Erin at age 8 with Dr. Shinichi Suzuki
“Teaching music is not my main purpose. I want to make good citizens. If children hear fine music from the day of their birth and learn to play it, they develop sensitivity, discipline, and endurance. They get a beautiful heart.” |
Erin teaches the violin in the Northeast Hollywood/Rose City Park neighborhood in Portland. She has over 25 years of experience teaching the violin from beginner to advanced levels. Many of her students have played in the MYS and PYP orchestras, and her present students range in age 13-65. In addition to teaching weekly lessons, she also enjoys coaching players for orchestra auditions and chamber music performances.
Erin started the violin at age 4 with the Suzuki method, her first teacher being Rebecca Sandrock, who studied with Dr. Shinichi Suzuki. Her mother, Gwen Ying, is a Suzuki teacher who taught in the Chicago area and at the Preucil School of Music in Iowa City, so Erin grew up listening to and observing lessons when she was young. Gwen also made sure she practiced every day, sometimes to Erin’s great annoyance, but she now realizes how important that was! Erin’s teaching philosophy is to help the student enjoy learning music in an environment that contains support, patience, enthusiasm, imagination and structure. She realizes that each student learns differently, and tailors the lessons accordingly to meet the student’s needs. One of her goals is to get her students to become independent thinkers who can solve problems on their own for effective practice, but her main goal is to help the student become a good human being. As Shinichi Suzuki put it so eloquently “Teaching music is not my main purpose. I want to make good citizens. If children hear fine music from the day of their birth and learn to play it, they develop sensitivity, discipline, and endurance. They get a beautiful heart.” |