We are excited to introduce to you...
The Carle Family!
Nathan is a Physics teacher at a local H.S., Rebecca a viola and violin teacher, and their two active children have a wonderful zest for life!
We enjoyed getting to know them better during our Holiday mini-sessions!
We saw another mom with a business and a rich musical background, working hard for her family and trying to balance it all. So we asked her to share more...
The early years and the start of your love?
I
started taking viola lessons in fourth grade, when our elementary school's
orchestra program started. I'm kind of unusual since I started playing on
viola, while many players start on violin and switch to viola. Through
high school I took private lessons, played in lots of small chamber groups, the
school string orchestras and the various weekend orchestra festivals that
happened about 3 times a year. Two highlights of those years were my summer
attendance at the New York State School of Orchestral Studies, a youth program
that had us playing some of the same music that the Philadelphia Orchestra
played, while being coached by the principal players of the Philadelphia
Orchestra, and my two years being one of the few student members of the
Schenectady Symphony, in Schenectady, NY, when I learned how to work in an
adult musical setting.
When
I went to college, I immediately signed up for the symphony orchestra, private
lessons, and string quartet coaching, but my academic studies remained focused on Classics, Religious Studies and Anthropology in preparation for my
dream of being an archaeologist. After graduation from college I
continued to pursue archaeology and then museum collections care. Between
museum internships, graduate school, starting a career and then having kids, I
took about 10 years off from regularly playing viola. It wasn't until my
youngest was about 2 that I started playing again with an adult ensemble.
I was understandably rusty, but my technique returned faster than I
expected and within three months I auditioned and was accepted into the viola
section of the New Hampshire Philharmonic and began playing chamber music again
with new-found friends. I rediscovered a joy and love of music within myself
that I hadn't realized was missing. My time out playing viola brought me
great peace, which is so greatly needed for a stay at home mom with young kids.
In the years since, I have spent a lot of time playing viola with various
local NH ensembles, but my primary musical commitment is the the Nashua Chamber
Orchestra, where I am Principal Violist.
One
of my new music friends appreciated my passion of music and suggested that I
consider teaching. She encouraged me to learn more about the Suzuki
Method and after attending their introductory class I found that
she was correct. The Suzuki Method fit my take on learning and teaching
very well, and a year later I took the Book 1 Teacher Training (Which works for
both violin and viola) and began taking students. Since then I have
completed Book 2 Training and my studio has grown from my initial three
students to 13 viola and violin students. The experience has been
wonderful. I really enjoy working with the variety of people and ages and
hope to give each student the foundation needed to reach their musical goals,
whether it is to pursue music as a career or to keep music as an enjoyable
activity in their lives.
Tell
us about how you and your family came to be in New Boston?
When
we moved to New Hampshire 11 years ago we lived near Concord where my husband
taught at Concord High School. When Nathan switched to teaching physics
at Souhegan High School in Amherst, we knew that our home north of Concord was
too far away for his daily commute and began looking for a new home. We
narrowed our search down to a house in Wilton and our home in New Boston.
Our home in New Boston won out due to the location. The house
needed a lot of fixing, in fact the water heater died the afternoon that we moved
in (we knew it was on its last legs), but the location was quiet and peaceful.
Having a heron fly over the house when we were viewing it didn't hurt
either. We knew that New Boston was a nice town from all the literature,
but we had no idea how welcoming and warm the community would be, and how
stellar the NBCS is. We feel very lucky to have found this home in New
Boston and by all plans we are sticking around for the long hall, since we have
found our home.
Share
with us your families love/or not, of music?
My
husband played clarinet and piano as a kid, and still plays piano for fun.
Helen is taking violin lessons from me and is doing well. Peter
started taking piano lessons and then tried viola and neither really spoke to
him. His heart is with the brass instruments and I expect he will take up
trombone or french horn in a few years. My extended family is quite
supportive and musical. My mother is a retired school music teacher and a
violinist, my older sister started college as a music performance major on
cello until an injury led to a complete change in career, and my father-in-law
plays guitar on occasion.
What
is your most memorable teaching moment?
I
don't think I can pinpoint one specific moment, but there is a category of
moments that happens for every student at some point. There are little
things that each student has to learn: the correct hand position on the
bow; the movement that your bow arm makes; how the instrument is held under
your head; what shapes your fingers make as they are placed on the strings.
Some of these positions take some time to learn and students put a lot of
focus on consciously keeping their body in the correct position. Eventually
those positions become natural, second nature, a habit. That is a special
moment. Often the student won't realize when that has happened, but they
maintain the correct position while their attention is focused somewhere else.
When I get a chance to point that out, the joy and in some cases relief
that the student displays is really exciting, especially if they had been
challenged by that for a long time.
What
do you love about owning your own small business?
Easy-
the flexibility. I can work around the needs and schedules of my family.
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