Buffalo Suzuki Strings/Niagara Power Building
Photos: Buffalo Suzuki Strings Building today, courtesy of Museum Director Donna Zellner Neal
Buffalo Suzuki Strings is a music program dedicated to providing comprehensive music instrument training utilizing the Suzuki method pioneered by the late Dr. Shinichi Suzuki.
Founded in 1969 by Mary Cay Neal, Buffalo Suzuki Strings has been bringing music to children and the world for over 35 years. Today we boast a well-trained faculty that provides expert instruction in Violin, Viola, Cello and Piano. In addition, we offer very young children the opportunity to enrich and grow their musical abilities through our early Infants and Toddlers Program.
Buffalo Suzuki Strings is patterned after Dr. Suzuki’s Talent Education philosophy that any child can learn to play an instrument when the environment surrounding the child is supportive in the most positive way.
Our program of study is made up of three equal parts: the parent, teacher and student. The parent attends lessons with the student, practices daily with the student and encourages listening to music. Listening to music and attending concerts is beneficial in helping children to learn the language of music.
Private lessons are held on a weekly basis, with group classes’ occurring on every other Saturday during the regular school year. Private lesson times vary from 30 to 60 minutes depending on the level of the player. Group classes cover additional repertoire and encourage musical skill with other musicians.
Community concerts are performed throughout the year at various venues, including hospitals, community centers and public parks. Buffalo Suzuki Strings advanced touring ensemble also participates in a yearly professional performance with the Ars Nova Chamber Musicians in the Viva Vivaldi Festival each November, as well as various community and social events, and concert tours every two years.
Buffalo Suzuki Strings is dedicated to promoting Dr. Suzuki’s goal of “World Harmony Through Music.” This ideal is supported through BSS tours around the globe. We believe we can promote peace, understanding and friendship among the people of the world by spreading the universal language of music.
Through excellence in environment and musical training, BSS endeavors to guide students to a better adulthood as a result of exceptional training in childhood.
The now Buffalo Suzuki Strings Building was formerly known as the Power Building, which housed the power company and State Trust Bank. It replaced a frame building which housed Scanlon Hall on the third floor, the Seamen's Hotel on the second floor, and a saloon. The building was built for a prominent businessman and State Senator, Matthew Scanlon. The Hotel offered room and board to sailors passing through on Great Lakes vessels.
A frame building at the north end of the bridge known at the time as the "long bridge" housed Scanlon Hall on the top floor, the Seamen's Hotel, which provided room and board for Great Lakes sailors passing through on their ships, as well as a saloon. Built for Matthew Scanlon, it lasted for many years until replacel by the Power Building. The Power Building, which housed both the power company and State Trust Bank for decades, is now the Buffalo Suzuki Strings Musical Art Center. Matthew Scanlon was a New York State Senator and a prestigious businessman in North Tonawanda.
The long bridge was hit by canal barges during a March 1916 flood and rebuilt. The new bridge was named the Bascule Bridge.
"Buffalo Suzuki Strings Encouraging Growth Through Music" BY MICHELE REAVES
The Canal Concert Series is over and the boating season has ended, but the Buffalo Suzuki Strings directors are hoping to give people another reason to visit the area.
The not-for-profit organization is celebrating the grand opening of its concert hall this weekend, which will be the first of many classical concerts open to the public, said Tim Neal, development director.
The renovations in the hall have restored some of the original architecture to what once was State Trust Bank.
The mahogany stage lit with the warm glow of stage lights contrasts the white pillars with dark green marble trim from the building’s early days.
Built in 1928, the structure was designed by architect E.B. Green, who was influential in Buffalo and New York City
The two-story building was home to the Niagara Mohawk Power Co., which had a showroom for electrical appliances like stoves and refrigerators.
Electricity was the “new thing” then, said Jane Penvose, curator of the Historical Society of the Tonawandas. Appliances weren’t sold in stores. Customers could browse and pay their electrical bills at the same time.
State Trust Bank and later Marine Midland Bank which became HSBC Bank took the other first floor corridor, which is now the concert hall. Offices for local lawyers and doctors as well as other businesses were on the second floor.
As construction took place, the Niagara Mohawk Power Company told residents the building marked the company’s “faith in the future of the Tonawandas,” according to archived photographs at the Historical Society of the Tonawandas.
Seventy-five years later, the Buffalo Suzuki Strings is touting the same.
Neal, son of founder Mary Cay Neal, said the Riviera Theatre, Ghostlight Theater, Carnegie Art Center and the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum drew the organization to the area.
“We feel we can add to that mix and compliment it nicely,” Tim Neal said.
The group does three to four concerts a year as well as numerous recitals, featuring students with a wide range of skill levels as well as teachers and guests.
Neal said the building’s first-floor community room and possibly the hall will also be rented to other organizations, who need space.
Lending their space seems only fair after renting from so many other when the Buffalo Suzuki Strings organization didn’t have a home.
“There were a lot of people in 34 years who helped us out,” Neal said.
The Webster Street building was bought two years ago, using a grant from the Wutz Foundation, run by a former Buffalo Suzuki Strings teacher.
Credit: TONAWANDA NEWS - Monday, October 16, 2003
Untitled Article BY MICHELE REAVES
The Buffalo Suzuki Strings program board members planned to pack their new Webster Street concert hall Sunday evening as they marked the hall's grand opening.
They did just that.
“It’s an overwhelming success,” said Suzuki board member Judie Takacs.
Parking spaces were a precious commodity on Webster Street on Sunday afternoon as cars packed the streets for an event in the Riviera Theatre and the Buffalo Suzuki Strings Musical Arts Center.
Latecomers scanned for seats from the side aisles in the Wutz Concert Hall in the Buffalo Suzuki Strings building, 4 Webster St.
The crowd of more than 400 people will not be a rare sight in the new hall, said Tim Neal, the program’s development director. He hopes it will be one of many.
The Buffalo Suzuki Strings program, which teaches children to play musical instruments, moved into 4 Webster St. two years ago. The program currently has more than 350 students and 17 faculty members.
Almost 20 recitals and concerts are given during the year from September to May, Neal said in an earlier interview.
“We anticipate that number growing,” he said.
The Buffalo Suzuki Strings board has a five-year plan to remodel the old Marine Midland bank offices, now the concert hall, and Niagara Mohawk building.
Sunday’s dedication honored the program’s 35th anniversary bringing back former students who are now professional and earning comments from Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra Music Director JoAnn Falletta.
Credit: TONAWANDA NEWS - Monday, October 20, 2003