Learn from Great Viola Teachers

I have studied with many of the leading teachers in Europe and the USA. I started my education at Junior Department of the Royal Academy of Music (London), where I studied with James Sleigh for five years. As a teenager, I was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and the National Youth Strings Academy.

Hi! I'm Lisa, a professional cellist and music educator with over 16 years of private teaching experience. Cello is my primary instrument and specialty, but I don't believe being a serious cellist means you have to live entirely inside the classical world.

I am an upper strings educator with 30 years of playing experience and 22 years of teaching in a variety of education settings. I earned my Bachelors in Viola Performance at the University of Houston in 2007 and my Masters in Education from Lamar University in 2011.

Margaret Dyer Harris is assistant principal viola for The Santa Fe Opera Orchestra and a member of the New York City–based orchestra The Knights. She was a founding member of the Grammy-nominated chamber orchestra A Far Cry, and she’s performed with various other ensembles, such as ECCO and the Moscow, Orpheus, and St. Paul Chamber orchestras.

Hi! I'm Holly and I started playing violin at 14 years old, which is actually kind of late for most string players. I believe you can start playing an instrument at any age though and you're never too old to pick up a new hobby! I was a very serious player and I made progress quickly.

I began playing the violin at age 7 and I have enjoyed every moment since! I switched to the viola at age 19 and pursued both a bachelor's and master's degree in performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music. Music is always a journey and I have been lucky enough to perform in Germany, Denmark, Japan, China, and even in Carnegie Hall!

I'm a member of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, an associate member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and a former member of the Arditti, Penderecki, and Chester String Quartets. I have 27 years of teaching experience, at Harvard, Princeton, NYU, Wilfrid Laurier University and many summer festivals.

Vasco Mendes Canastra is a Portuguese violinist from Porto. He began his musical studies in May 2011, studying violin with Professor João Paz. Four years later, he continued his studies with violin teacher Pedro Rocha. From 2015 to 2019, he studied at the Academia de Música de Costa Cabral (AMCC) under Professor Sergey Arutyunyan, where he completed the Professional Course of…

Leo is a violist pursuing a five-year BM/MME degree at the renowned Johns Hopkins University Peabody Institute, with a focus on performance and music education. Majority of his studies in music was as a violinist. Leo switched viola during his high school. He equally played both violin and viola in orchestras during High school.

Violist, Conor McAvinue is currently based in Baltimore, Maryland studying with Choong-Jin Chang at Peabody Conservatory. Prior to Peabody, Conor received a master's degree at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University with James Dunham and a bachelor's degree at San Francisco Conservatory of Music with Dimitri Murrath and Jonathan Vinocour.