

The Association finished the exciting year with a small net loss of around $21,000 for the calendar year ended 31 December 2016.

The members of the Association should continue to have full confidence in the financials maintained at the Association as displayed by the strength of its Balance Sheet and its ability to pay its debt as and when they fall due. The professionalism and leadership quality of the team at Suzuki Music should provide you as members, the continuing excellence and quality member services in every area within the Association. The result demonstrated the consistent practice of sound and prudent financial management displayed by the team at Council and staff members of Suzuki Music.

I recommend the Income Statement and Balance Sheet reports to the members and propose that you adopt the financials as true record of the activities and results for the calendar year ended 31 December 2016.

Peter Wan, Treasurer

Behind the scenes, the Suzuki Association has operated smoothly during the past year. The website continues to be developed and come closer to operating, and despite rising venue costs and event expenses we continue to offer members workshops and experiences as cost-effectively as possible. This does mean that budgeting is a finely balanced exercise, so reduced memberships and enrolments or the cancelling of events such as the Primary Accreditation Course for the 2016 year have an effect, creating a deficit in income. However the overall financial position of the Suzuki Association is positive, and 2017 is forecast to be a stable period with all expected events going ahead as planned, including a record high number of Primary Trainees. We are also working to continue to comply with changing government regulations concerning organisations offering services to children, formalising policies and procedures to do with child safety.

A prominent and brightly-shining feature of the past year is the Suzuki Celebration Concert held at the Melbourne Recital Centre on August 28th

2016. Students, teachers and families prepared intensively and co-operated with warmth and generosity to present this outstanding public concert. I must include thanks here to the Suzuki Office staff who put in more hours organising than I can count, we are truly fortunate to have them facilitating everything we do.

The Celebration Concert was extremely successful in demonstrating Suzuki’s philosophy of Learning with Love, and showcased the wide variety, long history, and outstanding skill of our Association’s members. Many people spoke afterwards of a renewed sense of commitment to the whole Suzuki approach, and I think Dr Suzuki would have applauded our efforts in enriching the bonds between participants and drawing attention to the enormous potential of children.

Toni Robson, President

President’s Report Treasurer’s Report


Suzuki Music Annual Report 2016

Professional Development

The PD Committee of teacher trainers meets twice each term, to discuss vital philosophical and policy policy matters relating to Suzuki teachers and areas such as graduations, teacher training courses, other PD events for all teachers and Parent Education lectures for the annual Festival.

Courses: In 2016, for the first time in 17 years, the decision was made not to run the Primary Course, due to low enrolment numbers. This allowed teacher trainers to focus on their previous class completing all requirements.

In the second semester of 2016, the Intermediate Core Lecture Course was held, with teachers from 3 instrument groups involved.

Teacher Graduations: 7 teachers graduated at Primary level on Violin (2), flute (1) and piano (4)

Ongoing PD Events: All-instrument PD was given in February with excellent attendance, and various instrument-specific PD sessions were held during the year.

Excellent PD was provided at the 2016 Autumn Festival by guest teachers Akira Sato (cello), Rebecca Paluzzi (flute), Seth Himmelhoch (guitar), Kasia Borowiak (piano) and Hiroko Suzuki (violin).

Suzuki Celebration Concert While not a PD event as such, this amazing event brought a very large number of teachers together, cooperating in the organization and logistics of such a major concert and in the care of the large groups of students involved. The inspiring historical and philosophical commentary by compere Toni Robson, along with the projected photographs and video footage, provided teachers with a big dose of inspiration and refocusing on the Suzuki philosophy.

Appreciation: I would like to thank all members of the Professional Development Committee for their time, expertise and contributions to a range of important professional issues within Suzuki Music. I would also like to thank the office staff for their wonderful support of teachers and the PD Committee.

I would also like to thank all teacher trainers for their outstanding efforts and dedication to providing the very best education for both new and established Suzuki teachers. Julia Breen, Director of Professional Development

Committee members: Virginia Bonollo, Silivia Li, Simon Meighan, Ingrid Miceli, Shoreh Phillips

In 2016 the Cello Committee was made up of the same group of teachers as in 2015. Decisions regarding cello matters were made by email or informal discussion at Suzuki events, rather than actual committee meetings. This arrangement was satisfactory although ideally the committee would like to convene a meeting once or twice during 2017.

