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In this episode of The Classical Guitar Corner Podcast, Simon interviews Chris Mallett, who is a wonderful performer, the co-owner and co-director of California Conservatory of Music and also the co-director of the Peninsula Guitar Series in San Bruno, CA. We hope you enjoy this fantastic conversation that concludes our series of podcast episodes featuring classical guitarists who began focused on performance but ultimately found alternative paths to make their way, and to make a career, in the music world.
You can learn more about Chris at the below links:
Chris’s website: https://www.christophermallett.com/
California Conservatory of Music: https://www.thecaliforniaconservatory.com/
Peninsula Guitar Series: http://www.peninsulaguitar.com/
I am a Suzuki parent of a now-adult violinist who started Suzuki Violin at age 5. Our daughter played through high school (lessons, school orchestra, symphony music school orchestras), and continued to play in orchestras during college, graduate school, and during a post-doctoral fellowship – only stopping now due to travel demands for her job. Her teacher was very patient with a little girl who didn’t want to stand up during the entire violin lesson. As Chris described, it was slow going for a few years and then the pace skyrocketed somewhere between Book 3 and 4. We listened to the recordings so often that her younger sibling grew up singing the Suzuki repertoire. It was a great program. It is good to hear about similar successes with Suzuki Guitar.
We were in a music store today, and they had the Suzuki Guitar book 1. I couldn’t resist. I opened, and sure enough, there is a picture of Connie Sheu as a child, left foot up on the footstool, guitar in hand, LH in first position, all ready to go!
Really enjoyed the podcast. I don’t think I would have the patience to teach young children anything (and would not be very good at it) so I have a great admiration for those, like Chris, that do.
This was such an inspiring podcast!
That was amazing! I wish I could have started learning guitar at age 3!!
This interview of Chris by Simon is a real gem. I have enjoyed listening to it multiple times since 2020 and was recently re-visiting it again to think about the difference, or rather, the commonality, between adults and children in terms of the key factors for learning a musical instrument. Today I visited the Suzuki Memorial Hall in Matsumoto, Japan, which is an old Japanese house where Shinichi Suzuki lived and developed the Suzuki method. On this occasion, I wanted to write my belated thanks to one of my favourite CGC Podcast episodes.
Thank you, Aiko, for your nice and thoughtful comment, as always. That is wonderful that you were able to visit the home of Suzuki! Best wishes.
Peace,
Dave B (CGC team)