Jennifer Gontarek

As a public high school orchestra director and a private Suzuki teacher, I am constantly
looking for challenging and exciting cello repertoire that will inspire my students. As a Suzuki

teacher, I notice that most of my students play the Suzuki repertoire consecutively from pre-
twinkle to the Haydn Cello Concerto in C major which is Book Ten. The collection is a great

one to have to start, but it is lacking in modern music as well as different cultural composers.
There are some difficult differences in technical levels from piece to piece as well. This can be
unfair to a developing student. Students’ should be exposed to many different genres of music as
well as different time periods. Why should a student struggle unnecessarily with the next piece
if there is a piece that can be learned first to help bridge the gap? For instance, I had a student
who was technically very proficient but lacked the music maturity that was needed for his next
piece; The Gigue movement of Bach’s First Unaccompanied Suite. It is not a technically
demanding piece, but musically the entire suite is quite challenging. I knew he was not ready for
the music and theory needed to play that piece, so I searched for an alternative. I spent a week
looking for a piece that would meet his technical skills, but challenge him musically. Many
private teachers are faced with this problem yearly and it is difficult to find the time to review
new repertoire. Throughout the past year, I analyzed many short cello pieces that are not part of
the Suzuki literature and specifically looked for cello pieces with an ethic flair so that I can better
address the needs of my students in future years. While the Suzuki Repertoire provides many
excellent choices for students, my intention is to expand upon it.… (plus d'informations)