Workshops and Classes

Violin and Viola, Intermediate and Advanced Master Classes
Friday

Friday afternoon/evening is dedicated to master classes with our innovative guest clinicians. Master classes give students the unique opportunity to not only be coached by our distinguished guest clinicians, but also to be inspired by their peers.

All master classes are one-hour in duration. Intermediate master classes (Book 2-4 for violin, Book 2-3 for viola) will have 3 students per hour, and advanced master classes (Book 5+ for violin, Book 4+ for viola) will have 2 students per hour. Students can expect to receive one-on-one coaching with a guest clinician as well as the opportunity to observe the clinician work with other students during this hour. Families will be notified in advance regarding their assigned time and should plan to attend the full hour.

LOCATION

Universalist Church of West Hartford, 433 Fern St., West Hartford, Conn.

Violin and Viola Workshop
Saturday

Saturday’s schedule consists of repertoire, technique, and enrichment classes of varying sizes and levels. Students are scheduled for three to four hours of classes (depending upon level/instrument), held from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. with a break for lunch*. A special HCD Spirit Week Play-in is also included in the day.

Schedules will not be available before the workshop. Please fill out your online registration carefully with complete information. Confirmation of receipt of registration will be sent by email.

Check-in and classes will take place at The Hartt School in the Fuller Music Center on the University of Hartford campus. Upon entering the Bloomfield Avenue campus of the University, continue until you reach Parking Lot D. Park in non-designated spot in Lot D and enter The Hartt School, which is directly across the street. Signs will be posted to help you find the registration station.

TIMES

Please arrive 30 minutes prior to your first class. Exact start time (9:00 or 10:00) will be listed in your informational email to be sent one week prior to event.

Note: All classes finish by 3:20 p.m.

The Saturday violin and viola workshop is open to all students currently studying with a Suzuki teacher. Students should be at least 4 years of age and able to play the fourth piece in Book 1 to participate in the weekend violin/viola workshop.

Cello Workshop
Sunday

All cello students in Book 2 and above will receive a master class. They are one-hour in duration. Intermediate master classes (Book 2-4) will have 3 students per hour, and advanced master classes (Book 5+) will have 2 students per hour. Students can expect to receive one-on-one coaching with a guest clinician as well as the opportunity to observe the clinician work with other students during this hour. Families will be notified in advance regarding their assigned time and should plan to attend the full hour.

Please fill out your online registration carefully with complete information. Confirmation of receipt of registration will be sent by email.

Check-in and classes will take place at The Hartt School in the Fuller Music Center on the University of Hartford campus. Upon entering the Bloomfield Avenue campus of the University, continue until you reach Parking Lot D. Park in a non-designated spot in Lot D and enter The Hartt School, which is directly across the street. Signs will be posted to help you find the registration station.

Free Time

Students may not be scheduled every hour. It is suggested that during the child’s free time observation of more advanced students occur. Feel free to observe any class as room allows. A craft room will be set up by the HCD teen volunteers,Y2C (Youth to Community). They will assist students with their crafting.

*There are no lunch facilities available on the University campus on the workshop weekend. Please bring a bag lunch and visit with friends. A space will be provided where lunch can be eaten.

LOCATION

The University of Hartford's The Hartt School, 200 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford, Conn.

David Bowlin has led a wide-ranging career as a soloist and chamber musician, garnering critical acclaim for his performances of a broad repertoire.  First prize winner of the Washington International Competition, he has performed as a soloist across the United States, Europe, and Asia. Among his dozens of premieres are violin concerti written for him by Marcos Balter, Alexandra Hermentin, and Donald Crockett, with performances at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, and at the Aspen Music Festival.

Bowlin is a member of the Oberlin Trio and the Bowlin-Cho Duo. He is also a founding member of the International Contemporary Ensemble and was formerly a member of the Naumburg award-winning Da Capo Chamber Players. Chamber music collaborations include performances as a guest with the Juilliard Quartet; with pianists Mitsuko Uchida, Richard Goode, Robert McDonald, Jonathan Biss, and Jeremy Denk; and with members of the Emerson and Brentano quartets. He has made several tours with Musicians from Marlboro and has been a guest artist with organizations including the Boston Chamber Music Society, ChamberFest Cleveland, the Banff Centre, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Ojai, SongFest, Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival, and the Four Seasons festival.  He has performed as guest concertmaster with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the IRIS Orchestra, the Marlboro Festival Orchestra, and as guest principal with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. 

