A little girl with perky brown pigtails and chipped pink
fingernail polish, barely 5 years old, stood at attention in the
Antonio Del Buono Elementary School library, poised to play
”
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
”
on her tot-sized violin.
Gilroy
A little girl with perky brown pigtails and chipped pink fingernail polish, barely 5 years old, stood at attention in the Antonio Del Buono Elementary School library, poised to play “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” on her tot-sized violin. When she drew her bow across the foot-long strings, the notes, though simple, resonated through the library loud and clear.
In a few years, she’ll be playing Mozart concertos, said Lori Franke, director of the South Valley Suzuki String Academy and violin teacher at Antonio Del Buono.
Recently named 2008 Educator of the Year by the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce, Franke, 60, has been teaching violin using the Suzuki method – a philosophy that strives to create beautiful music and mastery through a nurturing atmosphere – for more than three decades.
Franke began playing the violin at 8 in Newport Beach public schools and never stopped, she said.
“Sometimes I think I’m boring, because violin is all I ever talk about,” she said with a smile.
But over the years, the instrument became so ingrained in her life, it isn’t just what she does, it’s who she is.
As a child, Franke struggled with dyslexia and found comfort with a violin propped under her chin and bow in her hand.
“Learning did not come easily,” she said, her voice thick with emotion. “If I didn’t have violin, I would have failed.”
Drawn to the smallest member of the family of string instruments for its beautiful sound, Franke earned a dual degree in music and elementary education from Brigham Young University and played in every orchestra she could, she said. But her love for teaching always brought her back to the classroom.
“My strength is in teaching,” she said. “I’ll teach until I fall down.”
Antonio Del Buono Principal Velia Codiga, whose 6-year-old son is studying violin under Franke, said the violin program at her school provides students with another area in which they can excel. Though Franke has been teaching in Gilroy for decades, Codiga was proud to add her as a credentialed teacher this school year.
“She has a way of working with the students on the level that they’re at,” Codiga said. “She has a plan for each of them.”
Over the years, Franke and her pupils have toured the globe and were invited last year to play at the prestigious Kodaly Institute in Hungary. Franke sees music as a way to spread peace and makes a point to have her students play “Let There Be Peace On Earth” at the end of their “friendship tours,” she said.
“She runs such a dynamic program,” said Rochelle Beerli, whose 11-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter stood with two dozen other students of varying ages, warming up at the beginning of their Friday afternoon practice. “My kids have done music before but never with this amount of engagement. They’re excited, motivated. She’s a very talented teacher.”
But the talent, Franke said, is in her students.
“Every child is gifted,” she said as strains of a Bach sonata emanated from the library. “But it’s frustrating when a student is good and refuses to practice enough.”
Violinists need to polish their skills every day, Franke said.
“I tell them they don’t have to practice on the days they don’t eat,” she said.
Though getting some students to practice is like pulling teeth, Franke plays about 12 hours a day, between teaching, performing and practicing on her own. Her hope is to see strings in every school, at every age group. As part of the Suzuki method, Franke starts working with students as young as 3 years old. But when students get to junior high and high school, “they start dropping off,” Franke said, a trend she hopes to curb one day. Yet, it will be difficult with so few schools participating in a violin program. As with any language, music is easier to learn the younger you start, she said.
When Franke stepped back into the library, a row of students who had been sitting quietly with their bows and violins placed neatly before them lined up for her to tune their instruments, some of them barely as high as the waistband of her flowing floral skirt.
Franke “is a role model for our community,” said Susan Valenta, president and chief executive officer of the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce. “The training and discipline really helps form those young people and she takes it to the next level of exposing them to cultural changes. She has gone over and beyond.”
