Ariadne’s Book One Violin Recital

This summer Ariadne had her book one violin recital!  A book one recital celebrates a ton of work and a major milestone for Suzuki kids--finishing book one.  Most kids start between age 3 and 5, and most finish book one 2-4 years later. It also is an excellent way to solidify all those book one songs that may have gotten a little fuzzy.  She finished book one back in the spring, but between AP tests and high school graduation, summer was a better time to have the recital.  [Note: if you want to see some video highlights of the recital skip to the end of the blog post]. 

Below is Ariadne on the day she got her first real violin, the adult voice is her teacher (and she took the video too).  It was mid August 2016.

Her she is with her box violin, which is how most Suzuki violinists start. The use it to learn to hold the violin without dropping it, and can learn parts of the violin and even basic bowing rhythms. It is a breakfast bar box covered in paper with a ruler for the fingerboard and scroll. 

And the real thing! I believe it was a 1/10 size. She was almost four and a half. 

Being so far from our music teacher and school (not to mention covid), we decided to have her siblings accompany her. They split up the book and I got to work finding duet parts for various instruments.  Most we found in the Suzuki violin duet book.  Charlotte listened to Nova play them on violin, then transposed them for cello by ear.  We found an excellent (and original!) duet part to Minuet 3 by Bach.  In the non-Suzuki world it is entitled Minuet in G and it is in the Anna Magdalena Notebook.  Solomon and I found a Youtube video of a duet part for Gavotte by Gossec and he ended up doing a cross between that and something of his own invention.  The Happy Farmer duet part was his own arrangement. Everyone joined in for Twinkle Theme.  

Solomon and Ariadne practicing Gossec Gavotte

Ariadne decided she wanted dress up for the occasion.  She found a beautiful blue dress Nova had worn when she was a junior bridesmaid for her aunt and uncle's wedding. 

We dug out the dress black and whites for the older kids.  

In order to make it feel like a real party, we decided to send out party packages to our guests.  Round one was for the out of town folks.  The house was turned into a cookie factory. We sent sugar cookies with treble clefs in pink royal icing and star sprinkles, treble clef napkins, a program, and musical coloring pages of violins, Bach, Mozart, and Schumann. In-town guests got Nutella cellos and eighth note jam-jams, along with the programs and coloring pages.  Driving around town and dropping things off was the most contact we'd had with our friends in months, which was a surprise benefit of the recital. 

After all the practice and baking, August 1st finally came and it was time to start the zoom call! The way the songs were split up, the older kids usually did a couple accompaniments in a row to minimize reshuffling time. 

We had an intermission, both because an entire book is a lot to play in a row, and to deal with the 40 minute time limit on zoom.  The songs probably would have made it just under the wire, but we wanted a few minutes to chat afterwards, and also knew there would be a little extra time switching out the cello. 

Feeling good at intermission

Here we are at the intermission blowing off steam (and you can see our set-up with microphone and laptop).  Charlotte and Nova are looking over the songs in her new Suzuki Cello vol 6. Solomon is playing some fast runs in the background and Ariadne is singing along. She has a flare for the dramatic. 

I do not know what Solomon was thinking about here. I was thinking that in a few short weeks, he would be off at college, and life would be forever different. Not that we can stop these things, nor that we should. But sometimes I catch myself looking over a precipice of time, anticipating the leap. 

Afterward we convinced the older kids that we did indeed need to take a couple group pictures, which ended in goofing around with the camera. 

Below are a few video highlights from the recital. I put the last song first, because there is no song more quintessential to the Suzuki method than Twinkle Theme (aka Twinkle Twinkle Little Star). It also happens to be the only song with all four kids playing.  

During the actual recital we started with the last song in the book and played all the way through to the beginning, breaking for intermission a little before the folk songs. The backwards order was Ariadne's teacher's suggestion, and I am so glad we did it that way.  There's nothing as daunting a Gossec Gavotte when you're all tired out. 

Twinkle Theme Quartet

Happy Farmer

Minuet 2

May Song

Messing around at Intermission 

Long Long Ago

O Come Little Children

Song of the Wind

Ariadne likes jewelry.  We decided to give her a treble clef bracelet as a gift after the recital. 

Fall Recital 2020

 

November is fall recital time! Charlotte and Ariadne both had virtual performances. Ariadne played Waltz, by Johannes Brahms. I could tell she likes this piece, based on how willing she always was to practice it. In fact, Solomon and Nova used to play it for her as a lullaby when she was a baby. Charlotte played Tarantella by William Henry Squire--her first recital song on a full size cello.  It is a lively piece with many different sections. Tarantella translates to tarantula, so we included a tarantula coloring page in our box of recital goodies we sent to relatives. 

This is the first time we've had a virtual recital where all the performances were prerecorded. The girls enjoyed watching other the kids play and putting comments in the chat, but they weren't that crazy about watching themselves.

 

Cello Rock's rendition of Kashmir was a surprise finale. Charlotte has been a part of the group since this summer. The group had been given special permission to meet at Antonello Hall and recorded the song the last time the were there. Charlotte joined them via zoom and was represented by a computer cart. Since covid numbers are getting worse all their rehearsals are now virtual. 

