Violin Lessons

Vienna-trained Violinist, Composer, Teacher, Self-Esteem & Wellbeing Coach and Advocate for Humanistic Values in Education, Government & Policy.

I teach at beginner, intermediate, advanced, post-graduate and professional development levels. This includes individual and group lessons in traditional classical violin and chamber music, plus options of creative improvisation, wellbeing & healing stage-fright, and going electric for strings.

For beginners I offer the “how to” for every aspect of violin playing, making great music while developing really good foundations for your playing which won’t need correcting later. You will learn to play lots of great tunes, and learn how to make the violin sound satisfying from the very start, as well as get experience playing with other violinists of a similar ability and age.

For more advanced players this is an opportunity to further your ongoing professional technical and musical development, audition preparation, or rebuild your technique completely (this usually takes around 3 months). Includes exactly how to prepare and execute all bow strokes (detache, martele, legato, colle, spiccato, up-bow & down-bow staccato, ricochet, flying staccato), technical etudes/studies and concert repertoire, as well as correct preparation and practice for reliable left hand technique, intonation, shifting, vibrato, double-stops, harmonics and stop-harmonics, and raising your tone, phrasing, articulation, intensity, and projection to a soloistic level. Also problem solving for teaching including preparatory exercise systems, and analytic insights for fixing faulty technique.

For teachers my Teacher Training Lessons, Masterclasses and Professional development days help you to understand the preparation and execution of all aspects of playing, and exactly how to teach each step successfully for tone, phrasing, articulation and expression.

Teaching
Trained in the famous European violin pedagogue Igor Ozim’s method of playing in Vienna, Austria, Rupert studied extensively with two of professor Ozim’s proteges Brian Finlayson and Hefried Fister and attended Masterclasses and Summer Schools with professor Ozim in Australia and Europe. He was also heavily influenced by his contact with Norwegian violinist professor Terje Moe Hansen and absorbed his all-interval approach into his playing. He earlier studied for many years with Harry Hutchins who was a student of Carl Flesch in Paris. Rupert’s approach is all about holistic learning. He teaches holistic professional development courses for players and teachers at all levels and offers sessions in traditional violin studies, chamber music coaching, string teacher training courses, classical music improvisation, the mystical art of music, electric violin and extended playing techniques, as well as very relevant and practical approaches to healing stage-fright, self-care, wellbeing and meditation for musicians. His private clients include principal players from some of Europe’s finest orchestras such as Zurich Opera and La Scala, and some well-known pop musicians. His healing stage-fright sessions and improvisation masterclasses have been taught at many universities internationally including Vienna University for Performing Arts (MDW), Vorarlberg Conservatorium (Austria), St Paul in Lavantal Summercourse (Austria), international conferences for The Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London), the International Society for Improvised Music (ISIM) in the USA and Switzerland, European String Teachers Association (ESTA) in UK and Sweden, Australian Strings Association (AUSTA), and Australian Society of Music Educators (ASME/ISME), as well as Australian universities including University of Western Australia, Western Australia Academy of Performing arts (WAAPA), Monash University, and University of Queensland.

Since 2003 he has toured internationally and independently released over 35 albums of his own music, including 5 albums of his sonatas and other collected works commissioned and recorded by Australia’s national broadcaster ABC Classic FM radio.

He also produces many interesting projects beyond classical music each year. These include world music concerts, ambient and meditation concerts, blues and folk projects with other accomplished artists in each of these fields. Collaborations have included Allan Zavod (Frank Zappa, Jean-Luc Ponty), Chris Copping (Procul Harem), Garry Young (Daddy Cool), Stephen Housden (Little River Band), Geoff Wright (JJ Cale), Andrew Duffield (The Models), David Jones (Vince Jones, James Morrison), and many of Australia’s top session players including Les Stacpool, Glenn Suckling, Steve Hadley, John Watson and John McAll.


For more information see website www.rupertguenther.com