2013 Holiday Concert

Next month, on December 10, 7 PM, STEA is presenting a Holiday Concert at First Presbyterian Church (Kingsport) which will benefit the Second Harvest Food Bank! We will be collecting Food Items or donations which will be used by the Food Bank…

STEA POLO SHIRTS

We periodically purchase beautiful STEA polo shirts in a shade of red to remind us of the visual themes of our website, emblazoned with the embroidered STEA logo of music and mountains over the heart! STEA students are sometimes asked to…

Handel’s “Music for the Royal Fireworks”

In honor of the 4th of July, I thought it appropriate to discuss a piece of music that was specifically written for something that will occur quite loudly today - fireworks! G.F. Handel was a baroque composer who lived roughly around…

Why I Love Summer Lessons

During the summer, I used to travel all over creation, teaching summer Institutes, reuniting with colleagues, meeting fantastic Suzuki families, reinforcing the 'big picture' of the national and international presence of Suzuki Method.  One…

Teamwork in Suzuki Families

Learning an instrument is hard work - no bones about it. It could be the piano, cello, flute, or any instrument. In this case, my instrument is the violin. For a Suzuki family, there should always be a team. The student, the teacher,…

Virginia Suzuki Institute

I am currently attending the Virginia Suzuki Institute, which is handily located 10 miles from my residence in Abingdon, VA. I'm studying with Suzuki Master Teacher Libby Armour (from Memphis, TN) and learning lots of instructional tips and…

Baroque Composers: J.S. Bach

In honor of STEA's recent performance of J.S. Bach's Concerto for Two Violins, I thought I'd start a little series of blog posts on Bach and his contemporaries. Johann Sebastian Bach is perhaps best known for his prolific writing of music…

The Textures of Eastern Music

It is easy to stereotype music, and culture. It is easy to stereotype them together as well - for instance, to state that all eastern music sounds the same. Often times, it does, to an untrained ear. Many of us on this side of the world…

Rimsky-Korsakov and the Russian Five

Scheherazade (movement 1) Last fall, the Johnson City Symphony Orchestra performed "Scheherazade" by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov. I played in the 1st violin section of the Symphony at the time. It is a wonderful piece of music, I jokingly nick-named…

All New Mobile-Ready Website

Welcome friends of STEA Thank you for visiting our new website. It is optimized for your desktop computer as well as your tablet and mobile phone. Give it a try. If you see anything we've left off the site or if you have an error you would…