Today we’d like to introduce you to Clara Engen.
Hi Clara, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Lakewood Suzuki Strings is a music education program for children ages 3 and up. Our program consists of private lessons, group classes, parent support groups, and performances. We offer violin, viola and cello instruction for children of all levels – from the youngest beginners to advanced players. Our weekly activities mainly occur in the Performing Arts Wing at Lakewood High School, and we frequently have student performances and participate in other community events around Lakewood and the Cleveland area.
Our two founders – Clara Engen and Micaela Murphy – are both professional musicians who fell in love with the Cleveland area while in school here. Additionally we are registered Suzuki Method teachers, trained through the Suzuki Association of the Americas. LSS started when we became involved with the Lakewood public school orchestra program in 2022. Our program was born out of a desire to bolster the strength of the orchestra program by getting more students into music lessons prior to joining orchestra in their fifth grade year. The LHS orchestra director was looking for someone to start a Suzuki strings program for children as young as 3, and we were excited to rise to the challenge!
Lakewood Suzuki Strings is our passion project; we both have fond memories of our early childhood years learning to play our instruments, and have devoted our careers to helping children and their parents experience the shared joy of music-making.
Our program has grown exponentially since 2022; we started with violin and viola, and have recently added cello, as well as another violin instructor. Though our heart is in Lakewood, we have families from all over the Cleveland area that come to participate in LSS. We are so proud of our growing musical community, and hope to continue serving the children of Lakewood, the greater Cleveland area and Northeast Ohio for many years to come.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
We wouldn’t exist without the support of the Lakewood Recreation Department and the Lakewood City Schools orchestra program! There are lots of start-up costs to creating a music school from scratch that would have been big barriers for us – however, we have been extremely lucky to be able to use the Performing Arts Wing space at Lakewood High School to conduct our lessons and classes. We are grateful for the strong sense of community and shared passion for music education that our friends in the Recreation Department and the LCS orchestra program have shown us.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Lakewood Suzuki Strings?
Lakewood Suzuki Strings is a music education program for children ages 3 and up. Our program consists of private lessons, group classes, parent support groups, and performances. We offer violin, viola and cello instruction for children of all levels – from the youngest beginners to advanced players. Our weekly activities mainly occur in the Performing Arts Wing at Lakewood High School, and we frequently have student performances and participate in other community events around Lakewood and the Cleveland area.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Our teaching philosophy stems from the Suzuki Method of musical instruction. Dr. Shinichi Suzuki, a violinist from Japan in the 20th century, developed this method by utilizing the basic principles of how children learn to speak and understand their first language. Dr. Suzuki realized that since children are able to learn their native language through listening, imitation and repetition, they can also do the same with learning an instrument!
Throughout our lessons and classes, we focus heavily on these elements of learning:
1. Parental Involvement
As when a child learns to talk, parents are involved in the musical learning of their child. Parents or caregivers attend lessons with their child and serve as “home teachers” during the week.
2. Learning in Community
In addition to their private lessons, children participate in regular group lessons and performances at which they learn from and are motivated by each other. We’ve also found that group classes are essential for community-building among our program families; it’s always so lovely to see the friendships formed between different students and their families.
3. Daily Listening
Children learn words after hearing them spoken hundreds of times by others. In our program, children listen to their music every day to learn their songs by ear.
4. Loving Encouragement
As with language, the child’s effort to learn an instrument is always met with loving praise and encouragement. Our philosophy is that “every child can”; each child learns at their own rate, and no step is too small to be praised. We also encourage our students to support each other’s learning, fostering an attitude of generosity and cooperation during group class and performances.
5. Repetition
We know that constant repetition is essential in learning. When learning to speak, children do not learn a word and then discard it. They add it to their vocabulary, gradually using it in more and more ways as they grow. In the Suzuki Method, we do the same with each piece of music the child learns!
As teachers, our goal is to arm children with the tools to become not just great musicians, but also great thinkers, citizens, and lifelong learners. When a child comes into our program, we’re not just thinking about how to get them to put a violin on their shoulder – we’re thinking about how our lessons are going to influence their character in 5, 10, and even 15 years down the line. Regardless of whether they continue to play an instrument, our hope is that the skills they learn in our program will help them grow into kind, resilient and compassionate human beings.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lakewoodsuzukistrings.com
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- LinkedIn: lakewoodsuzukistrings
