Teaching is a true and authentic form of performance. Being in front of a student or group of students tasked with the responsibility of communicating ideas with clarity and enthusiasm is directly parallel to a performer on stage with the goal of thoughtfully illustrating a musical narrative to an audience. Both take practice, experience, skill, confidence, and large amounts of understanding. Teachers inspire students just as equally as performers inspire teachers, and the cycle of music continues beautifully.
My goal as a cello teacher is to inspire a student to understand and buy-in to the essential relationship between a love of music and a love of good practice. Not only is it essential to teach the necessary cellistic techniques and illustrate concepts of musical gesture, but also to provide a student with the tools and strategies to implement them efficiently, consistently and healthily. For a student to rise to their full potential and express genuine musical ideas they must find joy in the process that brings them to that point.
To study music in a serious way, one must pursue an excellence of process. There are too many components of the art form for the musician to be scattered in their approach. The study of music is a richly comprehensive form of education, and each area of learning must be developed. From listening skills, to counting, to vibrato, to body awareness, to history, to language, to emotional intelligence, to communication, to reading comprehension, to breath control, the list goes on and on. Therefore, to teach cello successfully, I must lead students through a long term map towards their goals of improving each of these artistic areas. This plan is then executed with technical and artistic driven exercises as well as repertoire that progressively suits the level of the student.
Specifically regarding technique practices, I use a wide range of exercise books and materials including those by Feuillard, Pais, Starker, Dounis, Contreras, Aaron, Jensen, Mifune, my own books, and various others. These works help to structure my student’s practice, and also to provide wonderful spaces to integrate more profound ideas into their playing.
In terms of repertoire, the student’s level truly determines the pieces chosen and the pacing. However, over the course of time, my students must learn richly diverse music from different time periods, and from composers of all sorts of different backgrounds. To be an informed cellist, one must study baroque to modern, and must prioritize understanding the historical significance of the composer and his/her music.