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Alumnus introduces first Suzuki organ program
20 February 2010
Lyndelle Lawrence
Public relations editorial assistant
An Avondale College alumnus has introduced Australia's first Suzuki Organ program for children.
David Clark, the former head of music at Avondale and a qualified Suzuki teacher trainer, is teaching 20 students between the ages of three and 13. They love the variety of sounds on the organ, he says. "It's like a virtual orchestra."
David holds lessons at the Avondale Memorial Seventh-day Adventist Church in Cooranbong, New South Wales. He describes the church's encouragement of young organists as "fantastic." "It has already awarded two scholarships to support the students."
Developed in Sweden more than a decade ago, the Suzuki Organ program is taught in Europe and the United States of America but not in Australia until 2008, the year David began offering the program. Another organist in Melbourne has just received accreditation and will begin teaching this year.
Stephen Aveling-Rowe, 11, who has been studying with David for the past 18 months, says he enjoys the power of the organ. "I don't have to blow my own trumpet." Stephen's performance on the world's largest mechanical action pipe organ during the Suzuki graduation concert at Sydney Opera House in November this past year is significant: he became the first organ student in Australia to not only perform during the concert, but also to graduate.
All of David's students have performed at churches, including Newcastle's Christ Church Cathedral, in the Hunter. They have also played at the Wahroonga and Stanmore Seventh-day Adventist churches in Sydney, the latter having one of the most historic and famous pipe organs in Australia.
"The organ has been used in worship for more than 2000 years," says David. "No wonder we call it the king of all instruments."
Caption: David Clark now teaches organ to 20 children, including Stephen Aveling-Rowe, the first in Australia to graduate from the Suzuki Organ program.
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