Bowlin’s solo and chamber music recordings can be found on the Naxos, Bridge, New Focus, Nonesuch, Arsis, Mode, Tundra, Austrian National Radio, and Oberlin Music labels, with further recording credits including work with Chick Corea for his album The Continents and a number of tracks with Lenny Kravitz. 

Bowlin joined the Oberlin Conservatory faculty in 2007 and currently serves as Professor of Violin and Chair of String Studies. In the summer he teaches on the faculties of the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival and has been on the faculty at the Bowdoin International Music Festival, ARIA, and at the Banff Centre.  Former students have won positions with the Chicago Lyric Opera, Milwaukee Symphony, Berlin Radio Symphony, Ensemble Modern, Komishe Oper Berlin, San Diego Symphony, New World Symphony, and Orchestra NOW, among others.

Bowlin is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the Juilliard School, and Stony Brook University, where he studied with Pamela Frank, Ronald Copes, Philip Setzer, Ani Kavafian, and Roland and Almita Vamos.

 

  

Alicia Casey is an internationally sought-after Suzuki educator and concert violinist originally hailing from Australia. Alicia directs the Suzuki Program at the Upper Valley Music Center, where she has taught since 2010, and oversees a program of 120 students in cello, flute, viola, and violin. Her students have been accepted to All State and New England Music Festivals.

Alicia has been a guest clinician at the Suzuki Institute of Indonesia, the Vermont Suzuki Violin Workshop and the Green Mountain Suzuki Summer Institute. Alicia has been published in the American Suzuki Journal and has presented at national conferences. She has registered formal Suzuki training with the Suzuki Association of the Americas in Violin Books 1-10 with Allen Lieb, Jeffrey Cox, Roger Stieg, Kimberly Meier-Sims, Ed Kreitman, Mark Mutter, Teri Einfeldt, Nancy Lokken, Doris Preucil, and Mark Bjork.

Having started violin at age 3 as a Suzuki student herself, Alicia has recently become a Suzuki parent, and now has experienced all three sides of the Suzuki triangle. Alicia received her Bachelor of Music Performance and Pedagogy from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in Australia, where she was a student of Elizabeth Morgan, and her Masters in Violin Performance from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she was a student of Elizabeth Chang and was a recipient of the Lark Chamber Music Award. Alicia has performed with orchestras, quartets and as a soloist throughout the United States, Australia and Europe.

Alicia currently lives in New Hampshire with her husband Ben, daughter Elizabeth, and son Jack.

 

Sarah Cummings began studying the violin at the age of 4 in Durham NH with Louise Wear, who was among the first generation of teachers to implement the Suzuki method in the United States.  Sarah discovered her passion for teaching as a teenager when she had the unexpected opportunity to take on some private students.  She holds a Bachelor of Music degree in violin performance from Ithaca College and a Master’s degree in musicology from Northwestern University.  Her other major teachers include Marylou Speaker Churchill, Linda Case, and Blair Milton, and she did her Suzuki Teacher Training with Carrie Reuning Hummel, Sandy Reuning and Thomas Wermuth.  

Sarah has been a devoted member of the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra for nearly 20 years; she served as the librarian for 15 years and is now on the Board of Directors and is the coordinator for the orchestra’s Youth Outreach program.  Also active in the upstate New York area as a freelance musician, she has performed regularly with local organizations such as Music’s Recreation and Women’s Works and is featured on the album Fiddlespel: Dance Music of Scandinavia.  “I consider myself to be one of the luckiest people alive to get to teach music to children for a living!  I never, ever get tired of Twinkle because each child brings something unique, every day.”

