This program gets better and better every year thanks to my great colleagues Astrid Schween and John Marshall and what our distinguished guest, Eugene Friesen, brought to it. We all have different styles and focus but we're all on the same page with our teaching goals for this institute
This year 15 high school aged cellists came from all corners of the U.S. to explore every aspect of cello playing for six days.
Features of the program included master classes on improvisation led by our distinguished guest artist, Grammy Award-winning cellist Eugene Friesen. A mock professional orchestra audition... practicing skills….Galamian scales….Sevcik and Popper studies…. connecting one's playing with self-expression….. opening the door to the possibility of being a professional musician. We wanted to overload them with information about all aspects of the cello from the technical to the musically soul satisfying side.
Highlights were the faculty concert and the cello orchestra final concert. Every single student improvised in Eugene's arrangement of 'Ponteio' by the Brazilian composer Edu Lobo! This was exciting, as most of these students had never improvised before and it opened the door to a new way of playing cello. Improvisation allows students to explore their own musical creativity and express their own musical ideas.
This year 15 high school aged cellists came from all corners of the U.S. to explore every aspect of cello playing for six days.
Features of the program included master classes on improvisation led by our distinguished guest artist, Grammy Award-winning cellist Eugene Friesen. A mock professional orchestra audition... practicing skills….Galamian scales….Sevcik and Popper studies…. connecting one's playing with self-expression….. opening the door to the possibility of being a professional musician. We wanted to overload them with information about all aspects of the cello from the technical to the musically soul satisfying side.
Highlights were the faculty concert and the cello orchestra final concert. Every single student improvised in Eugene's arrangement of 'Ponteio' by the Brazilian composer Edu Lobo! This was exciting, as most of these students had never improvised before and it opened the door to a new way of playing cello. Improvisation allows students to explore their own musical creativity and express their own musical ideas.
