Jenna Michael

Last month, we enjoyed lovely performances from nearly every one of my students. I am so humbled by the growth my studio has shown in the past three years. At my first recital, I had 13 kids perform. I had nearly 30 perform this time!

Since we have grown so much, we had to find a new venue for our recital this year. Thank you very much to St. John’s United Church of Christ for hosting us!

We had solos, duets, a trio, and even a quartet! I am so proud of the hard work everyone put into their performances. We were accompanied once again by the skilled Noah Seim and I even tried my hand at accompanying as well! Grand Rapids area teachers should consider hiring Noah for their recitals – he is fantastic at accompanying young students.

At every recital, my students start with the first variation of Twinkle. Everyone gets to play as a group regardless of how young or old they are. One of my students’ parents got a great picture of us playing twinkle, but there were so many of us that not everyone is pictured!

This year I started including Pre-Twinklers in performances. At the start of the show, we sang the Rest Position Song and “played” Pop Goes the Weasel. Later in the program, all of my Pre-Twinklers played an open string duet with me from the books Wee Violin and Magic Carpet Violin.

Towards the end of the program, my more advanced students played some ensemble music.

And now with the recital behind us, we are well into the summer. I’m enjoying slower days and sunny weather, while also looking forward to getting back into the swing of things next year!