Comments

Way to go, Brandon, plus you can think on your own. When things click - they click. Great story! Laurie, Suzanne Gaye's initiative and personal intervention to teach at the elementary school level reminds me of your own initiative to teach violin at an elementary school where such instruction is not available. Who knows? In years to come, one of your students may be chosen for a master class at Juilliard. Whether this happens or not, you have enriched your students' lives immeasurably with music. What especially impresses me while reading about Brandon Garbot is his already strong profile and having the important support of his father, and two teachers, Suzanne Gaye and Clarisse Atcherson who understood that he deserves all possible assistance.
They sound like really great teachers, and that's why I think, one should never forget to mention one's first teacher, who, if they do a good job, are the ones, who present a violinist, who makes the work of the worldfamous pedagogues able to fully concentrate on interpretation and continue the work of mastering the instrument.

This with being inspired is enormously important. I will never forget, when I as a young student heard and spoke with David Oistrakh. Three times I've heard him playing and rehearsing and I'm just grateful for being born only for these moments.

So, my best wishes to Brandon!

And also a great 'Thank You' to you Laurie Niles for this site and your interesting articles.
Ariel

Yes, there should be some special recognition for that first teacher. They are the ones who placed the tiny hands into position, who trained the little ears to hear, who made up the nursery rhymes to count by, who played the funny games that nurtured and watered the little sprout that developed later into a fine violinist.

How many of you remember and cherish your first teacher? Mine was Elizabeth Moe. Even though others may not know about them, they must have a special place in Heaven.

First teachers:
Heifetz - his father
Milstein - Pyotr Stolyarsky
David Oistrakh - Pyotr Stolyarsky
Erick Friedman - Samuel Applebaum
Joshua Bell - Mimi Zweig
Sarah Chang - her father
Kyung-Wha Chung - friend of her father
Midori - her mother Setsu Goto
Leonid Kogan - Philip Yampolsky
Anne Sophie Mutter - had to flee Berlin because she was part Jewish (name?)

My first teacher was a very energetic and over-worked public school teacher in Aurora, Colorado named Linda Walker. For a time, she taught me (and lots of other kids) private lessons in her living room, until I could find another teacher. Great story! My first teacher--my father! Yeah!!! He thinks for himself - a trailblazer already...very much looking forward to hearing him in concert someday! First teacher: Jack Smrekar, in Tigard, OR public schools, right next to Beaverton, where both my parents worked. I'm sorry to hear about Beaverton's choice! Maybe I should move back and shake things up!! I am good friends with my first teacher. I was out to dinner with her (The Irish Rover!) last week when I was in town visiting! I had her as a teacher for eight years, until I went off to college. She was just great, and most importantly, more stubborn than me. I am very lucky. I remember my first teacher very well and think of him often and lovingly. His style is well described in the song "The Leader of the Band." I studied with him for several years, and he was almost like family for me. When he died, I couldn't bear to listen to music for a month, and it was a year before I could listen to solo violin music. I have his framed, autographed, photo just inside the door in my home. People often ask about the photo.

This discussion interests me from another perspective: I'm a teacher of beginning violin students. I hope that in the future, some of them will look back to me with affection and respect.

Of course, I must also mention my first teacher here.
His name was Knut Känne, a military musician in Skövde, Sweden, but who was quite an accomplished violinist. As I was 16 years old, when I began and had grown up with music, I was not only satisfied with etudes by Kayser and duets from the violinbook. After one year I came to the lesson with the Adagio from Bach's E-Major concerto, which I later played at two musicschool concerts. Today I really understand how difficult this slow movement is, but so heavenly beautiful. After two years I was completely in love with the Canzonetta from the Tchaikovsky concert and he allowed me to study and play it for the next years schoolconcerts.
But, when I came with Brahms G-Major sonata he made it clear that there is something to learn before all these great works.
His greatness was though that he so well understood that my taste was far more advanced than my capacity to play, so he supported me on the condition that I studied the real basics with the same devotion every single day. From the very beginning I tried with vibrato and I was completely carried away with slow movements and so I am up to this very day.
One thing, which he gave me very strongly, was the respect for the rhythm. One or two false notes he could accept, but never out of rhythm.
Then I was introduced to Tibor Berkovits in the Netherlands and a new period of my life started.
Ariel

P.S. From here on I'll try to be shorter.