Ileana Nikitakis

Introduction: Ileana picked the violin when she was in kindergarten, and it still is her favorite. As a musician, I enjoy passing my musical knowledge on to others, the younger generation as well as adults. Every student is different, each one has a unique personality, so I try to figure out what the student likes. I believe that it is so much easier to learn if we enjoy it. There are many different facets of music: Some of my students love to just play, so they work on pieces or tunes, depending on the style. Others like to write, so part of the lesson consists of composition and music theory. That means either writing new melodies or bringing melodies the student has already composed to paper as part of learning to read. There is also the question of which style of music the student wants to learn. I adjust each lesson to the student, and try to understand what they like, what their strengths are, to weave important technique exercises and theory into the lesson. I grew up in a musical household. My father is a guitarist, thus music was always around. My sister and I always played on various musical instruments, we had a little tape recorder we used to record what we came up with. And the music never left. I started playing professionally when I was ten, then went to college for music, and now I play in bands, record for studio sessions, play solo shows, and teach.