Our 2023 word of the year was: GROW….And that is exactly what we did!
We’re seeing increased numbers in clients and increased interest in the community, meaning we’ve got a growing waitlist and an ever-growing need for additional team members. At the end of this year, we got to announce that we’re now HIRING for a new music therapist and we hope that early 2024, we will be doing just that!
Here are highlights from this past year:
JANUARY
We celebrated A Suite Sound’s Third Anniversary! We continued our tradition of handing out cookies, and offering a giveaway and a discount– all ways that we celebrated with our current and new clients.
FEBRUARY
This month displays a window of insight to A Suite Sound’s everyday. Our clients worked towards achieving their music therapy goals with our month’s theme, Love Bugs. Some of our piano students established and began working towards our spring festival performance goals.
Behind the scenes, Ms. Crystal attended several meetings focused on varied aspects, from business and marketing, to new client consultations, to an Admission, Review, and Dismissal (ARD) meeting for a contracted school-based music therapy client, to brainstorming and planning co-treatment opportunities with Emerald City Therapies, to learning about the hiring process from another music therapist.
MARCH
Ms. Crystal got to attend the Southwestern American Music Therapy Association (SWAMTA) Conference, which is the conference especially for all of the music therapists in our region: Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma! Ms. Crystal learned several applicable tools, from advice to working with residents who have dementia, to students in the school setting, to supervising music therapy interns.
APRIL
A Suite Sound hosted its Spring 2023 Piano Festival! It was truly a joy and honor to have Mrs. Theresa Davis, piano teacher of 30 years, president of the Waxahachie Music Teachers Association, and church pianist of 45 years, as our festival’s piano adjudicator. Our students gave fantastic performances, and we received helpful feedback from Mrs. Davis that both encouraged us and inspired growth.
Also in April, Ms. Crystal presented about A Suite Sound and its services to Waxahachie Independent School District’s (WISD) counselors. And A Suite Sound was officially added to the WISD Student’s Resource List!
A Suite Sound closed out April by participating in Imagine Nation’s Community Easter Palooza! We gave out egg shakers, jammed out to music, and shared information about how families can join A Suite Sound.
MAY
A Suite Sound hosted its 2023 Spring Recital & Awards Ceremony, In the Garden! Representative of the year’s word, we reflected on and celebrated students’ growth with awards and musical performances that reminded us of aspects of a garden.
JUNE
Ms. Crystal attended the 2023 Texas Music Teachers Association (TMTA) Convention! She learned through varied settings, such as formal presentations, a piano masterclass, and assisting in WMTA’s Student Ensemble performance day.
JULY
Mrs. Molly joined the staff as Marketing Assistant. From running our blog and social media pages, to session planning, to collaborating with Ms. Crystal for special events, Mrs. Molly has been vital to A Suite Sound’s ability to provide our clients with quality care.
Ms. Crystal attended the World Congress of Music Therapy in Vancouver, BC! This was an incredible opportunity where she got to connect with music therapists from around the world through guided– and organic discussions, making music, and learning about new and innovative music therapy ideas.
AUGUST
Ms. Crystal attended the TMTA Teacher Enrichment Conference where she listened to speaker, Dr. Margarita Denenburg, NCTM, UT at Austin, present several creative ways to engage young piano students in learning important musical concepts.
SEPTEMBER
Ms. Crystal carried out a complimentary group music therapy session for the WISD Little Chiefs Academy where students participated in music therapy interventions revolving around the theme of Johnny Appleseed.
September 2023 also marked A Suite Sound’s first year anniversary of officing out of Emerald City Therapies’ Waxahachie clinic! We are so deeply grateful to have a space that we feel supported in so that we may focus on enhancing abilities. creating harmony. with our clients.
OCTOBER
Some of A Suite Sound’s students joined Waxahachie Music Teacher’s Association (WMTA)/Texas Music Teacher’s Association (TMTA). And a few of these students participated in their first WMTA Costume Recital!
NOVEMBER
A Suite Sound’s students participated in our first Music Theory Tutoring Party in preparation for participating in the Texas Music Teacher’s Association Music Theory Exam. We are proud to say that each participating student passed with flying colors!
Highly noteworthy, A Suite Sound began the hiring process to add a new music therapist to the staff!
DECEMBER
A Suite Sound hosted our 2023 Annual Christmas Recital, “Winter Wonderland”! Staying true to the year’s word, “grow,” all the way through December, we had so many participating students that we outgrew our former recital hall and therefore, held the recital in a larger venue.
From new clients joining A Suite Sound, to Ms. Crystal attending several conferences, to growing our team, to our students joining music associations and trying out new events, we are so thankful for the many ways in which A Suite Sound has grown this past year, and we look forward to all of the incredible things we hope 2024 has to offer!
Tune into our Instagram and Facebook accounts to see photos from our amazing year!
Written by Crystal D. Lile, MT-BC & Molly Harrell, MT-BC
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