This year’s end-of-year violin recital marked more than the end of another year of violin lessons and recitals; it was also the last recital directed by the teacher that Hyla’s been studying with for the past four years. Colleen, has been commuting to our area from Western Massachusetts for the last two years to teach two days a week and has decided she’s had enough of that (who could blame her?).

So this year’s recital was a bit different from the past three: a bit more subdued, a bit more relaxed (Colleen called it an “Open House” rather than a recital), and just a bit bittersweet for us, knowing that this might be the last time this particular group of kids would be playing together.

Even so, it was full of good music, especially a lot of fiddle tunes. Hyla played two: a Swedish tune called “Skänklåt” and and Irish one called “Old Favorite”.

For “Skänklåt”, a quartet (three students and the teacher) assembled for the first time ever and played together wonderfully, without any rehearsal.

We’ve been interviewing new teachers and there are one or two good possibilities. Hyla is sad to move on, but it makes sense for everyone. A change will be good, even though it’s hard. And we have the whole summer to prepare.