Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, December 28, 1993 TAG: 9312300039
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
How small? Fourteen inches small.
Then again, betcha weren't thinking like a 4-year-old, who before he even begins to think about playing the simplest of tunes, has to learn how to hold that tiny violin, or cello, or piano. (The pianos are full-size.)
Still, it's the tiny hands of children not yet enrolled in kindergarten that demand attention to detail. And it's for the wide open, curious minds of those children that the Renaissance Music Academy of Virginia was formed.
David and Teresa Ehrlich, two classical musicians who have played before audiences around the world, opened the school in September for aspiring violinists, cellists and pianists. They hope to add flute, French horn and lower brass instruments next spring.
She is a pianist who has played throughout the United States, in Israel and South America, has been heard on National Public Radio and has taught individual students for 20 years. He is lead violinist with the Audubon String Quartet at Virginia Tech and has served as concertmaster for various orchestras across the country.
Now she plays the part of school director, and he has taken on the role of board member.
And the children are learning.
``Four-year-olds are unafraid,'' Teresa Ehrlich says. ``If they begin young enough, children that age are very, very curious.'' But, as they grow, ``eventually it must come from within the child to want it, or it won't last.''
``There are so many pitfalls along the way,'' says her husband, who 20 years ago won first place for chamber music in his native Israel.
On a Saturday morning, a group of young aspiring musicians is practicing in a room in the Squires Student Center on the Virginia Tech campus. The kids are standing in a line, stamping their feet. Their parents are seated in front, each one focused on his or her little girl or boy.
Sometimes parents will get up and stand behind their children, helping hold the violin in place or whispering words of encouragement.
The teacher, Jennifer Savastano, is trying to get the 4- to 6-year-olds ready to play. The children hold their instruments out in front, dutifully bring them to their chins, finally lowering their bows to the string in a slow ``helicopter landing.''
``They're so wiggly, it drives her crazy,'' Teresa Ehrlich whispers. ``She just gets the kids set in position - and then they look at their dads.''
The parent-child interaction is one of the school's benefits. Learning the instruments is done through the Suzuki method, named for Japanese violinist Shinichi Suzuki, who believed that all children are innately talented at birth. Bringing out that talent is just a matter of early guidance. The method calls on the parent to learn with the student, then at home the two can continue the education together.
Another class of 7- and 8-year-olds is trying to play ``Jingle Bells.'' Everyone's got a little concert to perform the next weekend, and they're trying to get it right. Pencils are strapped to some of the violins with rubber bands to keep the bows on line. Sometimes the sound is grating.
``The problem isn't that you didn't play together; it's just you all started at different times,'' Savastano tells them, then has them try it again. Finally, she's satisfied, the children disperse to their parents, and another group comes in.
Five-year-old Yaniv Barzilai, after diligently striving to hold his violin correctly and play the notes, packs it up. He, like most of the youngsters, has only been playing two months, but already he appreciates the music.
``Did you see that concert last Sunday?'' he asks. He practices every day, ``well, almost every day.''
Out in the hall, Daniel Ashley, 7, is playing the kid, rolling around on the ground. His tousled, dirty blond hair sticks out in all directions, mostly straight up. No bath this morning before class.
He, too, is glad to be here; it's not something his mom, Laurie, has had to force upon him.
``I'd rather be playing violin'' than swimming, the bed-headed boy says. Even though it hurts sometimes trying to hold the instrument.
Chuck Shuman's 5-year-old daughter, Sonya, a budding pianist, ``is hearing a lot of things that she doesn't realize she's learning. For Sonya, it's just fun.''
But for his 12-year-old daughter, Jeanne, it's a bit more serious. At their group lessons, the older children learn theory and train their ears to the sound of music. There is no instrument playing.
Jeanne has been studying the piano for seven years with Teresa Ehrlich. Last summer, she took fifth place in an international Stravinsky competition at the University of Illinois.
``This is not like Nintendo for her; this is something that she's serious about,'' he says of the seventh-grader. ``She practices best when she's got something she's aiming at.''
Of the school, he says the instruction is ``second to none. You can't get any better.''
Parents like the organized instruction, and the experience that goes beyond what the children could learn in regular music classes at school. Plus, the process of practicing and learning an instrument spills over into other parts of their growing-up process.
``A child learns at an early age what a goal is,'' Shuman says.
A friend watching Teresa Ehrlich give a piano lesson last December planted the idea of forming an academy, she says. In the next months she traveled to or talked to the operators of schools in Chicago, Wisconsin, California, Boston and elsewhere.
The school is nonprofit, and tuition money pays for only part of its operation, the Ehrlichs say. They hope only to break even.
``The kids are so thriving ...,'' says David Ehrlich. ``It's the best investment you can make for your child,'' not in terms of money, but in teaching them discipline, perseverance and an appreciation for music. Already 70 children have enrolled; more than 50 are on a waiting list.
For the Ehrlichs, the name ``Renaissance'' applies to a rebirth of energy and enthusiasm for music and the arts they think has filled the New River Valley in the past few years. Hence the name.
Both have been performing here more than a decade, but now it seems concerts are packed. The Audubon Quartet plays two nights of music for every concert instead of one; university faculty are performing to large audiences; Squires Student Center has a recital hall with acoustics that reward performers' efforts.
David Ehrlich says he notices more parents bringing their children to the Audubon Quartet's concerts, something ``that gives meaning to what I do.''
For whatever reason, ``there's definitely a renaissance, no question about it,'' he says.
But while renaissance means rebirth, for many of the children striving to keep their balance while they position a violin under their chins or wrap themselves around a tiny cello, or sit dwarfed on the seat of a piano, the school is their first light into a world of music.
Teresa Ehrlich says, ``Everyone can achieve.''
by CNB