The main event for 2016 apart from Autumn Festival was the Celebration Concert held at the Melbourne Recital Centre in August. This was a great success for the cello group, both in terms of the number of students involved across the book levels, and the inclusion of a special performance of Piazzolla’s Oblivion by the Advanced students. This piece, in four parts and from outside the Suzuki repertoire, required dedicated rehearsal time on two weekends leading up to the concert, and the committee thanks the teachers involved for volunteering their time as well as the students for their excellent work and commitment. The teachers involved were the five committee members, with the event and Special item convened by Committee Chair, Virginia Bonollo.

We would especially like to thank Committee member Silvia Li for her work as a Suzuki Cello teacher and on the committee, following her recent move interstate. We hope to see Silvia at major Suzuki events in Melbourne, and wish her and her family all the very best in their new home of Brisbane. She will be greatly missed!

The Cello Committee look forward to having Sally-Anne Browne attend as Guest International Tutor at the 2017 Winter Festival, and in particular the unique perspective and energy she will bring to our small group of teachers during Professional Development and informal discussions. For 2017 the Cello Committee will seek a parent willing to take on the role of Parent Representative on the Committee, and expects to run at least two scheduled meetings as well as to try once more to re-instigate the Combined Group Class held in 2014.

Virginia Bonollo, Cello Committee Chairperson

Cello


During 2016, we welcomed Peter Newnham to the guitar committee (Rob Turton, Alexandra Velasco & Zeah Riordan). Most of our meetings take place via Skype or email exchanges, and as always there is a tremendous amount of good will and ease with one another which makes all of our planning and communications a source of nourishment and enjoyment (that’s a definite bonus!). 2016 featured two main events: The Autumn Festival in April, and the Melbourne Recital Centre Concert in August. For the Festival we welcomed Mr Seth Himmelhoch (USA) for his second visit to Melbourne. He was able to build on the connections he had made with the students and the teachers in his previous visit. We think this continuity is healthy for both groups. Senior Ensemble was again directed by Dr Ken Murray (Head of Guitar at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium) and students worked with him on a new composition, ‘Shearwater’, which had its World Premiere at the closing concert. Ensemble experiences are a definite highlight for students at this event, including the Junior ensemble that was directed by Alex Velasco this year. The Celebration Concert at MRC was long in the planning and immense in its scope. Including teachers we had approximately 50 guitarists on stage which was tremendously exciting. There was great satisfaction in pulling it off successfully. The good will of parents, teachers and students was vital in making the event a success, not to forget the huge task of the organising committee (Brava Team Suzuki!). In 2016, 3 teachers submitted 30 student graduations, from Levels 1 through 8. This is one of the ways we gain a sense of playing standards, in addition to the core goal of providing a motivation, acknowledgment and celebration of students’ efforts. As one of the ‘smaller’ instruments (only in numbers!), it can be hard to implement stand-alone programmes such as the Young beginners

Guitar

This year’s flute events opened with our annual Festival. Rebecca Paluzzi from Tennessee USA was our guest faculty member and teacher trainer. A great time was had by all and everyone’s tone improved after spending 3 days with Rebecca. A total of 34 students attend this year as well as 8 teachers.

22 flute students performed in a Solo concert in May. Every student worked extremely hard at preparing a polished performance. The concert ended with some group items.

2016 saw 24 students work extremely hard to achieve another Graduation Level. Students graduated from levels 1 through 10 during our live and recorded graduation sessions in June. This included a complete Concerto in G major by Mozart (Book 11). What an amazing result.

In Term 3, 34 students and teachers perform at the Melbourne Recital Centre for the Celebration Concert. The students performed the Badinerie from the Suite in B minor by Bach with String Orchestra. As a group they also performed Ostinato by Rutter, Siciliano by Bach, Last Rose of Summer and Fireflies. What a magnificent concert and performance. Everyone played beautifully. It was a pleasure to hear all the students perform together in this outstanding venue as well as being part of a multi instrument concert. The concert concluded with a mass multi instrument item. What an experience. Thank you to everyone involved in this concert. It is a day to be remembered.

Thank you to everyone involved in making 2016 a successful year for the Suzuki flute community.

Kate Bergen, Flute Committee Member & Council Representative

Flute

Cont. next page

The Piano Committee has continued to organize various events and helpers to nurture and develop the musical ability of our students in 2016. The new PD point system encouraged more teachers involve in helping at events.

A brief overview of the events is as follows:

Piano concerts: Concerts were held at various venues throughout each term. Both the Piano Concerts and All Instruments Concerts were well attended with a good number of piano students performing.

