Like many other professionals with his profile, Emil often spends part of his summers performing and teaching at music festivals. He often conducts lessons online when he's away at festivals, or even when he's on out-of-town family vacations.

I agree that summer's not an ideal time to start with any teacher who's not in town the whole time, but we're verging on the start of August, and most festivals will be over by the first week, so most teachers should be back home full-time shortly.

In my personal experience, Emil does indeed have an annoying tendency to reply to Facebook Messenger or to texts when he's teaching (but this also means that he'll answer questions from students outside of lessons). However, he will still issue playing corrections that make it clear that even while somewhat distracted, he's clearly caught everything that the student has done.

And I agree with PP 11:13... Don't ever think he's not listening even if he's out of the room, he will nail a student on the way they've been working on something while "alone".

In any event, if you're referring to the Elizabeth Lee per PP's link, she looks well-qualified on paper, but I don't know anything about her.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do not learn from Emil chudnovsky. He has a horrible attitude towards you, he will spend his time scrolling through Facebook.

LOL! Emil takes some getting used to. My daughter spent her first few months with him crying after her lessons because he doesn't mince any words and is exacting, something most kids are not used to. And it gets worse if you don't follow his instructions; he will say things like 'I don't understand why you're wasting both of our times when it is clear that you have done no work towards fixing the issues identified last time'. IME, if you're a serious student and willing to put in the work, you reap huge rewards. After the initial shock of being told exactly what she's doing wrong with absolutely no filters, and often repeatedly, my DD has not only improved her violin skills, but has also come to see him as a trusted adult, someone she can talk to when she's upset, someone she can seek advice from. He NEVER takes offense when she questions/challenges him (which is frequent), is happy to rationally explain his choices, and is always generous with his time. For instance, if she has trouble with certain parts she's learning, she can send him videos and say 'Here is what I'm having trouble with. These are the things I have tried to fix it, but it's not working. What else can I try?' and he will give her detailed responses, usually by text, but will also call and give a quick explanation, outside of her lesson hours.




He's not scrolling facebook, but will answer texts and such in the lesson sometimes when the student is playing. I have paid close attention to when he does, and he still doesn't miss a thing (same as when he's upstairs getting his coffee, and the student thinks they can faff around). I do agree that it's bad form.

Thank you this feedback.

Any experience with Elizabeth Lee from MCYO list?

Any other recommendations of violin teacher to get my rising 9th grader ready for PVYO and MCYO ?

Thank you.

Emil’s kids tend to do well in seating auditions, but he’s not around during the summer anyway, so it would not be a good time to start with him.

Is this the Elizabeth Lee you’re asking about?
https://www.musikalessons.com/teachers/elizabeth-3b199f42a9909061516b6ce6d334af6d

No personal experience but she sounds like she would be good for a beginner and probably not anyone beyond late intermediate. Wouldn’t hurt to have trial lessons though.

Anonymous wrote:Musical training is undervalued in this region, while athletic training is overvalued in this area.

Yes, this seems to be very true in the DMV area. I find it mind boggling that many parents hire non piano majors as tutors, who can’t even play one medium difficulty classical piece, just because they are good looking or nice and organise student concerts at popular venues such as the Strathmore Mansion.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do not learn from Emil chudnovsky. He has a horrible attitude towards you, he will spend his time scrolling through Facebook.

LOL! Emil takes some getting used to. My daughter spent her first few months with him crying after her lessons because he doesn't mince any words and is exacting, something most kids are not used to. And it gets worse if you don't follow his instructions; he will say things like 'I don't understand why you're wasting both of our times when it is clear that you have done no work towards fixing the issues identified last time'. IME, if you're a serious student and willing to put in the work, you reap huge rewards. After the initial shock of being told exactly what she's doing wrong with absolutely no filters, and often repeatedly, my DD has not only improved her violin skills, but has also come to see him as a trusted adult, someone she can talk to when she's upset, someone she can seek advice from. He NEVER takes offense when she questions/challenges him (which is frequent), is happy to rationally explain his choices, and is always generous with his time. For instance, if she has trouble with certain parts she's learning, she can send him videos and say 'Here is what I'm having trouble with. These are the things I have tried to fix it, but it's not working. What else can I try?' and he will give her detailed responses, usually by text, but will also call and give a quick explanation, outside of her lesson hours.




He's not scrolling facebook, but will answer texts and such in the lesson sometimes when the student is playing. I have paid close attention to when he does, and he still doesn't miss a thing (same as when he's upstairs getting his coffee, and the student thinks they can faff around). I do agree that it's bad form.

Thank you this feedback.

Any experience with Elizabeth Lee from MCYO list?

Any other recommendations of violin teacher to get my rising 9th grader ready for PVYO and MCYO ?

Thank you.

Anonymous wrote:Do not learn from Emil chudnovsky. He has a horrible attitude towards you, he will spend his time scrolling through Facebook.

