FAQs
- What should the customer know about your pricing (e.g., discounts, fees)?
Scholarships might be available
- What is your typical process for working with a new customer?
I remember when I helped a 6 year old start the violin from scratch, and not too long after, she was able to play happy birthday to her grandparents and even on her own birthday. In that case, we started everything from scratch. In other cases, I have taught adult students, or high school students that needed help preparing for their upcoming auditions. I do my best to adapt to the student's playing and teach accordingly. I find joy in helping students achieve their goals. I always aim for high quality, but also make the process fun. If the goal is to sound professional, I make sure we spend a good amount of time working on scales, etudes, and learning the essential classical music like the Bach six Sonatas and Partitas. I like the Galamian violin playing methods, and find them very effective to teach. I do this with almost all levels of students, as it solidifies the technical skills of a performer, allowing them to express themselves musically. If a student is technically well set up, I don't necessarily want to change their technique. That way we can focus on musical ideas and work on taking the playing to the next level, without having to start from scratch. However, I do always make sure that they are not doing movements that get in their way of making a beautiful sound or playing technically challenging passages.
- What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
All my recent professional experiences have led me to the person and teacher I am today. I’ve taken pedagogy classes at UMD, where I learned how to deal with students with different ages and abilities. I also studied different methods of teaching such as “Suzuki”, and the techniques of the great pedagogue Ivan Galamian by reading his book “Principles of Violin playing and teaching.” However, I felt that my education wasn’t enough to give me the experience I needed, so I went on to expand my knowledge in teaching even further. I attended seminars such as the Juilliard Starling DeLay Symposium on violin studies where I boosted my professional teaching skills under the instruction of world class musicians. I also attended the prestigious Kneisel Hall program as a guest young artist, where I played along and coached adult students for two weeks. Most recently, I participated in an educational outreach program with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, where I played chamber music and introduced the violin to young students from different schools in the area.