Luke – Violin, Viola Teacher

General Teaching Style

My goal is to guide the student to a place where they can effectively teach themselves. The violin is extremely difficult both physically and mentally. Developing both of these elements present unique challenges for each individual student. Finding these solutions is one of the things I love about working with students at all levels.

I like to present large concepts about playing the violin that can then be applied to any type of music. I pull music from many different sources but prefer to tailor it to the student's individual interests. This tends to produce beautiful results.

Focus & Goals of the First Lesson

The first lesson is always about getting to know one other. Finding the student's musical interests and their motivations for wanting to take lessons helps inform the direction I take as a teacher. Students with no experience playing the violin, both as adults and children, can expect to learn all the parts of the violin. We'll also explore holding the violin and bow and producing sounds in various ways.

Unique Strengths

I find that my strengths lie in creating an environment where the student feels comfortable to express themselves musically. This is especially important for beginning students as it fosters an expressive base in each individual.

Additional Experience & Instruments

I'm constantly challenging myself as a performer and this certainly impacts my approach to teaching. Guiding a student down a path of learning an instrument is easier when I'm regularly faced with my own challenges on the instrument.

As a performer, I'm the Artistic Director of Inverted Space Ensemble, a Seattle-based new music collective. I also perform regularly with The Parnassus Project, the Harry Partch Ensemble and as Concertmaster of the Seattle Philharmonic Strings.

In addition to the instruments that I teach, I also have experience with Drums, Adapted Viola, Surrogate Kithara, Bass Marimba, Diamond Marimba, and Adapted Guitar.

Most Inspirational Music Moment

For the past two years, I've had the amazing experience of being able to perform on the Harry Partch instruments that are in residence at UW. One of the projects was resurrecting the early works he wrote for Adapted Viola and Intoning Voice. These performances have been magical.

Top 3 Desert Island Albums

• Eight Seasons - Gidon Kremer
• Dysnomia - Dawn of Midi
• Endtroducing..... - DJ Shadow