By billalpert | violin , voice
Bill and Melanie are on the road to national parks in Canada. We’ll share some photos in an online gallery.
Violin lessons will resume on August 12. Voice Lessons resume on August 25. We wish you all a great summer!
–Bill and Melanie
By billalpert | Reviews , Student News
Full company sings “Be Our Guest” from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Musical direction by Melanie Alpert
Cesar Quintero as Lumiere with Can Can dancers.
Studio alum Taylor Pearson as Darque in Maison des Lune
Congratulations to all studio students who participated in the Broadway Experience/Los Osos High School production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. What a rousing success! This production broke all attendance records and raised the bar for community based musical theater in Southern California.
By billalpert | violin
The irrepressible Mimi Zweig leads a master class at the String Academy of Wisconsin on the Campus of University of Wisconsin, in Milwaukee.
When accomplished 15 year old violinist Brian Zhang signed up to play for Mimi Zweig, he was probably thinking of Mozart, Bach or Barber. Little did he know he’d soon be taking a 90 minute journey through the A major scale! Ms. Zweig, noted violinist, pedagogue, educator and mentor to many world class musicians (including violin/celeb Joshua Bell) has a way of turning complex problems into simple solutions.
“There’s a Zen to playing scales,” says Zweig, “that can calm even a teenage student who just had a fight with her mother.” Within the scale routine, and its dozens of variant bowings and rhythms, can be found the technical basis for almost any element of violin playing. And today for Brian, the simple act of remembering to play an open D string instead of using his 4th finger, provided a challenge almost as great as the Sarasate showpiece he performed just hours earlier.
Be it playing first base for the Yankees or playing Brahms, the greatest performers and athletes always focus on the fundamentals. The slight over tilting of a head, a bit of tightness in the shoulder joint, a posture that looks a little closed at times: these are among the dozens of subtle elements that never escape Zweig’s eye. She seems to have a certain ESP that brings the most relevant issue into focus within just a few notes of a scale. It’s a pleasure and inspiration for teachers everywhere to see her in action.
So remember, students: If you’d like to get to Carnegie Hall, or even if you just need to polish up your next Suzuki recital, the fastest way might just be playing your scales!
For more information about Mimi Zweig and her work, visit the string pedagogy website.
By billalpert | Events , violin
Master Teacher Darcy Drexler explains the finer points of violin vibrato to seven year old Academy student Margaret Knox.
Every summer, string teachers from across the country make a pilgrimage to Milwaukee. This week, I’m here with a dozen other teachers to observe what is arguably one of the finest models of string education in the world. For teachers, it’s a four day intense program of immersion simply entitled Teaching the Violin to Children.
The String Academy of Wisconsin, founded in 1990 by well known pedagogue Mimi Zweig, is hosted at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. The event draws its inspiration from the teaching philosophies of Shinichi Suzuki and Paul Rolland. These two violin luminaries were certainly some of the most influential violin educators of the 20th century. Currently Executive Director Darcy Drexler, along with Zweig form the core faculty of the Workshop. For violin teachers, it’s a rare opportunity to draw upon years of experience distilled by some of the most effective violin teachers in the world.
For me, a trip like this is great fun. Every day is non-stop violin: lecture, demonstration and recitals. It’s inspiring and motivating, exhausting and at the same time exhilarating. For my students: it means.. well they’ll be finding out soon enough 😉
By billalpert | The Kitchen Sink , violin , voice
I ran across the following old poem, and thought I’d share:
’twas battered and scarred and the auctioneer
Thought it scarcely worth his while
To waste much time on the old violin,
But he held it up with a smile:
“What am bidden, good folks?” he cried,
“Who’ll start the bidding for me?”
“A dollar! A dollar!” then “Two! Only two?”
“Two dollars, and who’ll make it three?”
“Three dollars once, three dollars twice . . .
And going for three . . . ” but no.
From the room, far back, a gray-haired man
Came forward and picked up the bow.
Then, wiping the dust from the the old violin,
And tightening the loosened strings,
He played a melody pure and sweet,
As a carolling angel sings.
The music ceased, and the auctioneer
With a voice that was quiet and low
Said, “What am I bid for the old violin?”
And he held it up with the bow.
“A thousand dollars! And who’ll make it two?
“Two thousand! Who’ll make it three?
“Three going once? Three going twice?
“And going . . . and gone!” said he.
The people cheered but some of them cried,
“We do not understand!
What changed its worth?” — Swift came the reply,
“The touch of the Master’s Hand.”
And many a man with life out of tune
And battered and scarred with sin
Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd
Much like the old violin.
A “mess ‘o pottage”
A glass of wine
A game and he travels on.
He’s “going” once
And “going” twice
And “going” . . . and almost “gone”
Then along comes the Master, and the foolish crowd
Never can quite understand
The worth of a soul or the change that’s wrought
By the touch of the Master’s Hand.
By Myra Ross Welch (1926)
By billalpert | violin , voice
VIOLIN STUDENTS:
There will be NO lessons the week of July 6-12. I’ll be attending a special session for for violin teachers at the String Academy of Wisconsin.
Yes, I will be teaching from July 13-19.
However, I’ll be taking an extended vacation in late July. Hence there will be no lessons between July 20-August 8. Lessons will resume as normal on August 11.
VOICE STUDENTS:
Due to our vacation and Beauty and the Beast production schedule there will be no lessons between July 21-August 21. Lessons will resume as normal on Monday, August 25.
Please make a note of these dates.
Thank You,
Bill and Melanie Alpert