I have over 25 years of experience and a proven track-record as a stringed-instrument teacher.
In recent and past years, students taking violin lessons or viola lessons have won top prizes from the Florida Federation of Music Clubs, the National Federation of Music Clubs, the Florida State Music Teachers Association, the Gainesville Music Teachers Association, and the Florida Music Educators Association. Students have attended national and international music festivals including the Zephyr Music Festival, Charles Castleman’s Quartet Program, the Curtis Institute’s SummerFest, Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute, and Interlochen Arts Academy’s summer Quartet Program.
I have experience instructing all ages and ability levels. I takes as much care developing a beginner’s technique as I do an advanced student’s, and I enjoy working with children, teenagers, and adults.
Current rate: $80/hr - Contact for a free trial lesson
by text or email (352) 514-1072 - STFine@gmail.com
I was brought up in one of the oldest, most successful Suzuki programs in the country, the Gainesville Suzuki Players, run by Sonnhild Frey Kitts. Mrs. Kitts, who trained as both a violinist and a pianist at what was then called the Folkwangschule für Musik, Tanz und Sprechen in Essen, Germany, emigrated to the U.S. in the 1950s, and spent the first part of her career working as a section player in the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and then the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra. She was inspired by Dr. Shin’ichi Suzuki’s democratic conviction that all children could thrive musically given the proper environment, and so, she was an early adopter of the Suzuki Method (it probably didn’t hurt that the method draws mostly from German musical sources).
Parents interested in lessons for their young children should be ready to learn the rudiments of string playing themselves, and should be ready to attend lessons and supervise home practice for the first few years. At the heart of my work is a very traditional belief in method and practice. Having a good teacher is well and good, but there is no substitute for discipline at home. Music is, thankfully, joyful work, and the payoff for young children is huge. Music is lifelong.
Often-Used Texts
Progressive Methods:
1. Suzuki Method
2. O’Connor Method
3. Sassmannhaus Tradition
Books of Etudes:
For beginners, in their second or third year of study, Wohlfahrt - 60 Studies, op. 45
After Wohlfahrt, the intermediate player studies Kayser - 36 Studies, op. 20
Finally, at the heart of the advanced student’s etude study, Kreutzer - 42 Studies
Technical Control:
Whistler - Introducing the Positions
Schradieck - School of Violin Technics
Trott - Melodious Double-Stops
Vamos - Exercises in Various Combinations of Double-Stops
Dounis - The Artist’s Technique of Violin Playing