Jan. 3
It’ll take an afternoon just to read the 500+ comments, but the WashPost article by the always excellent Tim Page invites new insights on how we push our young musicians. Because the Suzuki Method does encourage a young start — average age 4 — it has been misperceived as a pushy technique. Not so, and certainly not at BTEC. Parents can move for excellence without undue discipline. Says Yo-Yo Ma: “I hear parents telling their kids that they, too, can be famous soloists if they work hard enough. That, to me, is the worst thing you can do to a child. If you lead them toward music, teach them that it is beautiful, and help them learn, say, ‘Oh, you love music, well, let’s work on this piece together and I’ll show you something,’ then that’s very different. That’s a creative nurturing.”As always, parental involvement is the key. What were your thoughts on the piece?
December 26
December 14
By itself, Twinkle, Twinkle is a deceptively simple piece to play. But with that genius Suzuki’s touch, variations of Twinkle introduces our youngest violin and cello students to complex and advanced rhythms. This is all to say Wow! and Wow! to the 1st semester BTEC violin and cello students and parents who performed a small recital at Patterson Park Public Charter last night. Under the expert instruction by Ursula Encarnacion, their Twinkle Variation A soared. Thank you everyone, especially PPPCS’s Mike Otto who made this happen at many levels. Now, onto the Sunday’s Main Recital!
Dec. 7
Nov. 27
Nov. 11
One of the mixed blessings when a student cancels a lesson at the last minute is the opportunity for the teacher’s mini-concert. Yesterday evening at Northwestern HS our Yamaha grand shook the walls!
Nov. 5
3/4th cello with a broken neck, 1/16th violin with a barely perceptible front crack, and a 1/4th violin w/ loose fingerboard…these are all instruments in play this semester. The fact that these instruments can be put back into play — most often in days — is due to the incredibly talented hands of several BTEC volunteers. Thank you, volunteers. A special shout-out awaits you at the Dec. 17 Recital!
Oct. 30
Oct. 29
Thank you to the Roland Park Library for hosting a few of our advanced students on this cold rainy day. Not all family schedules can make weekday lessons, and we are grateful to the venue, and the teacher, who can make this happen. Look for more Saturday classes in the Spring, as we premiere new Parent & Me classes at new schools.
July 5
One of the most iconic photographs (and we’ll get it up on the website soon) of BTEC’s early days was taken outdoors of founder Irene Kohlmeyer in session with several beginner violinist. In the vigor to establish the program, Kohlmeyer decreed BTEC would be year-round. Including, outdoor classes. This month, BTEC opened its second consecutive summer session after several years off. The thrill of having students continue to progress, but in a repertoire setting with new students is an exciting one. PLUS — see BTEC students perform at Artscape on Friday, July 15, 1-2PM on the Urbanite Stage for another kind of BTEC summer treat.
February 8
Esperanza Spalding, Grammy nominee, and “the prodigiously gifted bassist, singer, and composer,” says The New Yorker, is a young musician in a hurry. Ms. Spalding, who plays bass among several other instruments, has a confidence that seems to belie her years. It is no surprise then to realize her introduction to string instruments introduction came from none other than the Suzuki Method. She began at age 4 with violin, and admits she found the Method to be too strict for her. Later, however, when she entered an arts high school, many of the insistences on posture and technique from that time were of great value to her.
July 23
In early Suzuki Parent-Child Orientation classes, and before students would be given their instruments, children would make a cardboard box violin. Beyond granting an ease in the use of the instrument — you can drop a violin made out of a crackerjack box — the technique familiarizes the students with parts of an instrument.
Plus, any kid likes to be an inventor of instruments. We hope to see you at:
The Lemelson Center at the Smithsonian celebrates National Inventors’ Month 2010 August 7 and 8 with an exploration of music and sound innovations. Activities in Spark!Lab will include creating your own musical instruments out of recycled material, music mixing on digital systems, making music on our percussion sculpture, and experiments with sound and sound waves.
Other programming includes a screening of archival silent film footage from the 1939 New York World’s Fair set to an original electronic score by D.C. musicians Bluebrain; special presentations by Museum curators on guitars, including Prince’s Yellow Cloud, and sound recording equipment from the collections; and a drum circle.
(Photo: Smithsonian photo by Harold Dorwin)
May 15
Lovely setting, good food, and of course, the best music. The Spring Recital for the students of BTEC was held at the Homewood Friends Meeting House today. The event was a joyous reminder of the new directions for BTEC in its expansion; students of all levels performed. Highlights included the Northwestern Guitar Ensemble; guitar instructor Osvaldo Mendoza Mendoza’s new compositions; and Book One graduates, Rose Rutkowski and Sydney Boyd.
Congratulations one and all!
April 19
Today dozens of students from the Opus 118 Harlem School of Music will stake out corners throughout Manhattan to raise awareness of their school’s dire financial straits. For many music schools, it’s a hard knock life in terms of long-term funding. For reasons unexplained, Opus 118, open since 1991, and immortalized in the hit movie, Music of the Heart, did not have an endowment. When recent cutbacks in state and city funding hit, the School found itself with a $500,000. Like BTEC, at the heart of Opus 118’s function was the belief that music should be available to everyone, and that every child has the ability to produce beautiful sounds. Here’s to hoping their travails will be temporary, and not permanent like the Harlem School of the Arts and the Harlem Boys Choir.
The key, as always, could be through the building of self-sustaining funding, via alumni donations, program fees and other in-kind services exclusive to your school.
