By Lisa Deakins
You and your child have dedicated countless hours to music study. Your family has listened diligently to the recordings, hummed the pieces constantly, and prioritized practice in your household. Now, your child has reached a huge milestone by moving to the next Suzuki book. It’s time to celebrate big!
What should you do to celebrate? My violin-playing son loves to host book graduation house concerts for family and friends! There is no better motivation for the student and you, the parent, than to see your child actively sharing his music in a real-life setting. Get involved with your child and create an unforgettable day!
The Guest List and Date
First, you’ll want to find a date and invite guests. To narrow down the guest list, help your child choose a particular group of people to invite by asking the following questions: Do you have a lot of extended family in the area and would like this to be a family celebration? Would you like the event to include your Suzuki group class friends? Do you have a group of friends from another activity? Perhaps you’d like to invite a few neighbors for a small gathering. After deciding your group, coordinate a mutual date with one or two of your “must-attend” guests to ensure they can be there. We always check with one special neighbor who has been a long-time fan of our son’s music. After we know the best day she can attend, we set the date and invite others.
There are many ways to invite guests! Does your child love art? Have her make handmade invitations to mail or pass out. Is your child involved in graphic design? She can design the programs and email them. Invitations do not need to be fancy—a simple text also works well.  
Location
Host your concert in the biggest room of your house. Arrange chairs in rows so that each guest has a great view of the “stage.” Ask your child where the chairs should go and let him design the atmosphere. My son is seven and loves rearranging furniture. He spends a good deal of time putting each chair in the “perfect” spot. Young guests can sit on the floor in the front row.
If the weather is nice, have the concert in your backyard! Be sure to provide chairs or ask everyone to bring their own chairs. Keep in mind that when hosting an outdoor concert, it is more likely that small children will get up and move/walk around. Also remind everyone that this is a listening concert and they should silence their cell phones to ensure active listening.
Theme of the Concert
Ask your child to pick a theme for the concert. Even if you love tasteful, elegant decorations, be prepared for your child to choose “fire station” as the theme. Go with it and explore the options! For one of our concerts, my son chose a shark theme, complete with shark drawings attached to the walls, blue plates and napkins, a beach-themed cake, and shark gummies on the reception table. He even performed Jaws in a John Williams medley, which made everyone laugh! It was a cul-de-sac neighborhood concert, and although we only had a couple of children attend along with the majority being adults, the experience was fun for everyone.
Refreshments
After your child decides the theme of the party, she can choose the refreshments. Help her think beyond birthday party kids’ foods to include “fancy” selections, like a meat and cheese tray, sparkling apple juice in special glasses, or a custom-made vegetable tray. Can your child’s theme be incorporated into the food? Include “luau” BBQ sliders or “unicorn” rainbow fruit skewers. Use beautiful platters and have your child arrange the food on the trays. Also include a celebration cake or dessert that matches the theme of your party. After all, your child only graduates from this Suzuki book once!
Where will the refreshment table be? Consider the layout of your house and move a table near the concert area. Ensure that chairs are removed from the table to help everyone navigate the snacks. Prepare a drink station away from the refreshment table to avoid congestion. You may choose to have everyone wait until after the concert to visit the reception table, or you can invite them to have something before it starts. We encourage guests to make a plate of refreshments before the concert begins so that they can enjoy the food and drinks while listening—and always save the cake for the end!
The Concert Order and Program
What pieces should your child play for the concert? With Suzuki students knowing so many pieces in their heads, your child has a lot of choices! Now is the time to give him experience in making a program; he should not simply play each of the Suzuki book pieces in order.
Help guide him in choosing the music that is most polished, such as pieces he played on a recent studio recital/concert. Be sure there is a variety of fast, slow, and different musical periods. If your child is graduating Book Four, have him choose pieces from all of the previous books. Ask your child to think about how each piece sounds in relation to the next, and have him consider if any selections should be moved to a different place in the program. Estimate the time of each piece and try not to have your child’s performance last more than thirty minutes (or forty-five minutes for older students).
In addition to the Suzuki repertoire, you can incorporate fiddle tunes and other contemporary music into your program. In our home studio, students study fiddling using my Fiddlin’ Favorites book series in addition to the Suzuki repertoire, which gives them a variety of tunes to choose from when creating their book graduation program. My son chose a bluegrass fiddle tune called Angeline the Baker for his last concert, and my husband and I were very surprised when he performed it about twice as fast as normal! Later, he told us that he “just felt like it needed to be that fast” for the concert. It was quite a memorable moment for us parents, and my son loved that the “crowd went wild.”