 

Nancy Hair enjoys a teaching and performing career on cello which has taken her to Europe, Asia, South America and across the United States. She is currently on the faculty of the New England Conservatory Preparatory School as well as Northeastern University and maintains an active home studio. Nancy is known for her work with the youngest beginners teaching through to the graduate level which she did for the past four years teaching pedagogy at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, Connecticut. As a performer Nancy has played with many of Boston’s leading orchestras and chamber ensembles including Boston Ballet and Boston Lyric Opera and as an advocate for music education, performs with Young Audiences of Massachusetts.

Nancy’s most influential teachers include Janos Starker, Raya Garbousova, David Wells, Yehuda Hanani, and Timothy Eddy. She attended Indiana University and the Hartt College of Music as well as graduate studies in Suzuki Method at Ithaca Talent Education.

 

Susan Montzka McDonald is the Suzuki Program Coordinator at the Community Music School of Webster University (formerly St. Louis Symphony Music School and St. Louis Conservatory and School for the Arts) where she has taught for over 35 years. She is a registered Violin Teacher Trainer for the Suzuki Association of the Americas and served on the SAA Board of Directors from 2014-2017.

Susan has taught at numerous Suzuki workshops and for the American (Stevens Point WI), Chicago, Colorado, Education for Happiness, Florida, Los Angeles, Louisville, and Peaks to Plains Institutes. In 2000, she was the recipient of the Byron Hester Award for excellence in teaching and has earned the SAA Certificate of Achievement. She is also the proud mother of two Suzuki violin graduates.

Susan began her study of the violin as a Suzuki student of Kazuko Numanami in Oberlin, Ohio. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from Lawrence University Conservatory (cum laude) and her Master’s Degree in Violin Performance from Western Illinois University, where she studied violin and Suzuki pedagogy with Almita Vamos.  She continued her long-term pedagogy study with John Kendall at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. Susan has also participated in multitudes of short-term pedagogy courses, reflecting her commitment to life-long learning.

Susan currently performs with the Metropolitan Orchestra of St. Louis and is a former member of the Washington University Symphony, the Knox-Galesburg Symphony, and the Fox Valley Symphony.

 

Gabriel Remillard Appearing throughout much of the northeast and Italy, Gabriel Remillard started on the violin at age 9. After picking up the viola for the first time in middle school Gabriel immediately fell in love with the dark rich sound of the viola. Attending the Hartt School in Connecticut for his undergraduate and graduate degrees studying with Steve Larson and Rita Porfiris. Gabriel has performed with some of New England and Italy’s best ensembles such as the Hartford Symphony. Gabriel has also appeared on NPR and PBS with the likes of Matthew Morrison from “Glee” and Idina Menzel from “Wicked”.  Gabriel is an avid chamber musician and soloist obtaining numerous awards and honors for his work on and off the stage. Gabriel is a full time teacher of traditional and Suzuki lessons. Obtaining his long term training from renowned Suzuki Trainer Teri Einfeldt. Living in Maine, Gabriel enjoys adventuring as much as possible.

 

Charles Speicher currently teaches general music at Cole Manor Elementary School in the Norristown Area School District of Pennsylvania. Between 2012 and 2014 he was curriculum director to a national non-profit called Little Kids Rock where he had the opportunity to work alongside popular music icons such as Bruce Springsteen, Lady Ga-Ga, Bryan Wilson, Elvis Costello, and Carlos Santana among others in fundraising efforts for public school music programs across the country. His teaching and performing engagements have included the Newburyport Chamber Music Festival, the New England Conservatory Suzuki Workshop in Boston, the Wellington Suzuki Workshop in New Zealand, the Suzuki Institute of Alaska, the International Music Festival in Ohio, the South Carolina Suzuki Institute at Furman University, the More Than Music Festival in Kingston, Ontario, the Peaks to Plains Institute in Colorado, the Indianapolis Academy of Music Summer Festival, the Summer Jazz Workshop at Montclair State University, and the Stokes State Forest Music Festival in New Jersey. In 2006 he was a judge in the Alaska State MTNA Piano Competition and adjudicator for piano students in the cities of Anchorage and Homer. Chuck freelances regularly on piano, keyboard, and guitar, and in 2002 traveled with the "Crazy Energy Orchestra" to Morocco to perform at the wedding of King Mohammed VI. Between 1996 and 2005 he was the Suzuki Coordinator to Montclair State University where he also taught an undergraduate keyboard harmony class. In 1989 he received the New Jersey State Governors Award in Arts Education.

