Moses Lake music teacher receives European certification

by Matthew Weaver<br>Herald Staff Writer
| October 30, 2006 8:00 PM

Bertrand first in nation for Suzuki voice training

MOSES LAKE — Therese Bertrand releases a feather from between her fingertips.

Her voice follows its trajectory as it falls to the newly carpeted floor, a musical sigh tracing its movement until it softly lands upon the ground.

The exercise is one Bertrand offers in her courses for children, part of a method created by Dr. Shinichiri Suzuki.

"Part of Suzuki's foundation is doing things in the most natural way, so when we drop a feather, we use a sigh or something," Bertrand said. "A sigh is a primal sound, which is a natural sound of our voice, so working with natural sounds and building on them."

One of the criticisms of teaching young children to sing is that they will ruin their voice, she explained, so the goal is to teach them in the most natural way. Another method is to have the children sit on an exercise ball, with their mothers behind them, and sing while they bounce on the ball.

A Nobel Peace Prize nominee who died 13 years ago, Suzuki envisioned individuals from different countries who play different musical instruments would be able to gather and play together.

"He actually presented this method in hopes that it would promote world peace," Bertrand said. "Actually, that is being lived out."

Suzuki's method also has to do with how people learn to talk, Bertrand said. In the "mother tongue" method, she explained, people listen and eventually play or sing, ultimately learning to read music.

"His approach is to start them as young as possible, because when they start to speak, they're very young," she said.

A resident of Moses Lake for 10 years, Bertrand recently returned from Finland, where she spent a month training with Dr. Paivi Kukkamaki in the Suzuki method, receiving certification to teach the method on two levels for both piano and voice.

Bertrand said she is one of two people with the certification, and the first person in the nation to go to Europe to obtain training in the method.

Bertrand said her mother was a singer, so it's her first love. She majored in music in college, where her main instrument was the French horn and secondary was the piano. She is certified to teach general music in the state for students in kindergarten through grade 12, and instrumental music for grades 6 through 12. She has been teaching piano for 23 years and began offering voice lessons in January, a pilot program, most recently teaching in Othello special education.

"I always liked to sing, but I never really studied singing until just recently," she said. "I tell people I know I have a lot to learn, but it's exciting for me."

Bertrand has a class of nine 2- to 3-year-olds and six 5- and 6-year-olds, and one 12-year-old in voice, and about the same number of students in piano.

The foundation of the lessons are based on the Suzuki principle, but Bertrand said she offers other aspects. Younger students learn folk songs, listening and learning to sing, then play as time goes on.

"That's what the intent is, anyway, to teach them in a playful manner," she said.

The certification means Bertrand finished training she called quite intense, completing a total of eight examinations, including tests of recital, accompany, teaching and pedagogy. Bertrand said she did a lot of observation of Kukkamaki.

Bertrand has been involved with the Suzuki program since 1985 with piano. The voice method was accepted into the United States last year.

While exploring the possibility of teaching voice, Bertrand attended a two-week conference Kukkamaki held in Wisconsin, and ultimately followed her recommendation to obtain certification in Europe. Bertrand was in Finland Sept.15 to Oct. 15.

"I think probably my goal was to become a better singer, that's not my background, so I wanted to hone in on some of the skills and also to become a better teacher," she said.

For more information, call Bertrand at 509-989-0637.