Although I have an entire list of discussion topics for future blog postings...I wanted to take a minute and use some of my bragging rights today to show off a few of my students. Pictures speak 1000 words and I'm excited to share with you some of our fun experiences we've had in the past.
This is Hannah, who is currently in China! Hannah is a very talented young lady, and we had the opportunity to perform at a restaurant work Christmas party. I often perform gigs, and when I do, most of the time I have to arrive solo because the circumstances are more strict. However, this was a casual and fun event, so I wanted to take the opportunity to allow one of my students to come with me, and I knew Hannah would be the perfect student to tag along. I think it's very important to expose students to real life situations so they see how their violin playing can become of real use. She had the chance to accompany me with Christmas songs, perform for the workers, and got some free food on top of it. What a deal, huh?!
This is a lovely picture of my student, Mikki. Mikki has very much matured over the years, somewhat, in my opinion, thanks to her violin playing! When we first began working together, she was 19 (I think), and now she is an official adult at 21-years-old! I'm very proud of Mikki because most students tend to "quit life" in terms of learning new, extracurricular activities after they graduate from high school. Not only did Mikki approach me after high school, but now, she picked up the piano as well! Mikki is in college and her playing has greatly advanced. I also admire her posture. Every student has their own issues, (mine was my bow hold!), but Mikki certainly is a leading example of how to have perfect posture. She sits with a straight back, relaxed wrist, her scroll "up" (not pointed to the floor), and her feet flat on the floor. Mikki looks very relaxed when she plays which enables the sound of her instrument to have more stable control, and remember: if you "look" the part, the audience will automatically assume you "know" the part. 
This is Melissa. Unfortunately I had to let her go since she went far away to college, but Melissa was a great student and her violin journey was actually a very interesting story. For Melissa's senior project, she chose to learn how to play the violin and then perform her very own recital. It's always great to have goals in mind, but this one was tough since we only had a year and the piece she wanted to play was certainly challenging for any beginner student. However, she achieved her goal and her recital was beautiful!
This is one of my favorite pictures which took place at the Holy Trinity festival last year. I'm excited since we were asked to come back again, and this time, we are including the piano section of the school. For anyone who is interested, come see us play on the stage on August 2nd at 6 pm!
Dailyn is my little fashionista. I really should have included this on the posting regarding concert attire, because this outfit is a prime example of what I mean by an appropriate performance outfit. Her hair is beautifully slicked back so it's not in her face, her dress is elegant and shows she's serious about her performance (I also love the color choice), and on top of everything else, her posture is perfect. When you look at this picture, one can only assume her piece sounded great since she "looks" the part.
Here's me playing around with my cello! I play the cello as a secondary instrument, pretty much only for fun! Although violin is by far my main passion and focus, I love practicing my cello and hearing it's beautiful, rich, deep, sound. It's really a cool instrument and adds so much flavor in group lessons.
These are only pictures of a handful of my students, but I hope to show off some more in the future. Hope you enjoyed the little stories behind them. :)
~Regina
