Information About Chris - Maryland teacher -

(7 reviews)

Personal Description:

I am a multi-instrumentalist with 15 years experience touring extensively playing Jazz and World Music on trumpet and violin.

Although my conservatory study was primarily in Jazz, I have also dug deeply into classical and contemporary music. I have a deep understanding of harmony and can improvise freely, vocally and on my two main instruments (violin and trumpet) as well as at the piano. Amongst the many strands of my music studies, I spent seven years digging into South Indian Classical Music. This combined with Jazz, Klezmer and Gypsy Music and the many strands of Classical and Contemporary Music has left me with a broad palette from which I constantly draw in my teaching practice.

Tutoring Experience:

I have taught trumpet, violin and piano privately for the last 15years in Ireland, UK and NL. I taught group lessons in Dutch Middle Schools for three years and ran music workshops in day care centres in the Netherlands. I teach violin General Musicianship and Music History for HMDT Saturday Programme in Hackney and Brass and Violin at Frederik Bremer School in Walthamstow.

As well as teaching one to one lessons I also give workshops in South Indian Rhythmic vocabulary and it's application to western traditions; Klezmer, Gypsy and Balkan (KGB) style and tradition; Improvisation in a Jazz and Jazz Manouche setting and also modal improvisation in KGB often in conduction with South Indian Rhythmic techniques as inspiration. 

Tutoring Approach:

I am a multi-instrumentalist and a passionate and committed teacher with 15 years experience teaching violin, trumpet, and piano. I take great pride to see my students grow from nervous, self-conscious incompetence, through the stumbling experimentation and discovery, towards overcoming challenges and growing in self-belief in order to find the great rewards available in the concentrated effort of musical endeavour. My over arching ambition is to guide students towards the path of greatest fulfilment wherever they are on their music journey. If you want to propel yourself through the grade system then great. If you want to jam with your mates and play along with Led Zeppelin then also great!

Activating the voice as a musical instrument is crucial to musical development. The effect on intonation, phrasing and ensemble music making is invaluable. I regularly use my voice, both as a singer and a storyteller/actor and public speaker. I am accustomed to directing musical projects and taking rehearsals and use my expertise in Konnokol/Solkatu to transmit complex rhythmic ideas clearly, swiftly and effectively.