April 6
Calling all Baltimore City Public Schools principals: we’d love to connect at Wednesday’s Vendor Resource Fair, and show you how BTEC is the perfect program for your school’s goals in music education, community engagement and parent/child interaction. Plus, we’re bringing BTEC’s famous post-lesson bowl of lollipops for an extra treat.
April 3
If there is any doubt that music education has to start early — in elementary school at the least — and in places where access is not hampered by auditions, funds or instruments, read the recent New Yorker profile of jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding. Noted as the “new hope for jazz,” the article notes the relevance of several school-based music programs in Spalding’s life. First, there was the community music school where she underwent Suzuki-based violin instruction for eight years. Then, on to the Northwest Academy, a private arts high school. Heh, by age 15? Ms. Spalding was installed as the concertmaster of the Chamber Music Society of Oregon.
March 23
The decades-long proven success of BTEC was the focus of WYPR’s Midday with Dan Rodricks today. Check out the podcast — Nuturing the Next Generation of Musicians in Baltimore — if you missed it. Special thanks to BTEC alumnus and acclaimed cellist Troy Stuart and Dr. Catherine Washburn, BTEC parent and Friends of BTEC Board member for telling the story so well.
March 13
Many have made the connection between the artistry of math, and by similar extrapolation, to music. Music expresses the ideas of a place and people. That’s one of the reasons for the necessity of a program like BTEC, which promises equal access to any Baltimore City student; through music, each of us can join the marketplace of ideas.
In today’s Washington Post profile of cellist Yo-Yo Ma, he is asked about his multiple points of influence in many areas of public life (as well as his exciting new project, via Silk Road Project, which joins a middle school curriculum with music lessons.)”There’s one thing Ma’s endeavors have in common. As socially aware as they may be, or as political their dimensions, they’re all about the music. Ma doesn’t find causes and attach himself to them; rather, he follows what he already does to its utmost extreme. Music is “powered by ideas,” he says. “And to understand that is huge, because then the ideas can galvanize people together, as opposed to . . . ‘I have a better vibrato than you.’ ”
(and a quick, but deep thank you to Baltimore City Public School System School Board for hosting our presentation last Tuesday. It means a great deal to have your support as BTEC strengthens and grows.)
March 4
BTEC has always been one of the few places where an aspiring student can try out an instrument unfamiliar. Such as, the viola. So it was with perfect amusement to send congratulations to Peter Minkler, a musician with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for the spectacular win of $25,000 for the Baker Prize, announced on March 3. Minkler, has been a violist with the symphony for 26 years. “My work is about promoting the viola as a solo instrument,” he says. “The viola is the Rodney Dangerfield of the orchestral world, and in my small way, I’d like to put that to rest.”
Well, BTEC will concur, and volley to continue efforts to correct that, too.
Feb. 28
Perhaps this should have been a wise proverb: a music program is only as sharp as its tools…and after BTEC’s first week, as its participants. Finding the perfect match between musician2teacher2time was a bit bumpy during this first week, and we are very grateful to all for their patience and humor.
Now that the sharp insturments have been put away (nearly 90% of BTEC stock is now ready to go), one dozen guitars on their way for BTEC’s first ever guitar lessons, and the sounds of music in FIVE classrooms resonate, we know the Spring 2010 semester is here. 
Feb. 22
First Week of BTEC Classes!
Feb. 21
Just before leaving on this warming Friday afternoon, I took a look around the giant choral arts room in which BTEC is headquartered at the Northwestern High School. In the center, around the grand piano were several high school students, in an impromptu ensemble. At the main table, a cordless drill whirred at the hands of one teacher in midst of making precise cuts for a cello bridge. And all around us were dozens of insturments — like a “Santa’s workshop” noted another teacher — waiting for their turn for minor repairs and tuning for the first week of class.
THIS is what BTEC is: an active, ever diversified program, open to all Baltimore city students of all ages and their families. Suzuki believed music makes a community; lessons should not be limited to the thrill of the sole musician, but that the skills are bolstered and to be shared with all.
Feb. 8
BTEC’s Spring 2010 semester officially opens today. Except…for that interrupter of snow and ice. Classes are closed on Feb. 11 due to inclement weather. Please note that BTEC follows the Baltimore COUNTY closing schedule. If Baltimore County public schools are closed, so, too, will be BTEC for after-school lessons.
Before and After!
Jan. 28
One of the greater strengths of BTEC is its instruments. Having this bounty of violins, cellos, and violas for loaning to our students, both new and experienced. That said, after 30 years, significant gaps in the inventory developed, and when we creaked open to doors to 3 of the instrument storerooms, what we found was joy and dismay.
Many of the instruments we found were decades old, but in fantastic shape. The violin stock is uneven: 40 empty cases; 50 violins in need of set-ups, and then 60+ ready to go. The cello stock is younger, and almost all are ready.
Now that the inventory has been completed (done 3X over to make sure everything is here), we are on the hunt for new and used instruments for donations. Hint, hint….
Jan. 24
“Act One of my life, I was a violinist. Oh yes, it was a very strong background in the arts. And through the arts — and I just really wish people in education across this country would understand this importance — the arts were really my foundation It taught me how to listen, how to communicate through an instrument. Whenever you’re playing in an orchestra, or a quartet, you have to listen to everything around you. Every instrument, know when to come in, you have to listen to the beat, you have to learn how to focus, and you become very organized. The Arts are so important.”
Sheila Johnson, Billionaire, Owner of Washington Mystics, Founder of BET, and violinist who still plays today.
Jan. 21
Welcome to the BTEC Blog.