10 M usic has always been an essenƟal part of my life. Both my parents provided me with a musical environment, although their interests were more orientated toward tradiƟonal Spanish music. I was also fascinated as a child watching the pianist that played at our local church. I wanted to learn the piano so badly that I kept asking my parents unƟl they signed me up for piano lessons when I was eleven. A few years later I made contact with my first local Suzuki teacher, Eunice Cordero who started aƩending my church and we played together. She had also started a Suzuki violin program at a school and she asked me to accompany her students at their first concert. I was shocked to discover that those young performers were only 4 and 5 years old and their violins were the size of a piece of paper but despite their young age, they played fluently by memory and with musical ability. I learnt a great deal from Eunice Cordero and I feel so fortunate that we have built our Suzuki family together for the last 15 years. I then started Suzuki teacher training with Stephen Power in Barcelona. I consider that those first lessons were essenƟal in improving the standard of my playing. With Stephen, I learnt the concept of ‘excellence from the beginning’. My training then conƟnued with Mary McCarthy in Ireland and Scotland. Mary took all her trainees under her wing and taught us the Suzuki philosophy from so many perspecƟves. She created a sense of community and friendship that sƟll endures to this day. I can only describe her as the perfect combinaƟon of a mother, a mentor, a colleague and a friend. With her I felt that I really experienced being ‘nurtured by love’. Along the way, Eunice and I started our own Suzuki project, the ‘Escuela Anna Magdalena Bach’, a Suzuki school in a rural area of Spain. Over the years we have found that many families, despite having no musical background, have believed in our project and have seen their children grow with the joy of music in their lives. No one ever gets removed from our music program because there is always room and Ɵme for change, influence, growth and healing. From all of the students and parents, I have learned and experienced the powerful concept that Suzuki described as ‘The life force’. One of the most fascinaƟng concepts about the Suzuki method is the ‘mother tongue’ approach. It is such a clever idea! I have always been interested in the applicaƟon of this concept to the ability to improvise. When kids learn to talk, they become free to choose the order of the words they use and the ideas they want to express. I had started to try some of these ideas in the context of my individual and group classes but I was encouraged by the team of teachers in our school to start an improv lab in all our group classes for all instruments. I have learnt so much during this process about the moƟvaƟonal power of ‘creaƟvity in acƟon’. I believe that our integrity demands that we should conƟnue to learn and not only just about music: There is so much to learn out there! I have been blessed to find great people who have shared their experƟse with kindness and creaƟvity. I will be forever grateful to Iván Cítera, Felipe Gértrudix, Orlando Enríquez and many others that with their example and their advice have helped me shape the person that I am right now. But this is a brief step in a path that goes on and on. As a new teacher trainer, I find myself at the beginning of a new learning process. As a doctoral researcher, I am focusing on how to help students beƩer use creaƟvity and new technologies and I am also discovering some very interesƟng resources and ideas with which we can enrich our teaching experience. I am a great believer in ‘life long learning’. During my Ɵme as a student, especially in the pedagogy classes, I discovered that in higher educaƟon, the Suzuki approach is barely present as a valid academic methodology and when it is menƟoned, it is not always in a posiƟve way. As a Suzuki teacher trainer I share a vision for the future; to help to bring the Suzuki Method to music educaƟon textbooks and higher insƟtuƟons, as a new way to reach the world. By becoming influencers in the same way that Dr. Suzuki was in his Ɵme, is a way to honour and keep alive his legacy. There will be a lot of work involved and it will require much talking, listening and understanding but ‘where love is deep, everything can be accomplished’. 2022 Teacher Trainer Appointments Danial Fajardo PIANO, SPAIN
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjQ4MzY=