Copper Country Suzuki Association enters 40th year

For the past 40 years, the Copper Country Suzuki Association has been teaching students in the Keweenaw Peninsula music, and 2011 will mark the group's 40th anniversary.

The association offers lessons for both children and adults using the Suzuki method of music education, as well as providing performance opportunities to the students and giving concerts around the area.

So in celebration of its 40th year, the CCSA is preparing for several events throughout the year, including some combined with the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra, which also is celebrating its 40th anniversary.

"We will probably have two concerts, one in the spring and one in the fall, and we are thinking about having a CCSA alumni event where former CCSA students will join us for a concert," says Libby Meyer, executive director of the CCSA.

The events are still in the planning stages, but the association has plenty of other things to attend to. Over the years, the lessons offered expanded from just violin to include viola, cello and piano, and now also has two orchestras made up of students: one for younger students and the Keweenaw Youth Symphony Orchestra, which brings together more advanced CCSA students with accomplished area band students.

"Our role in the community is and has always been to provide quality affordable music instruction and performance opportunities for people in our community," Meyer says, and the association is filling that role in even more places this fall, when it will begin offering violin lessons in Calumet, in conjunction with the Calumet Arts Center.

Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Libby Meyer, Copper Country Suzuki Association