by Susan Griffith

Imagine wanting to play cello but lacking strings and sheet music.

During an international meeting of the Suzuki Association in Lima, Peru, in January, Natasha Zielazinski—a Case Western Reserve University graduating senior from Naperville, Ill.—witnessed children with a love for music, lacking the means to pursue their dreams.

Natasha Zielazinski

"The Peruvian children I met were so motivated and excited to learn," Zielazinski said. "Unfortunately many do not have the plentiful resources available to so many music students here in the United States."

The CWRU music major-who bubbles with enthusiasm for playing cello and teaching others how to play-challenged her 15 cello students, who range in age from 3 to 46 years old, at the Cleveland Music School Settlement to pitch a penny into a jar for every minute they played. Abigail McHugh, a graduate student in cello at the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) and Zielazinski's friend, learned about the challenge and encouraged her students to join the effort.

When all pennies for the amount of time that the bow met the strings were counted, Zielazinski had $1,500—or 15,000 minutes of practice. Goronok Music matched up to $500 of the earnings leading to a total of nearly $2,000.

"Both the students and parents were very excited. I kept receiving e-mails and calls from parents telling me how their children would volunteer to play a few more minutes," she said. "Even some 5-year-olds for whom the idea was still very abstract wanted to keep playing for a few more pennies."

While raising money for their "cello buddies" in Peru, her students found an external motivation to help them continue their daily practice. She points out that at any age, but especially for young children, it is paramount that the student practice regularly not only to help pattern muscle action and develop technical skill but also to create an environment in which music has a strong presence.

After receiving her bachelor's degree in music during CWRU's commencement May 18, she will have the opportunity to deliver the music items to Peru this summer. CWRU honored her with a Pancoast Fellowship of $3,400 for post-undergraduate study and travel. She will fly to Lima to work with the Suzuki Association there.

Zielazinski started playing cello at the age of 11. For several years, ballet competed with the instrument for her time, but that changed when she began classes with Tanya Carey, the former president of the Suzuki Method Association of America. Zielazinski then gave up her ballet slippers to devote her time and energy to playing.

Since her first year at CWRU, she has taught a group of students from the Cleveland School of the Arts, the Fairmount Center for the Fine Arts and now the Cleveland Music School Settlement. She balanced her academic work, which included a minor in Spanish, with teaching, playing and studying with cellist Richard Aaron at CIM.

She said she enjoys gathering her students for a group performance in what she calls the "cellobration," where everyone has a chance to listen to performers from CIM and then play on stage at CWRU's Harkness Chapel.

"I would love to open a music school someday," she said. "Teaching is the most wonderful thing."

 

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