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 Thursday October 3 was a proud moment for Indy Suzuki, as students performed for local government and leaders at the City Budget Hearing at the Phoenix Theatre.
As a new grant recipient from the Arts Council of Indianapolis, ISA was invited to perform at the Budget Hearing to help demonstrate the impact of Arts Funding on our city and youth. The Parks and Recreation Committee voted unanimously to support the City’s 2020 arts allocation, including the 10% increase proposed by Mayor Hogsett for a total of $1.1M from the City’s budget. The next step is the full council vote on October 14. Our Indy Suzuki community was proud to have been a part of this larger initiative with other Arts leaders to secure the first increase in City arts funding since 2009 in a landscape of significant budget challenges and competing priorities. Thank you for being part of our community, and special thank you to the families, faculty, volunteers and board members who represent ISA and support the Arts in Indy.
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 We are pleased to share that ISA was awarded two grants recently. The Arts Council of Indianapolis and the City of Indianapolis awarded ISA $2,000 for our annual concert series, and the Associated Chamber Music Players awarded ISA $1,200 for our Chamber Music Program. It is an exciting step for ISA in diversifying our income but there is more to do. Contact board member, Erik Rohde at Board@IndySuzukiAcademy.org, if you would like to help in future efforts at grant writing.
 The ISA Chamber Quartet, coached by Dr. Lori Honer, had the opportunity to open the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra Concert in Holliday Park on June 6 with the IndyParks Summer Concert Series.  ISA Violin and Cello students had the opportunity to perform with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra during their June 6 Concert.
 Violinist Morganne Aaberg is a founding member of the interdisciplinary ensemble Artists By Any Other Name. With Artists By Any Other Name, Morganne performed in and produced shows featuring chamber music, dance, drama, and visual art in the US and abroad.
Morganne enjoys teaching violin and music literacy classes. She has served on the faculties of the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, Diller-Quaile School of Music, Cuyahoga Community College’s Orchestra Program, and Cleveland Institute of Music’s Sato Center for Suzuki Studies. Morganne has taught at several summer festivals, including Midsummer Sound (Barrie, Ontario) and the Meadowmount School of Music (Westport, NY), where she served as assistant to Dr. Ann Setzer (Juilliard/Mannes). Morganne earned a masters degree in violin performance and Suzuki Pedagogy from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and a bachelors of music in violin performance from the Mannes School of Music. Morganne is currently working towards a PhD in music education at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. The month of May can be a nostalgic time when you suddenly look at your child and realize how much they have grown and matured over the past school year. During the April Solo Recital, it was inspiring to hear the performances, and take notice of just how far each child had progressed this year. As Suzuki parents, we notice the little things -- the improvements in posture, the beautiful tone of every note, the musical phrasing and dynamics, and we realize the hard work it took to get there. We appreciate the many little small steps that add up to amazing progress over time.
As an Academy, we also reflect back at this year, and recognize the many small steps the organization has taken to make a positive impact. Building on collaborative partnerships, we had variety of wonderful concert experiences with Suzuki Columbus, IndyBaroque, and the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra. Our Board of Directors continues to thrive, adding a new member, and renewing the terms of many leaders who serve the ISA with dedication. We invested in the growth of the Academy by expanding our studio spaces into the Lower Level, striving to increase the number of students we can serve. With your generous support, the ISA continues to prioritize the development of our most valuable resource -- our amazing faculty -- and supports their Summer Teacher Training. It is a genuine treasure to have a fantastic team of faculty to work toward our vision of helping every child reach their potential through excellence in music. We are grateful for the opportunity to work with your child and family, and look forward to a wonderful Summer and a great 2019 - 2020.  At just 8 years old, Yasseen practices Judo, is an accomplished pianist, and, most recently, an app developer. His parents enrolled him in the Indianapolis Suzuki Academy (ISA) Piano Program when he was three years old because they believed it would put him on a path to develop traits of discipline, consistency, patience, and hard work. His parents are convinced that time spent with ISA has instilled in Yasseen not only broad, life-long qualities such as a love of music, the importance of hard work and patience, but also more basic, practical skills, like how to record the audio for an app. Yasseen's love of music eventually led him to a love of math. His love for math then developed into an interest in coding. Yasseen wanted to develop a fun way for players to challenge one another in a number guessing game. Together with his father, Yasseen developed the app Versus: The Number Guessing Challenge. After they submitted the app to the Apple's App Store, Apple’s Editor contacted Yasseen to feature Versus on the “Today” tab of the App Store. On average, only one out of several thousand developers get to be featured in the App Store. Yasseen’s remarkable achievement means millions of people worldwide would see his app. Yasseen told us about his love for coding and his journey into app building.  What inspired you to create the app? One night my father and I were debating the fastest way to find a number between 1 and 1,000. That led to the idea of creating the Versus game. I really wanted to create an app because it’s more interactive and it allows you to play either against your friends or your device. What is your goal for users downloading the app? My goal is for users to have fun, but most importantly to inspire young developers to follow their dreams. I want to give them hope that if I can do it, they can as well. Do you plan on creating more apps in the future and, if so, what kind? Yes! I'm planning on creating more game-related apps that would be fun for car trips. All kids get bored in the car. As you can see, Yasseen’s development career has barely begun. Through his daily Suzuki routine he has not only sharpened his problem solving skills, he has also gained the patience and confidence to follow his dreams. Yasseen hopes one day to be a computer engineer in the medical field. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for him! 
 The ISA Board of Directors welcomes Angela Della Rocco. Angela serves as counsel in Ice Miller’s Litigation Practice. Parent to ISA piano student, Summer, Angela is committed to the ISA mission and looks forward to helping ISA build on strategic planning into the future. She brings a wealth of experience in organizing projects with lots of moving parts, and hopes to help increase ISA's visibility in the community
The Board of Directors is happy to report back the results of this effort, and the ways in which the many generous gifts will advance our growth and help us reach our goal to serve 400 students by 2020. As of January 15, 2019, the innovation fund raised $9,605! The Board of Directors has allocated these funds to the following priorities:
 The ISA is pleased to welcome Ruth Cutcher, Suzuki Guitar and Early Childhood teacher, to our Faculty. Ms. Ruth will begin teaching with the ISA in January 2019, and we are thrilled to add Suzuki Guitar to our programs.
Ruth Cutcher received her BA in Music with an emphasis in classical guitar from Metropolitan State College of Denver. Ms. Cutcher did graduate work at Colorado State University in Music Therapy, Music History and Women’s Studies. Ms. Cutcher is a member Suzuki Association of the Americas, The Guitar Foundation of the Americas, and the Suzuki Association of Indiana. Ms. Cutcher is currently pursuing a Master’s in Divinity from the Earlham School of Religion in Richmond, Indiana. Ms. Ruth has completed Suzuki Guitar teacher training Units 1 - 6 and Early Childhood training Stages 1 and 2.  We are excited to share with you that after much careful consideration, the Board of Directors has decided to expand the ISA studios into the lower floor of 3959 Central, giving us an additional 1,200 square feet of space. The Board and Faculty will be working hard to assess how we can best use this new space and our existing first floor space to help the ISA grow to serve even more students.
This past year, the board and staff have carefully analyzed ISA’s current and future needs, and looked extensively at many potential studio locations. While we realize that there are some aspects of our location that are not ideal (such as street parking), this is an opportunity for growth that will also allow ISA to be good fiscal stewards into the future. We will spend the next several weeks planning, and will begin using the space in January 2019. Thank you for your past and ongoing support of the ISA’s work to nurture nurture beautiful character in every child through excellence in music. |
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