By Patricia Ruiloba Gitto
The 2024 Cellos Suzuki Santa Fe Eighth Festival was a successful encounter for cello students and teachers in the city of Santa Fe, Argentina, from November 21 to 24, 2024. This festival was possible thanks to the hard work of dedicated teachers, staff, parents, and students who have continued participating throughout the years from Santa Fe and many other cities and regions in Argentina. It has also grown to become a meeting point for cellists in Latin America, including teachers from Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Peru, and many more.
These festivals were created by Gabi Peirano, former cellist from Teatro Colón Orchestra in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and an active Suzuki cello teacher in Santa Fe. As she had the strong desire to unify the cello Suzuki community in her country, she hosted eight cello festivals to date in her hometown Santa Fe, about seven hours north of Buenos Aires by car. Every single one of these festivals has its own history and charm, including memorable concerts, master classes, and very special training courses from teacher trainers, including Dr. Tanya Carey and Rick Mooney.
In addition, these festivals have received immense help from Prof. Patricia Pasmanter and Prof. Andrea Espinzo, our only two Suzuki cello Teacher Trainers in Latin America. For many years, these Suzuki cello Teacher Trainers from Argentina have continued to offer training courses, in person and online, to multiple teachers in their native language, Spanish. Now that Prof. Pasmanter has recently moved to Mexico City, Mexico, and Prof. Espinzo is in Buenos Aires, Argentina, both have become pillars to continue expanding the Suzuki cello education in the northern and southern hemispheres.
After inviting Dr. Tanya Carey to Buenos Aires multiple times to train many teachers in Argentina over the years, the dream of expanding beyond the Argentinian capital was becoming a reality, while the local teachers in their respective cities were building their Suzuki cello studios. As a result, Gabi Peirano, who calls Dr. Carey her “Suzuki mother,” decided to collaborate with Prof. Patricia Pasmanter to create in 2015 the First Cellos Suzuki Festival in Santa Fe. They combined their studios and invited other teachers and their students in the region to participate in master classes, rehearsals, performances, and snack gatherings. Other teachers started to join forces for the second and third festivals, including Prof. Pato Hein, from Santa Fe, Prof. Andrea Espinzo, and later many other cello teachers from other cities and regions in Argentina.
The year 2018 brought the fourth festival which had seventy cellists in their final concert. During that same year, Gabi had also attended an important training course in Brazil with Rick Mooney, who was known for gathering many cellists and playing his ensemble music. She asked herself, “Would it be possible to have a Latin American digital ensemble book?” Thanks to her vision, she started to ask Argentinian composers and arrangers, including Agueda Garay, Quique Catena, and Fernando Diéguez, to start writing folkloric Argentinian songs to play in concert for the festivals in Santa Fe. The fifth Santa Fe Festival in 2019 was pivotal as they presented the first concert of folkloric music to their audiences. They also invited Prof. Pasmanter, who offered Cello Book One training course, and Mooney to give another training course based on his Position Pieces and Double Stop books.
Today, the digital ensemble book has become a wonderful source that will expand to other countries and their music, including an arrangement of the Mexican song Jarabe Tapatío by Matías Estigarribia. As the popularity for playing these arrangements has increased exponentially, the Cellos Suzuki Santa Fe Festivals are now presenting two concerts, one exclusively for folkloric music and another for cello Suzuki repertoire. Fortunately, I had the privilege to perform during these two concerts in the Eighth Santa Fe Festival. When playing along with almost 100 cellists on stage, I will never forget the enthusiasm of one of the students who was playing and dancing (playing his cello standing up!) the arrangement of his native melody in an ensemble.
Truthfully, I never imagined that I could witness the result of almost thirty years of Shinichi Suzuki’s vision and desire to grow in a community. By attending two enrichment courses, one given by Dr. Carey, and another on group classes by Prof. Pasmanter and Prof. Espinzo, this festival became a “before-and-after” experience for me. Gabi’s dream has become another wakeup call: it is completely possible to continue, or even start from scratch, more encounters in other countries in Latin America. She certainly didn’t do it alone. Her team of teachers and staff, including some of her former cello students, were helping her every step of the way. This team was built over many years with patience, determination, and most importantly, a shared and constant desire to serve their communities.
The secret is also to start small, by inviting teachers and their students from your closer cities and regions to participate in master classes, concerts, training courses, and more. Later in 2025, the Cellos Suzuki Festival will be held in Pergamino, Argentina. The plan, as Gabi described it, is to give other cities the time and space to host their festivals and invite more teachers from each region. For that reason, the Cellos Suzuki Santa Fe Festival will be offered biennually, the next time in 2026.
As I have been reflecting on the future of Latin America and beyond, I keep telling everyone I know that going to Argentina could be just the beginning of a transformative experience for many other teachers and students. My only desire is to continue creating more opportunities to build a Suzuki community wherever we go. Do you have the same dream? Believe that it is possible! The Eighth Cellos Suzuki Santa Fe Festival in 2024 is a vivid and unforgettable example. You can have your dreams come true, too.