Nissa A
Instruments: Violin, Viola
Styles: Classical
Nissa A
Instruments: Violin, Viola
Styles:
Classical
Where I Teach:
Ages Taught: 5-80
BM, Lake Forest College, Music Education
I have loved music for as long as I can remember. At three years old I was dancing around my dad’s office as he played Stevie Ray Vaughn. At four I was begging my older brothers to teach me something on their guitars. By eight I was teaching myself “I Want It That Way” on my MIDI keyboard and by nine I finally decided to play the violin through my school orchestra program. I participated in orchestra from fourth grade until I graduated from Lake Forest College, having studied the violin intensively under Rolando Freitag and Dr. Kate Carter. Interested in both musical performance and education, I received my Music Education degree to become not only a diverse performer, but a capable educator.
Since college, I have focused on honing my skills as an educator, having taught in both public school and private lesson settings. I have worked as an orchestra teacher in both Elmhurst and St. Charles in addition to maintaining a thriving private studio, serving diverse learners aged six to 60. With a breadth of teaching experience already under my belt, I strive to personalize each lesson to the student and their individual goals, finding practical approaches to arm students with a solid foundation of musical knowledge and technique. Always looking to improve my teaching skills, I have also begun my training in the renowned Suzuki method, studying under Dr. Tanya Carey and Ed Kreitman.
I prefer to start young beginners with the Suzuki method. I feel it's the best method for not only instilling the correct posture and tone production, but also a great method for instilling a passion for the instrument. Students learn songs by rote in a lesson, and then practice at home along with a recording in order to train the ear. Once students have a good foundation, I add in I Can Read Music and use it as a supplement to continued Suzuki practice to begin developing music reading skills. For older students, I still focus on posture, note reading, and tone production fundamentals, and may pull from other literature depending on the student's goals.
I tailor the lessons to students' unique goals. No matter the age or experience, I try to have a continuous dialogue between the student and myself about their progress and what direction they'd like to head in to make sure they are engaging with material that suits their needs and goals at the same time. As long as we are working toward a common goal together, I'm happy to accommodate any particular goals a student may have, as long as we are still working toward proper technique and expressivity.
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