I often get this question. I’m not sure, the right hand, the bow hand is hard because it is mostly responsible for the tone, and tone production requires so much awareness of the muscles and how they can be manipulated to create sound with incredible flexibility, precision, speed and accuracy. The left hand has also
Category: Teaching
Some days I feel like time management is the hardest part of a lesson. When a scale or etude repertoire is on an edge for a student, there are really too many options as to what to teach or focus on. Intonation, bow speed, shifting? Lessons with Dorothy Delay famously didn’t start or end
Come August I will be a job lighter. I will be leaving my full-time day job to pursue music. After 18 years at UBM (www.ubm.com) working on web analytics, I’ve decided to change careers and follow my passion for music. I will be leaving UBM on August 1 to pursue a career as a violinist and music teacher.
I’m so proud of my students today. They played their hearts out and we listened with sheer joy! I am so grateful for my students for working so hard to prepare for this recital and for teaching me so much about music and community over the past year. My students are the light in my
Young musicians ages 7-18 are invited to join with other serious musicians to explore the world of chamber music. Camp Adagio will be held at the Middlebury Community Music Center from August 18-22. Teaching Staff will include pianist Sadie Brightman, composer Jorge Martin, jazz guitarist and composer Justin Perdue, and violinist Emily Sunderman. Mixed-instrument and mixed-aged groups of
As a teenager, there were weeks when practice time was minimal due to swim team practice and meets, time required to nurture friendships, boy crises, papers to procrastinate and write, and orchestra rehearsals. I would often arrive at lessons with pretty much the same Mendelssohn concerto as the prior week. My teacher, Nickoli Sikorsky would ask, so how was
The spring semester of violin lessons will culminate with our recital on June 1 at 4pm here in Cornwall, which is now just three weeks away. So, it is time to begin thinking about summer! Summer lessons might be a little more casual. We aren’t necessarily working towards a performance or perfecting an audition piece.
Inspired by this month’s Strad Magazine article on the Emile Jaques-Dalcroze method and seeing a similar trampoline in the kitchen of a Jessie Donovan, a fellow Cornwall, Vermont resident and famous triathlete, I’ve added a small low trampoline to the teaching studio. Jessie uses her trampoline to get in a quick workout, but also finds it
Violinist Viktoria Grigoreva conducted a master class for violin students from the college and community with the assistance of pianist Cynthia Huard on Monday, May 12, 2014. Professor Grigoreva teaches at the Royal College of Music in London and is much in demand worldwide as a teacher and performer. Middlebury College offered the opportunity to
More than fifty years ago, Japanese violinist Shinichi Suzuki realized the implications of the fact that children the world over learn to speak their native language with ease. He began to apply the basic principles of language acquisition to the learning of music, and called his method the mother-tongue approach. The ideas of parent responsibility,
Emily Sunderman 