The Piano Project: There were 12 students who attended the three sessions. The guest tutors were Mark McGee, Louisa Breen and Helen Kasztelan. Unfortunately the venue for the Piano Showcase Concert was not available, and therefore students were not able to take part in the audition as per previous year.

Piano Showcase concert Due to very late notice from Monash Gallery of Art that our use of the venue this year would

Piano


need to incur a fee of $1000 per event, the Piano Showcase concert was cancelled, hence the Concert Catering fee that was charged to the students was refunded to students as part of the Piano Project enrolment.

In order to hold this event at a different venue, the ticket fee per person was going to have to increase dramatically and the venue would not have been as special as MGA.

The Piano Committee would like to continue this Piano Showcase concert in 2017 if a new venue can be found and within the budget.

Piano Play-a-thon On Sunday 24 July our piano students and teachers were involved in a playathon. Students paid a $25 entry fee and half of that, after GST is taken out, is donated to charity. In order to use Doncaster Shoppingtown as one of our venues we were required to once again support Scope Victoria. Two teachers opted to run events in their home studio this year too. The income received was $3695 with $1847.50 going to Scope Victoria.

Suzuki Celebration Concert at MRC The piano concerts at 10am and 12pm involved 39 performers and ran very smoothly with lots of beautiful performances. Families and teachers were thrilled with the venue and how well the children played.

Autumn festival The Festival was held in April at Wesley College, Glen Waverley. The enrolments were good, yet there was no advanced piano students participated. The International Piano Tutor was Kasia Borowiak, along with Sheila Warby from Sydney. We look forward to welcoming Kasia back for Winter Festival in 2017.

Piano Graduations There were 2 sessions of Piano Graduations in 2016. Total numbers of graduations from book 1 -3 were 104, and 22 from book 4+.

Thank you to all members of the Piano Committee for their work and support throughout 2016: Angela Mosca & Miriam Choi (Co-chairs), Sean Hallam, Julia Kaplan Yuko Ikeda, Gudrun Beilharz and Margaret Bland.

Miriam Choi, Piano Committee Co-chairperson

workshop, or senior player programmes. We hope to be able to grow student and teacher numbers enough to be able to have a broad programme of activities that adds value to membership for all guitar families and teachers. The Suzuki Guitar teaching Community is one of the great benefits of being a Suzuki teacher – I am immensely appreciative of my colleagues and friends as we share teaching experiences in such an open way. Thank you also to the staff at Suzuki Music who keep it all rolling, so that we can get on with Guitar business.

Zeah Riordan, Guitar Committee Chairperson

Guitar cont.

forward to seeing Kim whenever she can come and visit us at various Suzuki events. And we look forward to hearing the beautiful tone of her new students in Tasmania!

Since Kim left at the end of 2016, we have had an extra two teachers join our committee. We welcome back John Officer and Natalie Bergen, as well as any other teachers who would like to join us. Our meetings run efficiently and effectively, once per term on average. Thanks to Kim Bishop, Moirsheen Kelly -Keesing, Trish Wong and Alice Wong (parent representative) for a busy and productive 2016.

Michelle Lewit, Chairperson of the Violin and

Viola Committee


Violin/Viola

The Suzuki violin and viola community experienced a wonderful year. We acknowledge the enormous contributions of our volunteer teacher trainers, teachers, parents, students and committee members who work so tirelessly to enrich our lives.

In 2016 we welcomed back Mrs. Hiroko Suzuki as our international guest tutor for Autumn Festival. We were all inspired and grateful for her expertise in teaching and providing professional development. She embodies the spirit of Dr. Suzuki and hearing her stories of their time together brings a tear to the eye!

The Orchestra program had another successful season. Thanks especially go to Kim Bishop and Clara McCoppin who ran the weekly rehearsals and concerts with great expertise and enthusiasm.

The jewel in the crown of events was undoubtedly the Suzuki Celebration concert held at the Melbourne Recital Centre. The concert showcased a large number of violin and Viola students of all levels. All students came to a rehearsal the week prior, and a dress rehearsal on the day of the concert in addition to performing with great skill and musicianship. This event was colossal to organise and our thanks again go to the office staff, concert committee and teachers who gave so generously to make this concert a truly memorable one.

