Emil Chudnovsky
Violinist

I believe in teaching every student with maximum care and attention, regardless of whether the student wants to go into music professionally. I teach every student with the same level of focus and systematic approach, whether they aspire to play professionally or simply want to play well for themselves. Rather than teaching students solely how to play specific pieces, I provide a foundation in music and the art of the violin that enables students to learn any piece like an actor might recite lines in a language they already speak. My goal is to ensure that any sufficiently dedicated student could decide at any point that music as a profession is an option.

I generally accept students as young as 8, with no upper age limit. Occasionally, I have been able to establish a good, productive rapport with students younger than 8, but this is best addressed on a case-by-case basis.

Lessons are a minimum of once a week, though many of the more serious, ambitious students opt for twice-weekly lessons. Lessons are a minimum of an hour long though, in all honesty, I have to confess to frequently running overtime. The last thing I want, especially in a lesson which is producing results, is to keep my eyes glued to the clock.

Short answer? You are. I've taught beginners, competition winners, professionals, and every level in between. The only level of advancement on which I insist is making lessons enough of a priority to avoid casual cancellations. I would prefer working with a beginner who follows through with step-by-step instructions over an advanced player who tends to cancel whenever the stars don't align.

This is the most frequently asked question but, unfortunately, it is also unanswerable, because it isn't really the right question. The right question is 'how long should I practice to achieve a specific result?' The important thing is attaining some measurable improvement rather than watching a predetermined number of minutes tick by. Even for serious professionals, there is a point at which, if you're still practicing and not seeing any changes, you're not practicing correctly.

No! While decent student violins can be purchased for as little as $500, for most beginner students, it makes more sense to rent. Most stringed instrument shops offer rental options, which typically run between $35 and $50 a month. A local shop I recommend, Potter's Violins, is experienced in this realm and can provide what you may need (https://potterviolins.com/rentals/). Keep in mind that you will also want to rent a bow! For more advanced students, I am happy to provide guidance regarding higher-end violins.

I only teach classical music. However, if you have the fundamentals to play western art music - what most people call 'classical' music - you have ample fundamentals to play any other style. My first star pupil, for example, has launched a successful career as a jazz violinist, and I believe the foundations laid as a student of the classical repertoire helped prepare her to tackle that and any other musical style a violinist might choose to pursue.

If you've never had a lesson before, we'll go over how to hold the violin, how to hold the bow, how different notes are made on the violin, and how those different notes are written in sheet music. If you have had violin lessons before, your first lesson will be a kind of stock-taking, during which I will explain what I see as your progress so far, what next steps I would advise, and what repertoire I would recommend to begin attaining those next steps.

Absolutely! It is actually one of my favorite types of teaching. As a nine-time laureate myself of international competitions, I am well-versed in competition requirements and jury member expectations, and am delighted to share this knowledge with anyone following the same - or similar - path.