An Interview with Maria De Alba

On this week’s episode we are speaking with cellist, parent and music educator Maria De Alba. Maria De Alba is a professional and experienced Cellist. She graduated from Shenandoah University, Virginia USA. 

Director of the International Suzuki Monterrey Festival for 7 years and Festival Bach to Cello for 2 years,  She is a Cello Suzuki Teacher trained by the Suzuki Association of Americas, positive parenting coach, happy wife, happy mother of two children: Anna and Mateusz (Cellist and Percussionist) both educated with the method of mother tongue and free learning (Unschool). Maria is a lover of nature, the smell of coffee and spending time with her kids. She currently lives in Europe, Poland where she directs the Suzuki Cello Studio with students from Poland, Mexico and the USA.

My top Takeaways:

1. Daily practice becomes a habit, that habit becomes ability, and then that ability turns into a passion for playing. I loved that!
2. Look below the surface for what is really going on that is getting in the way of practice or motivation.
3. Think outside the box, see what your child would like to do to “play” their instrument vs simply practice just like Maria and her family did downtown when their kids were young. This is often where students find motivation.

Highlights Include

“The cello has given me like I lot of beautiful moments. And that’s why I think I had many good memories. And I think this is like the thing that we want, my husband and myself for our kids too. . . . . Music opens doors, (to) the whole world.”

“In our house, there’s no way that you can skip one day without practice and practice, it doesn’t mean they or we need to sit with the instrument.

We have different ways of seeing practice. Practice can mean also to read the score while you are looking at it in the repertory. Or also going to one concert, but going to the concert, it’s not like we just go and see it. We always talk about the composer, about who was having the melody, which instrument was playing the melody, or how the conductor was giving their instructions.

I mean, we always loved all the details when we attend to the concerts. Also it is about singing the melodies or some rhythms.

I would play cards. I have even games related to music. So this is something that we’ve always done since they were very small and I think they practice . . .  It’s also an ability.”

“The practice is an ability that will need to continue developing everyday and then it becomes a habit. And then this habit becomes a passion. And when there is a passion, there’s nothing that we can do  . . . because right now my kids, they just love to practice. I mean, they don’t see playing the instrument like practice anymore. Because now they have this passion, huge passion for playing their own instrument.”

“That’s why I always suggest parents. One of the things in my studio is dialogue. So whenever you have something to tell me, or if you want to ask me something, something that’s going on in your family, or the practice with the child. Come to me, call me, write to me, and we can always find a solution.”

To listen to the full episode you can listen through your favorite podcast platform, or through the podcast player below:

Links from this Episode:

Find Maria De Alba on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0HeiA5q5-O1wNc5EEOdcdg

Find Maria De Alba on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/suzuki_cello_studio_/

Find Maria De Alba on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/suzukicellostudio

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