Recitals

2025-2026 Performance Opportunities

Our fall recital will take place at Brookdale Senior Living on Saturday, November 22, 2025, from 2:30-3:30. Rehearsals with the accompanist will happen at my house from about 1:00-2:00 beforehand (you’ll only need to be there for a short part of that time). This venue is an assisted living place with great acoustics and appreciative residents. We’ll bring some cookies to enjoy after! 2600 Old Fairhaven Pkwy, Bellingham, WA 98225. This one is open for siblings or your chamber group to perform in, and we’ll do some group pieces. 

Our spring recital will take place at the gorgeous Lairmont Manor venue, which required a weeknight booking. (Good news: this leaves us all with more beautiful free summer weekends!). I booked the venue on Tuesday, May 26, 2026, from 4:30-7:30 – this is one day earlier than I had originally planned due to a high school orchestra concert schedule conflict, so please adjust your calendars. From 4:30-5:15, we’ll have quick rehearsals with the accompanist. High schoolers will need to rehearse with Eva separately, likely meeting her at her music school on their own schedule. Young students will practice a lot with me accompanying and then be ready to put it together with Eva.

The recital itself will happen from 5:30-6:30. The younger students will perform first and then we will celebrate with Kaylee’s senior recital, during which she’ll play several pieces! We’ll cap it off with pizza/salad for dinner and time to enjoy the beautiful grounds and congratulate Kaylee. We’ll be all done by 7:15 and need to be out of the venue by 7:30. 405 Fieldston Rd, Bellingham, WA 98225. 

About Recitals

Performing is a way to share the gift of music with others. It is an integral part of the program and “stage fright” is not in our vocabulary! I prepare my students thoroughly by teaching them solid technique and helping them choose pieces they can perform beautifully. I incorporate performance coaching into lessons and group classes to support students of all temperaments. Before each solo recital, students perform for each other in several informal settings, then rehearse with our accompanist. By the time they walk onstage, they are ready to welcome the extra little buzz performing provides and share their piece with a supportive audience!

How to choose a recital piece

For solo performances, older students typically pick a piece months in advance. Younger students choose a review piece that they already know well 6-8 weeks before the recital. I help you bring it to the highest musical and technical level possible and make a performance plan for confident stage presence and connection with the audience. Even very introverted students learn to perform with grace and poise, and skill and confidence each time they go onstage.

Accompaniment

I require students to rehearse with the accompanist before performing so they can have the best possible experience onstage. Professional piano accompaniment during the event itself is included in tuition, but students pay a small extra fee for rehearsal time since those needs vary from 5 minutes to 60 minutes.

Book Graduation

When you finish a Suzuki book, you get to perform a book graduation recital! Often, I group students together and they perform a joint graduation recital during their group class. However, students have also done house concerts and Farmer’s Market busking adventures!

State Graduation Program

When you finish Books 1, 3, 5, 7, and 10, you submit video yourself performing a specific piece from that book. You send your graduation recording to SAWS (Suzuki Association of Washington State) and get comments and a beautiful trophy. Deadline: June 1. The statewide graduation concert and awards ceremony is the second weekend of October at the SAWS festival in Ellensburg.

Outside Opportunities

• Everyone should take part in one supplementary musical event per year outside of my studio and their school music program: contests, festivals, camps, Suzuki Institutes, workshops, etc.
• Suzuki Association of Washington State Fall festival, early/mid October: http://suzukiwashington.org/fall-festival
• Japan-Seattle Suzuki Institute, second week of August: https://www.japanseattle.org/
• Solo & Ensemble: encouraged for all students grade 6 and up. Sign up through your public school music program. You will hire an accompanist and rehearse at least once beforehand.
• All-State Auditions: encouraged for grades 7-12. Submit your recording online October 1. Talk to your public school music teacher.
• Seattle Young Artists Music Festival, third week of March at the UW campus: https://syamfa.org/ A wonderful experience for intermediate and advanced students grades 5-12. You get a 1-hour class during the day that week, during which you perform your piece and get a short lesson with a world-class adjudicator. Several other students share the class. You need to have studied with me for at least one year, be playing at a Book 7 level minimum, and should be practicing about an hour daily. Choose your repertoire by November and memorize it. You will hire a professional accompanist and rehearse at least twice beforehand and perform your piece(s) at least once before the festival.
• Plan to attend one live, professional-quality classical concert per year.