Violin-Viola (information to be provided in February)

Student Registration Deadline: February 27

*Registration Fee: $25 (non-refundable, waived for HCD private lesson students)

VIOLIN, VIOLA, AND CELLO MASTER CLASSES

Advanced Master Class Tuition all instruments: $100

*Please note that intermediate master classes are only available in the bundle

VIOLIN AND VIOLA WORKSHOP

Registration Fee: $25 (non-refundable, waived for HCD private lesson students)

SATURDAY WORKSHOP ONLY (BOOKS 1-4 NO FRIDAY MASTER CLASS)

Intermediate Tuition: $100

Advanced Tuitio: $100

BUNDLE: FRIDAY MASTER CLASS + SATURDAY WORKSHOP (VIOLIN, VIOLA)

Intermediate Bundle Tuition:  $185

Advanced Bundle Tuition:  $200

Hartt Teacher Development Workshop: Engaging the Advancing Student

How do we meet the needs of Suzuki violin students in Books Five through Eight and beyond? In this in-person three-hour teacher workshop, we will explore the joys and challenges of teaching pre-teen and teen violin students, including:

• What happened to my eager student? Neurological and physiological changes during adolescence
• The evolving relationships between student, parent, teacher, and the increasing importance of peers
• Ways to support independence, choice, ownership, and identity
• Supplementary repertoire and musical opportunities that inspire and motivate
• How to help self-conscious students learn and perform with confidence

Guest presenter Susan Montzka McDonald is the Suzuki Program Coordinator at the Community Music School of Webster University (formerly St. Louis Symphony Music School and St. Louis Conservatory and School for the Arts) where she has taught for over 35 years. She is a registered Violin Teacher Trainer for the Suzuki Association of the Americas and served on the SAA Board of Directors from 2014-2017.

Susan has taught at numerous Suzuki workshops and for the American (Stevens Point WI), Chicago, Colorado, Education for Happiness, Florida, Los Angeles, Louisville, and Peaks to Plains Institutes. In 2000, she was the recipient of the Byron Hester Award for excellence in teaching and has earned the SAA Certificate of Achievement. She is also the proud mother of two Suzuki violin graduates.

Susan began her study of the violin as a Suzuki student of Kazuko Numanami in Oberlin, Ohio. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from Lawrence University Conservatory (cum laude) and her Master’s Degree in Violin Performance from Western Illinois University, where she studied violin and Suzuki pedagogy with Almita Vamos.  She continued her long-term pedagogy study with John Kendall at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. Susan has also participated in multitudes of short-term pedagogy courses, reflecting her commitment to life-long learning.

Susan currently performs with the Metropolitan Orchestra of St. Louis and is a former member of the Washington University Symphony, the Knox-Galesburg Symphony, and the Fox Valley Symphony.

Tuition: $50

 

Were you in marching band in school or do you play a brass or woodwind instrument? Get together with a group of friends and strangers to play the music of The March King, John Philip Sousa! You won’t want to miss being a part of the band or seeing the performance! All are welcome to join. Please register below.

Bring your own music stand (a limited number will be available). Some chairs will be provided. Audience members are welcome to just enjoy the music!

This event is coordinated by the Greater Hartford Arts Council.

• Nobles of the Mystic Shrine
• King Cotton
• Manhattan Beach
• Irish Tune from County Derry
• El Capitan
• The Liberty Bell
• Fairest of the Fair
• The Stars and Stripes
• The Thunderer

Flute/Piccolo | Oboe | Bassoon | Clarinet | Bass Clarinet | Alto Saxophone | Tenor Saxophone | Baritone Saxophone | Trumpet/Cornet | French Horn | Trombone | Euphonium BC | Tuba | Percussion