If you're looking for a way to bring your studio together and create a sense of family, try ensembles. Solo recitals can make students quake in their boots, but there is security and comradeship in numbers. (If the kids get nervous, call it a party instead of a recital.)

Students get to know each other better just by having to schedule rehearsals and practice, and as we all know, ensembles teach musicianship and are tons of fun. 

Having only ensembles play also allows your entire studio to perform in one recital without it being 4 hours long!

Try these fun ideas:

• New kids recital: A venue for the students and families who just started in your studio to get to know each other by sharing fun facts about themselves before they perform.  

• Halloween recital: How can you not have fun when you're wearing a costume?

• Tell me a story recital: Students share stories they create about their pieces. It's amazing how much more dramatic the playing becomes and how much more fun the listening is. 

• Recital from hell: A studio favorite, also called the "Distraction Recital." Do everything you can to break your students' concentration including talking, banging the door and ordering pizza with anchovies!

Good news, flute fans. You have prehistoric company -- flutes go back at least 42,000 years, longer ago than previously reported, conclude archaeologists looking at the likely era of the first modern human occupation of Europe.

And we thought we knew what the oldest profession is -- it's being a flutist!