A Week at the Ithaca Suzuki Institute

Kate and I have just come back from another road-trip to Ithaca, for the Ithaca Suzuki Institute. I wrote extensively about the institute's program and touring Ithaca last year, so I won't bore you with all the details again. I will simply say that it was, again, a week of terrific instruction and inspiration for Kate. She had private, group repertory and orchestra classes, and she attended optional play-ins and concerts. The elite Preludio students performed in a fantastic all-Kreisler concert at the beginning of the week. Kate got to play in two group concerts this year, including the final play-down which (for her) started with Bach Double and ended with the Twinkle variations.

Kate had a packed schedule this time around, so we didn't have as much time for touring, but we did make it out to the Cayuga Nature Center, with nice easy hiking trails and the truly awesome 6-storey treehouse shown above.

We also escaped Ithaca College's cafeteria, where we had the unexciting but inexpensive meal plan, to eat in downtown Ithaca. We had good meals at Viva Taqueria and Moosewood Cafe, and Kate indulged in a spectacular chocolate ricotta mousse at the latter. I love walking around Ithaca Commons, with all its restaurants, bookstores and cafes. The photo above shows Kate in front of a stop on the Sagan Planetary Walk, named after the late Cornell astronomer and author, Carl Sagan, whose books I loved as a teen.

We are back home now, and Kate is getting a well-deserved break from violin practice. I am frantically trying to catch up with both housework and real work before we depart next week on our next vacation.