The week before the recital we made apple cider salted caramels and oatmeal smile cookies, which is a recipe I originally made up for a book club.  We sent them off along with a note and some coloring pages. but were 1 for 6 on packages arriving on time. Wednesday is the cut off for Saturday delivery, it seems. 

Off to College!

Solomon is off to college! Charles and I dropped him off at UCI on Monday, The University of California at Irvine, to be more formal about it. For our friends and family in Minnesota, it is a lot like going to UW Madison when you live in the Twin Cities. UC Irvine is about 6 hours from where we live in the San Fransisco Bay Area.  UCI ranks in the top 10 of Public Universities in the US. It comes out 35th overall. It is a large public university with lots of opportunities, but also does very well for things like safety and student experience. Irvine is within an hour of Los Angeles and 15 minutes from the ocean. We are very happy with where Solomon ended up.  

On the trip down we listened to Planet Money podcasts, and then a new book by one of it's contributors, Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing by Jacob Goldstein. It prompted lots of good discussion, as well as being quite entertaining and informative.    

Angeles National Forest was particularly beautiful. I'm not sure if we were technically in it when I took this, be we did get to see a gorgeous sunset there. 

Solomon's current plans are to major in economics and minor in statistics. Thanks his hard work on many AP classes, he is just shy of sophomore status. Not bad for a kid who missed almost his entire junior year due to a concussion (he tripped while running full tilt). Ok, enough bragging.  On to the move-in. 

It is 2020, so of course nothing is normal. UCI's dorms are open and the dining halls are open, but all classes are online. EVERYONE gets a single. Social distancing measures abound. Covid tests were the first stop when checking in.  Assuming those tests are negative, students will spend the first two weeks quarentineing in a socially distanced pod of six people. If they are positive, there is a special covid dorm. With one of the top 10 hospitals in California, I am sure they will get them medical care when needed. Everyone has a covid go bag, similar to a go bag for earthquakes and wildfire.  (After hearing about a student at NYU who was only fed juice and toast once a day, Solomon was sure to pack plenty of protein bars in his.) UCI seems to be handling all the logistics of covid very well, so those protein bars probably won't be needed.  

Solomon may get to learn Tolkein's Elvish after all.

Moving in went surprisingly well. After Solomon's covid test we had some time to drive around campus. I asked Solomon to pose by a statue of the school mascot, the anteater.  We read the plaque and discovered that anteaters can be HUGE! We are talking seven feet for the largest species.  We got his room set up within a couple of hours. The furniture all got moved around, making a double work as a single.   

The quilt he designed with his grandmother is on the bed, the pillow from our church in Minneapolis made the cut.

Charles found the beanbag chair surpirsingly relaxing after doing the heavy lifting with Solomon. They bunked the beds and stored the top matter underneath, leaving a metal 'canopy' as Solomon called it.

Once Solomon was all moved in we made one last Target run for some pantry items and one or two things we forgot. 

Solomon's RA, Maria, wrote a welcome message to everyone in her zot pod.

One last meal together. At the end we all lingered, not quite ready to leave.

After dropping Solomon off I convinced Charles to take a detour to the nearest beach, a 15 minute drive away. Corona Del Mar is beautiful, I hope Solomon gets there soon (biking it is 30 minutes).

Santa Lucia Day 2019

It has been a full decade since we started this tradition!

Nova was five the first time around. She had a 10 month old baby sister. After having been the youngest for almost five years, I thought this new middle child could use some attention, a secret project for the two of us. I had always liked American Girl’s Kirsten books and had been charmed by the winter story including Santa Lucia Day. And we are Scandinavian, though I am not sure if that is really here nor there. Norway started celebrating Santa Lucia day in a serious way only after my ancestors left for America, so this was not handed down. Anyway, it seemed like the right thing to choose. I got the book, Kirsten’s Surprise, from the library, and suggested to Nova  we try our own Santa Lucia day after reading it. I asked my mom if she could make the gown, which was a great help in keeping everything a secret.  Nova and I took a surreptitious trip to Penzy’s to get saffron. As we got closer to mid December, I snuck greens, red berries (fake so nothing could poison our toddling 10 month old), and battery operated candles up to the nursery, where we quietly made a wreath while baby Charlotte was asleep.  The morning of, all there was left to do was make the saffron buns. We pulled it off reasonably close to dawn. Charles and Solomon were thoroughly surprised!


And so we did it again the next year. Of course Charlotte wanted to do it too. While I knew that technically the Santa Lucia roll was reserved for the oldest daughter, I didn’t want her to feel left out, and Nova enjoyed sharing the secret preparations with her little sister.  Solomon showed no interest in being a star boy (the boys' roll). He seemed content with being the recipient of surprises baked goods and hot chocolate. Several years later Ariadne joined in.

