Violin After High School: 'What's Next?'
So, what’s next? Many high school graduates ask themselves this question, as they prepare to head to college. For the music student who is starting life as a college major in a field outside music, it’s a reasonable question to ask: What’s next, after a childhood of music lessons?
For many students, "college" has been set up as the ultimate goal for their entire lives up until this point. They studied and worked hard to get excellent grades so that they could get into a good school. Alongside their academic work, their extracurricular activities - music, sports, clubs, even humanitarian volunteer work - were all part of creating a "package" to appeal to college admissions officers, no matter how genuine their interest in the activity.
So once they’ve secured that all-important college acceptance, what comes next? And, more specifically relevant to this discussion, what happens to years of dedication to music? As a violin teacher I encounter a lot of people who see musical studies as a binary choice after high school - either pursue music as a college major, or quit so you can dedicate your time to your college studies in a different field.
But for the student with an authentic and abiding love of music, I'm happy to report that there are more options, and it's possible to keep music and violin-playing in your life after high school - and well beyond. Keep reading...
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Supporting Young Teachers: Starting an ASTA Student Chapter at Your College or University
We’ve all heard there’s a teacher shortage, and certainly that seems to be the case in the world of string education. We have heard so many jobs are begging for qualified string educators to fill those vacant positions. Obviously, we need to train and motivate music educators.
What if we have a solution for that, within our colleges and universities?
At the University of Redlands, where I’ve been Artist Teacher of Cello since 1995, we started a String Project in 2011. The National String Project Consortium helped us develop a program that gave practical experience to our undergraduates, who provided lessons for elementary school students in the area.
That helped our Music Education students gain practical working knowledge of how to teach. But how to motivate them? How to connect them with a larger community that could offer expertise, mentoring and inspiration?
I found a wonderful solution in the American String Teachers Association (ASTA), an organization where I'm a longtime member. This group, established in 1946, connects teachers with each other, with their communities and with the broader community of string teachers nation-wide, whether they wish to eventually teach in schools, universities or privately. Keep reading...
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The Week in Reviews, Op. 366: Melissa White; Christian Tetzlaff; Teng Li; Pekka Kuusisto
In an effort to promote the coverage of live violin performance, Violinist.com each week presents links to reviews of notable concerts and recitals around the world.
Melissa White performed Vivaldi’s "The Four Seasons" with the Aspen Festival Orchestra.
- The Aspen Times: "Each mini-concerto drew a distinctive picture of spring, summer, autumn and winter, and the byplay between the soloist and individual players in the orchestra emerged clearly and comfortably.... For her part, White clearly connected with the audience and did it without pandering."
Juilliard Names Ivalas Quartet as New Graduate Resident String Quartet
The Ivalas Quartet has been named Juilliard’s graduate resident string quartet, to begin in September 2022. The ensemble, founded in 2017 at the University of Michigan, includes violinists Reuben Kebede and Tiani Butts, violist Aimée McAnulty, and cellist Pedro Sánchez.
The Ivalas Quartet takes the place of the Ulysses Quartet, which recently completed its residence at Juilliard. Other Juilliard graduate string quartets in residence have included the Aeolus, Afiara, Argus, Attacca, Avalon, Biava, Calder, Cassatt, Chiara, Corigliano, Colorado, Essex, Lark, Maia, Magellan (now the Whitman String Quartet), Miro´, St. Lawrence, Shanghai, and Verona.
The Ivalas Quartet was in residence from 2019 to 2022 at the University of Colorado-Boulder, under the mentorship of the Takács Quartet. The Ivalas Quartet has expressly dedicated itself to spotlighting the works of BIPOC composers such as Jessie Montgomery, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and Eleanor Alberga. In 2021, the quartet created the first recording of Carlos Simon’s "Warmth From Other Suns" for string quartet.
BELOW: The Ivalas Quartet plays II. Flight from Warmth from Other Suns by Carlos Simon.
Keep reading...
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