Colourstrings was developed by the Hungarian brothers, Geza and Csaba Szilvay, who have gained international recognition as, conductors, educators and string pedagogues. It began when Geza Szilvay moved to Finland from his native Hungary in 1971, expecting to teach conservatory-level classes. Instead he found himself facing a roomful of eager but untutored children with miniature violins. The language barrier that led to this confusion became the mother of invention, as Szilvay found ways to use picture books, story telling, colour coding, and an overall sense of play to engage youngsters in highly focused studies.

Colourstrings has now been established in Finland for over thirty years and in the rest of the world since the 1990's. Geza and Csaba Szilvay’s youth orchestra, "The Helsinki Junior Strings", an orchestra of some fifty children aged between 10-20 years old, is known as one of the best youth orchestras in the world. According to a Strad Magazine review in April 2004 of a recent CD, few chamber orchestras can dream of Helsinki Strings level of precision and lyricism.

The orchestra has made more than 70 TV programmes and their recordings are frequently broadcast. The artistic-educational series entitled "Minifiddlers in Musicland" marked a new era in music education in Finland. The series became so popular that small-size violins are said to have been sold out of the Finnish music shops. The orchestra's members are traditionally trained through Colourstrings. The emphasis is on the quality of teaching, the materials and parental support in the early stages.

The number of professional musicians who have grown up with the Kodály-based Colourstrings approach increases yearly and thousands of children are now learning musice with the Singing Rascals and Rhythm Rascals in Music Kindergartens, prior to learning an instrument through Colourstrings. There are now many teachers not only in the USA, Canada, South America, United Kingdom and Europe but also in South East Asia, Japan, China and Hong Kong.

PRESS RELEASE

http://www.fennicagehrman.fi/highlights/HL_18_Colourstrings.pdf

www.chamber-music.org/newsletters/Flying_10_1/Flying_10_1_Finland.html