About
​
In a nutshell:
I’ve played the violin my whole life. From fourth through twelfth grade I played in orchestras and took private lessons. After graduating from high school I joined a live band. We wrote original music, performed locally, recorded an album, and went on tour - it was awesome. I haven’t stopped working with live bands and exploring alternative playing styles since.
​
In 2018 I graduated from UW-Superior with a Bachelor of Arts in Music. Earning my music degree helped me grow as a musician, of course, but I also learned how to teach the violin to others. I started my own private lesson studio in 2016 and enjoy bringing both my formal classical training and my fiddling experience to my teaching.
​
In detail (background, experience, and credentials):
I started playing the violin when I was nine years old, just before starting the 4th grade. In addition to participating in school orchestra every year from 4th - 12th grade, I played in my school’s auditioned chamber orchestra and in the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies (GTCYS).
Soon after picking up the violin, my folks enrolled me in private lessons with Andrew Hovland through the Hovland Conservatory in the Twin Cities, MN. After advancing through the beginner repertoire, Dzintars Josts took over as my teacher. It was around this time that I began tutoring beginner students and assisting with group lessons through the Hovland Conservatory. I continued taking lessons and tutoring beginners until graduating from High School.
​
After high school, I moved to Minneapolis to attend The University of Minnesota, where I earned a Bachelor's Degree in Cultural Studies. During this time I did a lot of performing with the band A Night in the Box (please visit my performance page to learn more about my performance background). I also taught private lessons to a few beginner students in their homes.
​
After relocating to Duluth, MN, I decided to go back to school and study classical violin at the University of Wisconsin-Superior under the mentorship of Erin Aldridge. I completed my Bachelor's degree in Music with a minor in Business in the Spring of 2018. Midway through my studies, in 2016, I started teaching individual private lessons at the UW-Superior Conservatory and at Hamlin Music Academy in West Duluth. In 2018 I formalized my studio and moved to my own space. During the pandemic I continued teaching lessons virtually over Zoom. Today, I teach between 20-25 private violin students each week out of my home studio, plus small group classes in the Summer.
​
The University of Wisconsin - Superior awarded me a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) grant in 2017 to study violin pedagogy, which enabled me to spend the entire summer studying and implementing various methods of teaching the violin.
Part of this research included attending the Retreat for Violin and Viola Teachers, a 10-day workshop held at the the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. Led by renowned violin pedagogue Mimi Zweig, the "retreat" featured over 60 hours of instruction. In addition to the course Teaching the Violin to Children, I attended lectures, masterclasses, lessons, and spent many hours observing some of the best teachers in the country. My teaching and playing methods were profoundly impacted by this summer of study!
​