Your child can also learn a new piece by ear specifically for this program, or he might already know one from a previous performance. Ask your teacher (well in advance) for ideas of short, popular crowd-pleasers, such as Somewhere Over the Rainbow, You Are My Sunshine, or Wagon Wheel (very popular here in the South!). We have also done Indiana Jones, Paw Patrol, and original compositions that my son wrote for school assignments.
How will your child present his pieces to the crowd? There are two main approaches to informing your audience of your selections. Your child could make a hand-written program or design a program on the computer that lists the selections and the composers. Have him include a fun fact about each piece as well.
Alternately, the performer could announce the pieces from the stage and tell a little about the composer or the history of the music for each one. What great public speaking practice!
Collaborative and Supporting Musicians
How should you provide supporting music for your child’s concert? There are many ways to do this! The most common approach for most families is to use the tracks that come with your Suzuki repertoire. Be considerate of pauses and fermatas in pieces, and avoid selections that are hard to match when playing along. Designate a parent to make a playlist of all the tracks and operate the music during the concert. Use a high-quality speaker for best results.
For more advanced students, hiring a collaborative pianist is optimal to ensure a quality performance. Remember, your child is only graduating from this Suzuki book once! It is worth the investment to hire a professional pianist who will help make your child sound her very best. If you don’t have a piano in your house, ask the collaborative pianist if he or she has an electric piano.
Does your child have any musical friends, neighbors, or relatives? Have your child ask them to join in for a duet! In one of my son’s graduation concerts, he had four guest musicians: our retired neighbor who plays piano, one of his babysitters who plays violin, his grandfather who plays piano, and his friend across the street who plays electric bass. Each friend came to the stage for a guest duo appearance, and they all performed again together near the end of the concert. The musical guests made the concert interesting and different!
Students may also choose to perform some selections unaccompanied. Pianists and guitarists are accustomed to this, but playing a piece as a solo string instrument can add some nice variety to the concert.
Preparing and Practicing for the Concert
In the weeks leading up to the concert, focus your review and practice on the pieces for the concert. Choose the order early so that you can practice in the sequence of the program. Stand in the place you’ll be playing for the concert, and if announcing the pieces, include this as part of your practice routine.
When using accompaniment tracks, make the playlist in advance and have the parent practice starting and stopping each piece so that there are no delays in the concert. Schedule a rehearsal with the collaborative pianist or any other guest musicians you may be including. If printing or copying programs, be sure to have the programs ready at least three days before the concert date.
Add Some Variety to the Concert!
What can your child add to his concert to make it a unique and interactive experience for all your guests? How about tell some jokes, ask trivia questions, or have a raffle drawing? The day before our last book graduation concert, my son asked if there could be a raffle drawing for the audience. We quickly searched our house and found some small prizes, then gave everyone a ticket when they arrived for the concert. Names were drawn right before the last piece on the concert, and everyone cheered when my son called out the winners. It was unexpected and fun for the audience, especially when our neighbor’s dad won a Mickey Mouse keychain!
The Graduation Award Presentation
Finally, celebrate your child’s huge accomplishment by presenting her with a special award at the end of the concert. Make a custom certificate, ribbon, or medal that she can keep as a reminder of her hard work. If your teacher has already presented something to your child, present the certificate or item again so that everyone can keep the celebration going! In our house, we also award our son with a small toy or prize, but we are careful to give it to him after guests leave, as young children may not understand why they are not getting a prize. We also present the cake and invite everyone to stay and enjoy the party!
Record the Concert to Enjoy for Many Years
We record every Suzuki book graduation concert, and my son is always eager to watch the performance as soon as guests leave. He points out all the aspects that he enjoyed and begins thinking about what he can add or change for his next graduation concert. This makes practicing easier in the weeks after the concert because he is excited about what’s to come. Upload your video to YouTube using a private link and send it to family and friends who were not able to attend. Grandparents will watch it over and over again!
Watching the concert reminds our son of his previous concerts, and he typically asks to watch other concert videos as well. This is extremely motivating for him to see his progress, and also encouraging for my husband and me as we reminisce and get excited for the future.