Hello Everybody,

Here is a quick update for the goings on at ABC.  We’ll be covering:

  • Upcoming Winter Recital – already?!?!
  • Homework emails (update)
  • Studio Days
  • Make-up Week
  • Renovation news

Recital Time!

Registration forms are now available for the Winter recital, on December 6th.  It will be held at the freshly renovated theatre at Casa do Alentejo at 1130 Dupont St. (near Dufferin – parking recommended at Galleria Mall).  The times will be 12 noon, 1pm, and 2pm.  If demand is high enough, we’ll also open a 3pm slot.

For new families, welcome!  Our recitals are short, sweet, and free.  Please come, even if not actively participating (see below).

Remember, Casa do Alentejo has an excellent restaurant attached to the theatre, a perfect place for lunch or snack before or after your recital.

Attendance now “mandatory”

Up to now we’ve always made attendance and participation at our recitals optional, but we are now making attendance “mandatory” – in quotes!  Obviously we don’t intend to force anyone to come on your precious weekend time, but here are a couple of key educational reasons that we are making this change:

  • Performance is a form of presentation.  Whether it be at school, or at a job interview, or professionally in the boardroom, at some point your children will need some experience with performance to do well at it in non-artistic settings.  A friendly, low-key community recital is an excellent way to practice this.
  • Seeing other children and students of varying ages perform humanizes the process, and brings it to a more accessible level.  It inspires and encourages your children to embrace a greater degree of ambition, personal responsibility, and community participation/involvement, also vital later in life.
  • Being a good audience member, and developing an interest in consuming live music is fundamental to an appreciation, preservation, and growth of culture around us.

As you can see, something as simple as a recital forms a vital and important part of the musical education, which ties directly to so many things we do in our day-to-day adult lives.  Stay tuned for our day-of schedule updates.

Homework emails

We’ve been rolling our our homework emails this month, and have generally had positive feedback.  If you have questions, or would like to have your student removed at any time from the postings, please call the office.

Studio Days •NEW•

The week of December 10th to 16th, inclusive, will be our first Studio Days.  We’ll be testing that out this year.

What are Studio Days?  These are a hybrid open house and parent-teacher day.  Parents will be welcome and invited in to a portion of the lesson to have an informal chat about progress, direction, and parental involvement in the achievement of goals over the course of the coming period (winter, in this case).

Parental involvement is very important, and while it need not represent a major commitment of time on a daily basis, the biggest goal for us as educators is to make sure that the involvement is consistent.  Ours is a premium program, and we want you to get the most out of it for your kids’ success down the road.  We consider ourselves part of your team to get the kids off to the best start, with the best tools they can.  So, our feedback and coordination with you is something we take seriously.

Your teacher may include a note in their Homework Posts for you about what time to come up to the studio on your day.

We’re looking forward to having you drop in during the Studio Days.

Make-up week

The make-up week runs from December 17-23, inclusive.

We will be planning the make-ups and sending out an email towards the end of the month, or early December with the proposed schedules.  Remember, if you do not confirm your make-up time by phone, or indicate that you cannot come, you may lose your time.

Renovation News

Things are proceeding at a snails pace, typical of renovations, but the bulk of the work is done, and we are in the tail end of the process.

Watch for news about studio changes in the near future.  We expect to be moving things around before the winter break.