On Easter Sunday, 27th March 2016, on an otherwise cool and blustery spring evening, the Royal Albert Hall in Central London witnessed a unique musical event – the Suzuki Gala – that warmed the hearts of the 5000 audience members. Every seat in the hall was sold-out, in fact had been sold out months in advance of the event. And not sold out because of a big-name performer (of which the Royal Albert Hall has had plenty in its long and storied history), but because of a performance from 1200 budding young musicians that are part of the Suzuki family.
It was the dream for years of Helen Brunner, Director, British Suzuki Association to fill the Royal Albert Hall with a thousand Suzuki children from all over the world, playing their hearts out in sublime unison. Her dream came true on 27th of March, 2016 where 1200 children made a journey to perform together. They came from 28 countries speaking 22 languages.
14 students (age: 6 years to 16 years) along with their teacher Mrs.Rama Chobhe of Suzuki School of Violin Pune, represented India in this spectacular Suzuki Gala Concert. Helen Brunner sent an invitation to Mrs. Rama Chobhe when the concert was being planned. For a lot of these students and their parents, this was an event that they’d have never dreamed about. It was a great opportunity to perform on such a historic and prestigious stage which they were certainly not going to miss. Several intense practice sessions in Pune, and one Saturday morning play-together of a few hours of all of the 1200 students at the Royal Albert Hall, and the participants were ready for the Gala performance.
The level of playing was very high, higher than anybody would have expected, and it only reminded of what Dr.Suzuki always used to say – “Trust children and they will be able to do anything” and this could never have been more true than this concert. By the time children were performing their last piece hundreds of multicolored balloons floated down from the roof of the Royal Albert Hall, the performers and the audience knew that they had been part of a phenomenal concert and experience, one that they would remember for many years.
Here’s a link to an article written by one of the participants, Tanish Sodhi, which was published in the Serenade magazine.
