The Spring Soirée 2018 is approaching very quickly. It will be held on June 3 at Croasdaile auditorium at Croasdaile Village from 3-5 pm. I call my twice yearly concerts Soirées which is not technically quite correct in the afternoon, but it is such a nice word! Here is the definition: an evening party or social gathering, especially one held for a particular purpose, e.g. a musical Soirée.
The clearest directions to Croasdaile Village are on their website. Once you get to the main entrance, register at the desk and ask the way to the Auditorium.
Website for directions: http://www.croasdailevillage.com/cvhowtofindus.html
I would like to invite all students and friends and family to come to the Soirée. It is a lot of work but I arrange it because I think it is the friendliest way to share musical gifts in a supportive atmosphere (there is no charge for the Soirée). Many students find competitions very nerve racking. One has to enter competitions sometimes if you aim to be a performer professionally, and some very confident people are excited by the process. Most of my students find performing at the lovely auditorium at Croasdaile for family and friends and residents much more relaxing. The residents at Croasdaile love to come and hear especially the young ones perform. (One of my singers even has a fan club there!)
I invite my new students to come to their first Soirée so they can see what happens and how their colleagues play. If there are new students who feel they would like to perform at this Soirée, you would be very welcome. I also invite my adult students to come and support the students who are performing. My adult students have opted to have their own evening for more work-in-progress sharing (May 25 is the next FM Salon), but I would still love them to come to the Soirée if they can and are so minded.
The Soirée program: All students should be considering what they would like to perform at the Soiree. I am talking to students in lessons this week and subsequently about their items. Some things I have already chosen:
The 8 ukuleles will play and sing 3 items together: This Little Light arrangement, You are my sunshine, and This land is your land. More advanced ukulele students will play individually or in small groups as arranged in lessons.
If you have seen the musical The Greatest Showman, you will be excited to know that there will be two songs featured from that musical, A Millions Dreams (Mia and Lucas) and Never Enough (Michelle, an adult student).
There will also be a duet section this year! I love playing duets and teaching students to play duets.
The Spring Semester 2018 is fast coming to a close. The last lessons will be from Monday June 4 to Friday June 8. I will be leaving for London and Australia June 13 and returning July 24. Lessons will resume Monday July 30 and I will be teaching all August except for the last week (8/27-8/31), and then Fall Semester starts after labor day (9/3) . Some people have already let me know they want lessons in August – same times are fine.
I know that at least one student is not continuing sadly – she is done with school and is off to University. If anyone is not continuing or needs time changes please start letting me know and I will try to accommodate. I have some new students waiting to start in Fall.
I know that all kinds of things interrupt lessons: injuries, illness, school commitments and snow days but I just want to remind everyone that my studio policy is for students to attend a weekly lesson with as great regularity as possible. This ensues satisfactory progress for the student and also gives me some continuity of income. Teaching lessons is my only source of income. I love that I can earn my living this way, from my beautiful home and garden which I love to share with my students. (Can I just remind everyone that the grass at the back is still out of bounds – we are still trying to get it to grow so if you need to run, go around the big tree!) I am pretty flexible and I generally excuse students and put payments forward although my policy is to charge for the lesson if I don’t get 24 hours notice so I can reschedule makeup lessons. I fear I have not been very strict about that!
I am sorry I will be away so long over summer but I have to spend time with my grandchildren and daughters and even once every 18 months seems so little.
Fees: It would be really helpful if people could pay fees for the remaining weeks of the semester. Your email has the details but unless you have some payments moved forward, this is what you will owe:
Monday people 5 lessons
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and Friday people 6 lessons
Thanks so much always for learning music with the Flourishing Muse Studio!