It was with mixed emotions that we said farewell to our long standing director of teacher training, Kim Bishop. On the one hand, we are so happy for Kim that she has moved back to her beloved Hobart, having bought a house and being close to old friends and family. On the other hand, Kim has left a sizeable hole in our community. She worked tirelessly as director of the Suzuki Orchestra program, and undoubtedly had one of the finest Suzuki studios in Australia, if not beyond. Kim realised many significant projects for violin and Viola students including the Virtuoso Project. She was a member of the violin and Viola committee since moving to Melbourne, and also sat on the PD committee. Her contribution to Suzuki violin and the Association will leave a lasting impression. It is indeed appropriate that Kim has been awarded honorary life time membership of Suzuki Music in Victoria. We look


Voice

Suzuki Voice in Victoria continues to flourish with the work of our four accredited teachers: Penny Adeney (Level 3), Ainslie Jackel (Level 2), Kate Freeman (Level 2) and myself. Teacher training is continuing with all these teachers and they are building fine studios. New teachers are encouraged but it can be difficult to find the right candidate – an accomplished classical singer who wants to learn to teach very young children. New trainees are needed so feel free to pass the word around to interested singing teachers. Suzuki Celebration Concert We were very excited to have a group of 19 students and two teachers perform together at the Melbourne Recital Centre on August 28. We sang “She sings” by Amy Bernon which was chosen especially for the event and all the students and parents enjoyed the experience. We also had the opportunity to sing with the guitar group in a combined version of ‘Long Long Ago’. The elegant venue and beautiful sound of young voices made my heart sing with joy. It is always a moment of pride to hear the talent which we, as teachers, have fostered. Many of these students were participating in their very first Suzuki Music event so it was a thrilling and most rewarding experience. Graduating students in 2016 Twenty-two students graduated from Level 1 -7 in 2016. Level 7 is the highest level of Voice graduation and we had one student, Julia Hammer present this level at our live graduations held at the Music Cottage on Sunday June 5. She sang “Stizzozo Mio Stizzoso” from La Serva Padrona by Pergolesi, “The Piper” M. Head and “Quando accende il nobil petto” Vaccai. International teacher at our Winter Festival 2017 We are all looking forward to the upcoming visit by Analia Capponi-Savolainen from Finland in July. She is an Argentinian teacher who now lives and teaches in Finland so we are expecting lots of Spanish singing in our classes. Analia is an ESA Teacher Trainer and SAA Teacher Trainer for Latin America.

Katrina Pezzimenti, Voice Teacher Trainer

Committees 2016

Professional Development Julia Breen - Director of PD Lucy Adeney- Prenatal & Baby Music Kim Bishop - Violin Margaret Bland - Piano Katrina Pezzimenti - Voice Zeah Riordan - Guitar Lois Shepheard - Violin/Viola Toni Robson- ex-officio as President Kathryn Bond - ex-officio as General Manager Cello Virginia Bonollo - Chairperson Silvia Li - Teacher Simon Meighan - Teacher Ingrid Miceli - Teacher Shoreh Phillips - Teacher Flute Kate Bergen - Chairperson Kaylene Brookes - Teacher Julia Breen - Teacher Trainer Karen Dunlop - Teacher Sophia Hay - Teacher Nathalie Resciniti - Teacher Marina Ting - Parent Guitar Zeah Riordan - Chairperson/Teacher Trainer Peter Newnham - Teacher Rob Turton - Teacher Alexandra Velasco - Teacher Piano Miriam Choi - Co-Chairperson Angela Mosca - Co-Chairperson Gudrun Beilharz - Teacher Margaret Bland - Teacher Trainer Sean Hallam - Teacher Yuko Ikeda - Teacher Julia Kaplan - Teacher Violin/Viola Michelle Lewit - Chairperson Kim Bishop - Teacher Trainer Moirsheen Kelly-Keesing - Teacher Trainer Alice Wong - Parent Patricia Wong - Parent


Membership 2016

Instrument Accredited Teachers

Teacher Trainees

Cello 11 1

Double Bass 0 0

Flute 10 0

Guitar 5 2

Organ 2 1

Piano 65 15

Prenatal & Baby Music 14 7

Viola 14 1

Violin 38 14

Voice 4 0

Total 163 41

Membership Type No.

Family 731

Country Family 67

Teacher 129

Teacher Trainee 33

Friends of Suzuki 1

Baby & Toddler 0

Total 961

Instrument Students

Baby & Toddler 48

Cello 116

Double Bass 0

Flute 83

Guitar 97

Organ 10

Piano 695

Viola 39

Violin 613

Voice 52

Total 1753

Financial Statements 2016



Financial Statements 2016 cont.

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