Over the years we have had more and less picturesque iterations of this holiday. Every other year we have cardamom coffee cake, as we are not all fans of saffron. Cardamom is certainly a spice Norwegians seem fond of, but coffee cake is definitely not traditional. (Kids, if you are ever looking for the cardamom cake recipe, I used the one in the Moosewood Cookbook, subbing in almond flour for wheat.)




This year we attempted saffron buns not once but three times!  The recipe we've used since the beginning is this one, from Simply Recipes. The first time Nova forgot the milk, sour cream and butter.  We declared it a bust and put off celebrating.  Charlotte and Ariadne, influenced by The Great British Baking Show, decided plait the dairy-less dough and bake it anyway.  Surprise! They were delicious!!  We also made them for Christmas, but I let them rise a little long.



When we did them for Santa Lucia day, Nova made the dough the night before, but Solomon stirred the yeast prematurely, not realizing it would stop the bread from rising.  At this point, had already put Santa Lucia day off too long.  We had blown through actual Santa Lucia day, December 13th, the winter solstice December 21st, and had reached the very last day of the year.   So I got Pillsbury pop 'n fresh cinnamon rolls.  We shaped them like saffron buns and went on with our morning.  In retrospect, the ones without the dairy were the best.  We might try that on purpose next time.



Somewhere along the line I took over making the gowns (really night gowns)  from my mom. I don't make them every year, once every other or even every third year suffices.  I have distinct memories of making them in triplicate is sizes 12, 6, and 3.  According to the blog that was 2014.


This year was another year for sewing in triplicate.  The white stretch cotton I prefer for these nightgowns is getting harder to find, which ultimately lead to a late night special order from an independent fabric store on Black Friday. We are talking the whole nine yards! (Actually I think it was 9 1/2). Apparently I use Black Friday deals to buy fabric while sitting on my couch, and nothing else. In the end this year’s nightgowns were made of bamboo jerseys knit. It is lovely to touch, but a little tricky to work with.


Hart’s, the independent fabric store, happened to be just ‘over the hill’ in Santa Cruz. I spent a nice morning there by myself picking out trim a few weeks later. One of their very helpful staff and I were chatting and I sheepishly admitted I was making gowns for a very Americanized version of Santa Lucia. She grew up in Northern Europe and immediately began humming a pretty little tune. Somehow it had escaped me that there was a song attached to this holiday!

Sewing this year's Santa Lucia night gowns upped my skills considerably. Since the girls size 12 was so billowy on 11 year old Nova, I held out hope that the girls 14 might fit her now that she is firmly on adult sizes. I tissue fit the pattern to check the sizing. Tissue fitting involves drawing the seam allowances onto the pattern, then pinning the pieces as if they were sewn so it can be tried on. I was tempted to skip this step but am really glad I didn’t. The girls 14 did NOT fit  Nova. But it did fit Charlotte! An unexpected development.  We looked at some adult patterns, but in the end Nova wanted to stick with good old Simplicity 1569. Our go-to has been to put the long sleeves from the pajamas on the nightgown.  Once I even managed to make robes, in which case we mixed the pockets from one option with the trim from another--one of the advantages of sewing is unlimited adaptation.  I am afraid they might be phasing this pattern out as it is only available via Simplicity’s website now. I guess I will have to stock up.  This year we made a size 10, girl's 14 and woman's 14.

I decided to make Charlotte’s first to avoid mixing up sizes.





Then it was time to grade up the pattern to an adult size for Nova.  I used this tutorial from Sew To Fit by AD Lynn. My tools were a roll of parchment paper (usually used for baking), a large ruler with a French curve on the end, some improvised paper weights, and a sharp pencil. I also checked the sized up version against Nova’s measurements.  I had to put ALL the leaves in the dining room table for a floor length nightgown of this size.  I also had to call my mom to be reminded of the trick of getting a long piece of fabric to lie flat when folded--something to do with lining up the selvage edges and nicking the fabric and then folding those nicks to match.  I will have to call her again to get it straight.













I tissue fit the graded pattern and this time it fit! I cut out Nova and Ariadne's patterns and sewed them at the same time.  I find it faster, as long as I don't mix up the pieces between the different sizes.  And I also don't have to worry about one daughter's getting left undone.



Tape was helpful in making the elastic loop stay close together while sewing the back closure.

Everyone found them comfortable, and was reluctant to change out of the unfinished nightgowns after trying them on for fit.

I finally got real crowns from Ingabretson’s in Minneapolis, probably around the time I made those size 12, 6 and 3 nightgowns. But they are in a box that has proven impossible to find—a casualty of the move to California.







This year we used a thicker wire for the base of the wreath/crown and to attach the electric candles, and florist's wire to attach the greenery. Charlotte nixed the pre-made wreath--too much greenery.  




I can't remember what they were laughing about--something must have been very funny.  It may have been their dad.  He was trying to get Nova to cheer up and participate in the photo.  At nearly 16, she both loves these family traditions and is, occasionally, a little embarrassed by them. She had a friend coming over soon, and she didn't want to be caught in costume!

Ultimately everyone was laughing, and we managed to get a picture better than the one from that morning, which was less than ideal due to wet hair.