LOL! Emil takes some getting used to. My daughter spent her first few months with him crying after her lessons because he doesn't mince any words and is exacting, something most kids are not used to. And it gets worse if you don't follow his instructions; he will say things like 'I don't understand why you're wasting both of our times when it is clear that you have done no work towards fixing the issues identified last time'. IME, if you're a serious student and willing to put in the work, you reap huge rewards. After the initial shock of being told exactly what she's doing wrong with absolutely no filters, and often repeatedly, my DD has not only improved her violin skills, but has also come to see him as a trusted adult, someone she can talk to when she's upset, someone she can seek advice from. He NEVER takes offense when she questions/challenges him (which is frequent), is happy to rationally explain his choices, and is always generous with his time. For instance, if she has trouble with certain parts she's learning, she can send him videos and say 'Here is what I'm having trouble with. These are the things I have tried to fix it, but it's not working. What else can I try?' and he will give her detailed responses, usually by text, but will also call and give a quick explanation, outside of her lesson hours.

He's not scrolling facebook, but will answer texts and such in the lesson sometimes when the student is playing. I have paid close attention to when he does, and he still doesn't miss a thing (same as when he's upstairs getting his coffee, and the student thinks they can faff around). I do agree that it's bad form.

Do not learn from Emil chudnovsky. He has a horrible attitude towards you, he will spend his time scrolling through Facebook.

Emil can be contacted at SqWoland@aol.com
Emil has a studio of mixed ages and abilities, but he tends to prefer kids who are in elementary through high school. Some of his students are very serious pre-professional teenagers. He is musically discerning and pedagogically structured. However, he is also personally disorganized.

David Strom and Ronda Cole teach in a very similar fashion. Ronda specifically likes working with him because she thinks of him as a near-clone. Ronda has physical limitations due to age and an accident that make it more difficult for her to demonstrate these days. David is a very adept teacher of group classes and from what I've seen, somewhat more patience than Ronda. However, I think Ronda might be better with really little kids.

Ronda and David are both very exacting, with a One True Way of doing things, especially with younger kids. However, they encourage students to be actively involved with their own development and to make their own choices; they are not producing robotic imitators of recordings (as can sometimes happen in Suzuki studios). Their teenaged students receive more flexibility and are much more strongly encouraged to develop their own personalities. They are both unusual in that they teach nearly the whole gamut of skill well, from pint-sized beginners to high schoolers aiming for professional careers.

Ronda and David both have the quirk that their younger students have to come during the school day, which is functionally impossible for many families that don't home-school.

The pandemic year has been unusual for studio attrition and a lot of good teachers have openings in their studios even if they normally have significant waiting lists.

Anyone knew the studio information about Emil Chudnovsky?

The studios run by Olga Khroulevitch and Ronda Cole can be easily found online.

However, the contact information about Emil couldn't be founded.

So while we've got the attention of all the violin moms...

Anyone got feedback on David Strom, Ronda's teaching partner?

Or Emil Chudnovsky, or Olga Khroulevitch?

Or any of the teachers at Levine?

In reality, I don't know that dichotomizing this into a Suzuki vs. Traditional is all that useful. There are plenty of teachers who call themselves Suzuki that are functionally more traditional (playing from the book from the beginning, not memorizing music, etc.). Likewise, many traditional teachers prioritize ear training as a core skill and have teaching philosophies that are very much aligned with Suzuki's values.

As a former Suzuki student, I can say that at the beginning of middle school orchestra into high school, is when I could really tell that my sight-reading abilities compared to my peers was really not very good. Yes, there are so many pros to Suzuki as a method. But I really was behind in sight-reading, and it was very apparent. I could never do well in the sight-reading portion of auditions and whenever we got new music, I wasn't able to pick it up as quickly as others. But give me any song and I can make up the notes for you on the violin pretty quickly.

It's difficult to teach violin technique and sight-reading skills simultaneously to beginners, because you're asking them to do an awful lot of tasks simultaneously.

If you're starting kids out at age 4, they generally don't know how to read words, and some of them might not even know their alphabet fluently yet. Getting them to read music while simultaneously getting down the extremely difficult basics of technique is problematic.

Students who are learning via non-Suzuki means are more reliant on reading notes in order to learn anything at all, but it doesn't mean that they're necessarily spending more time on note-reading per se, especially for anyone who's thoughtful about introducing note-reading independent from the violin.

I agree that everyone needs both skills, though. Some kids regardless of method never get good at playing by ear, and some kids never get good at reading music. (Real fluency at sight-reading music on the violin requires a fair amount of instinctive technique / motor planning skills.)

Anonymous wrote:Ronda actually teaches reading quite early to children. They learn to read music from flashcards early on, and they do a rhythm training book that is very frequently used at the conservatory level. Somewhere around book 2 level they start to do much more active reading. There should be no reason why her students don't have excellent reading skills.

I would say that some students who spend a LOT of time practicing have a significant delta between how well they play when they are intensely practiced, and how well they play when they are reading something for the first time, which can drive the impression of "better/worse reading at a given technical skill level".

Ronda's studio policies are designed for parents who are expecting that the violin is their child's primary extracurricular (starting from the very beginning) and that many of the kids will go on to play professionally. It's not so much top talent as top seriousness. She's ancient at this point in time and I really wonder how many more years she'll be teaching.

The Institute (GWSI) does not have solely teachers that she trained, but the ones that aren't are generally highly sought-after famous teachers (like Terry Durbin).

That's nothing compared to the sight-reading practice students in traditional methods receive, PP. That's what our Suzuki studio did too, because it's really become the new standard for Suzuki. You cannot teach both aural processing and sight-reading at a high level simultaneously to beginners, that's all there is to it. It's fine, as long as at some point they receive the other