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Janice Tucker Rhoda's Personal Story

My father’s grandparents migrated from Canada and Florence, Italy to the United States in the early 1900s, eventually settling in Massachusetts. My dad, the eldest of five children, was an electronics engineer. He was a gifted amateur musician who played the harmonica and steel guitar his entire life. He was a talented person with many interests: an electronics teacher, ice skating teacher, furniture maker, and avid cyclist taking part in bicycle races in his 50s. He was a perfectionist about everything he did and was a truly exceptional person, one of those rare people who is really good at everything! His father was an ambitious, well-known builder and his mother sang and played the bugle in their local church. My mother’s parents came to the US in the year 1920. After arriving at Ellis Island in New York from Naples, Italy, my grandparents settled in Massachusetts. My grandfather was a distinguished veteran of WWI. He fought in the foxholes of the famous Battle of Vittorio Veneto that ended WWI on the Italian front. He was awarded Cavaliere, one of the five orders of Knighthood of the Italian Republic. My grandfather was also a talented mason and generous person who rebuilt his cousin's home in brick and stone at no charge; he refused payment! He played the mandolin, and he and my grandmother sang over 100 Italian songs, including Toselli's Serenade which I learned on the violin at my lessons. He listened to Caruso a lot, and had speakers leading from the stereo into the kitchen! The first word I spoke was PA (my grandfather), for my own father had tuberculosis when I was born and was in the hospital for a year. Luckily my dad survived and my parents had three more children after me. My grandmother was an electronics assembler at General Electric for thirty years and an Italian language tutor. She was an incredible cook; to this day, everyone follows her recipes in my entire family tree. My grandparents had 8 children and I have 35 first cousins! After raising her 5 children, my mother enrolled in college, majoring in computer science. My mother has finally retired after working in finance for 20 years. Like my father, she has a lot of musical talent; she sings and plays the piano, guitar and accordion. As a teenager, she performed in a musical group with her sisters; all would become wonderful role models for me. She and my father were both excellent ice skaters and were winners of pairs skating and judges of figure skating competitions. They were married for 55 years before my father passed away. One of my brothers played the trumpet when he was young, but I am the only professional musician. Each of us focused on one forte; a computer company owner and software developer, a senior fundraiser, electronics engineer, and an ice skating teacher. In the second grade, my school teacher seemed impressed with my ability to sing solfege syllables (do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do). I learned key signatures quickly and was allowed to take music books home to practice my solfege. Modulating from key to key seemed easy. I enjoyed singing solos in school plays, assemblies and graduations. When I was in the third grade I sang Stephen Foster's Beautiful Dreamer at my school's fourth grade graduation! Violin lessons were offered at school when I was in the fourth grade. I loved the sound of the violin, having heard string sections play on opera and musical theater recordings. I asked my parents if I could take lessons. Of course, my mother wanted me to play one of the instruments we owned, such as the piano, guitar or accordion. I preferred the sweet, soothing, lovely sound of the violin. With encouragement from school teachers, my parents agreed to have me study the violin at the beginning of the second semester of the fourth grade. I was almost ten years old. My first violin teacher, Alan Hawryluk, was enthusiastic. At my initial lesson, I tried to draw a straight bow on each string. It felt awkward on the G-String. At another lesson, the entire neck broke off of my violin as my teacher was tuning it! On another occasion, my violin fell out of its case into the snow as I was walking home from school! My first violin teacher left the school system at the end of the semester. His replacement proved less encouraging, saying my "thumbs were too long to play the violin." Another instructor, Joseph Leary, came to my rescue. He was ambitious and dedicated, and guided me through my formative years of playing. Many years later, he told me I was the most talented student he ever taught. In the sixth grade I was asked to play Climb Every Mountain as a violin solo at my graduation ceremony. What an appropriate song! In the seventh grade, I performed Monti’s Czardas at a school assembly. My general music teacher and piano accompanist, Angelica Sarris, was a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music. She was an excellent accompanist! Beatles songs were popular at the time, so I played Michelle and Yesterday at school assemblies as well as many Fritz Kreisler showpieces. In the eighth grade I was given the Most Ambitious award at school and performed De Beriot’s Violin Concerto