What We’ll Work on in Your Cello Lessons

Technique: I love working on technique with my students! I use etudes by Rick Moody, Schroeder, Gruetzmacher, Popper, Yampolsky, and Sevcik. We will also work on scales and arpeggios as well as working together to form a better understanding of music theory.

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Repertoire: You’ll enjoy an extremely wide and varied range of solo repertoire; my specialty is in baroque music and historical performance practice, which means that we’ll work on from the beginning of the history of the cello (Gabrieli, Vitali, Ortiz, Bach) as well as romantic standard cello favorites (Popper, Saint-Saëns, Dvorak, Kummer) and other non-classical styles (fiddling, pop music, extended techniques).

How to Practice: Learning how to practice successfully when on your own is one of the most important skills that you can learn from your teacher. I think that efficient practicing is a thousand times more useful than spending hours with your cello. With over 25 years of cello practice clocked myself, I have a couple ideas of how to speed up your process. I’m also a huge proponent of mental practicing.

Performance Preparation: Getting ready to audition for your school’s advanced orchestra? About to play a solo recital in Carnegie hall? Either way, we’ll work together to learn how to prepare successfully with tricks for performance anxiety and in-the-moment mental focus, which can help remove a ton of stress.

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Music History, Theory, and Performance Practice: To be a well-rounded musician, it’s important to understand more about the music that we play then just “This is Bach… and that note is and F# and you should probably play it with your third finger.” Classical music is an art form that we can participate in; we can place the music we play in the larger context of history. Knowing about the music and why, how, and when it was written and performed will not only inform how you might play it but also how you might enjoy it.