Yael Bat-Shimon has taught students of all ages and levels, from young beginners at Community MusicWorks in Providence to adults at Brookline Community and Adult Education.  She was also Graduate Assistant to James Oliver Buswell at New England Conservatory.  Using innovative approaches such as improvisational games, she helps students develop their potential for self-expression and musical proficiency.  Yael believes that music can transform young people’s lives, building their self-confidence, providing them with an outlet for their feelings and preparing their minds for learning in all areas.  For people ages five to eighty-five, approaching a new instrument or encountering improvisation is often a transformative experience, helping students access parts of themselves otherwise left unknown or untouched and helping them bring movement to the places in their lives where they feel stuck.  Yael is currently earning her second Masters degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, focusing on how to incorporate the creative arts into psychological counseling.  She brings a deep caring for each student's emotional well-being into her teaching and views music as a healing art.

Yael is an active performer as well as teacher.  While still a teenager she soloed with The Houston Symphony, The Richardson Symphony and The Houston Civic Symphony, among others.  In college, she was chosen as a member of the prestigious New York String Orchestra under the direction of the late Alexander Schneider, performing at Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center.  In the past decade, Yael’s focus has shifted to improvisation and the creation and performance of music for choreographers of modern dance as well as theatre.  She has worked with Obie Award-winning director Robbie McCauley in Roxbury Repertory Theatre's production of "Anne and Emmett", with Kelley Donovan and Dancers, E. Beattie Dance Project, Andrea Cheatham Dance, Karen Bray and B. E. Productions of Los Angeles. In addition to her recitals of solo and duo improvisations, Yael is a regular guest artist with Odaiko New England and The Vortex Ensemble.  Yael studied the violin in Paris with master teacher Miriam Solovieff.  After receiving her BA from Harvard, she pursued graduate study in violin performance and contemporary improvisation with Sylvia Rosenberg at the Peabody Institute of Music and with James Buswell and Scott Sandvik at the New England Conservatory. She also holds an MA in Jewish Studies from Hebrew College.

The first meeting will focus on clarifying goals, expectations, hopes and dreams.  If the student is school-aged, her/his parent(s) will be invited to participate in this meeting to determine what differences might exist between the parents' goals for the student and the student's own hopes.  Since parents play as important a role in the musician's development as does the teacher, it is essential that each person--student, parent and teacher--be aware of  each other's expectations. 

The course of study will evolve from that first meeting and will be re-evaluated every three months.  At this time, students will be asked to evaluate their own progress as well as provide feedback to Yael on how better to help them grow.  Each student will also participate in class recitals once a semester along with Yael and special guest artists. 

When suitable, students will be paired together for music-making/practice sessions outside of lessons.  While Yael will tell them in general terms how to structure these sessions, the students will be encouraged to find their own ways of collaborating and relating in a constructive, supportive manner.  They will be asked to reflect on and share about their experiences. 

The following are areas of competency that will be developed according to each student's current abilities and stated goals:

• playing scales (from one-octave for beginners to two-octave double-stop scales for the more advanced)
• reading music
• improvisation
• playing with other musicians
• playing/clapping out simple to complex rhythms
• sight singing
• sight reading
• writing original melodies
  
• musical dictation
• recognition of intervals and basic chord progressions
• self-expression
• repertoire development

Above all, lessons with Yael focus on the joy of music-making and creative expression.  Playing music is not meant to be stressful.  It affords the opportunity to express what words can not.  It allows for freedom, expansiveness, growth, excitement and the wonderful feeling of touching something beyond oneself.  The world opens up and the imagination is set afire. 

If you need to rent a violin or viola, I highly recommend Dennis McCarten's shop in Pawtucket.  You can visit his web site for rental rates, directions, and other information here.

After downloading this page and printing it out, please read it over and bring it along with any questions to your first lesson.  For those without a printer, I have extra copies.