No. 9 in A minor with an orchestra. I played Ernest Bloch’s Nigun at my ninth grade graduation ceremony. What wonderful opportunities to perform! I practiced three to five hours a day and really enjoyed it, stopping only to go to school, do homework and chores. I always got straight As on my report card, but Violin was my life! Beginning at age 14, I played in the North Shore Philharmonic conducted and founded by Rolland Tapley, and the Glen Magna Strings and Marblehead Community Orchestra, both conducted and founded by Joseph Leary. I had a full schedule as a teenager! I also enjoyed playing by ear in a group with my parents who enjoyed playing country music and pop tunes. I played at nursing homes whenever I could, and continue to perform at them to this day. I have often invited students to perform. By the way, Rolland Tapley is in the Guinness Book of World Records for playing in a symphony orchestra longer than anyone! A total of 55 years playing violin in the Boston Symphony! The dedicated support and guidance of my music instructors throughout grade school, junior high and high school proved to be very worthwhile. I set my sights on attending the New England Conservatory of Music as early as the seventh grade. My very first violin teacher kept in contact with me and before my tenth grade school year, he suggested I audition for the chairman of the string department at NEC. This teacher was Eric Rosenblith, well-known pedagogue and former student of Carl Flesch. I played the entire Mendelssohn Violin Concerto for him. I LOVED studying with him for a total of eight years! He was an incredible violin teacher who supported each student with intense dedication and enthusiasm. After my first year of study with Mr. Rosenblith, I played the first movement of the Brahms A Major Violin and Piano Sonata on the popular television show, Outlook New England. Frances Brockman Lanier, founder of NEC’s Preparatory Division, spoke on behalf of the school alongside the program’s host, Frank Avruch. The year was 1972 and I was in the eleventh grade. I also won the audition to be concertmistress of the 1972 Massachusetts All-State Orchestra after playing the first movement of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto! After graduating from high school in the spring of 1973, I fulfilled my ambition of studying at the New England Conservatory of Music, entering as a Violin Performance major the following fall. My audition to enter NEC went very well. Mr. Rosenblith said I played better than any graduate student who auditioned, and I was entering as a freshman. Everything was going extremely well at first. I was principal second violin of the NEC orchestra conducted by Richard Pittman, and Mr. Rosenblith was giving me three private lessons per week. I vividly remember playing the following pieces in masterclasses: Wieniawski's Violin Concerto No. 2 in D Minor, Glazunov Violin Concerto in A Minor, Bartok Violin Concerto No. 1, Wieniawski Polonaise Brillante No. 1, Beethoven and Brahms Sonatas, and several unaccompanied Bach Sonatas and Partitas. Other pieces I performed in recitals or auditions were Donald Harris Violin Fantasy, Prokofiev unaccompanied violin sonatas, Mozart and Handel Sonatas, Wieniawski Polonaise Brillante No. 2. I wrote a Cadenza for Mozart Adagio in E Major and performed it at a recital. At the beginning of my sophomore year I developed a pinched nerve in my neck which eventually healed. Using a higher chin rest and shoulder rest, and holding my head straight solved this issue! I was able to continue my studies and perform in masterclasses for three more years, but due to another injury, I was unable to complete my NEC training for several years. I tore ligaments in my left forearm while lifting heavy boxes at a store. Not a great job for a violinist! Playing my violin healed my arm. Vibrato in particular loosened and strengthened the muscles! I studied three years with George Neikrug. He is a "genius" teacher who helps all string players overcome injuries using the Dounis method ideas. Then I studied with violin teacher Yuri Mazurkevich for three years. What an incredible teacher! He helped me prepare for my final audition and recital. I'm so grateful for his guidance! I was finally able to fulfill my graduation requirement and receive my bachelor's degree in Violin Performance in 1989. My final recital went very well and I played it by memory. My original goal after high school was to play in the Boston Symphony however I discovered I enjoyed teaching very much. At age twenty two I was encouraged by pianist Victor Rosenbaum who said I was "a born teacher" when I was teaching his daughter violin. Violist Gillian Rogell also had encouraging words! What better way to thank my wonderful teachers than to continue in their quest to convey a knowledge of music and the love of playing a stringed instrument! Here is some teaching history: In 1979, I taught violin in the Newton and Wakefield Public School systems’ after-school programs in Massachusetts. In 1980 I was hired to teach at the All Newton Music School and the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA. During the early 1980s, I trained as a suzuki violin teacher at Ithaca College where my teacher trainers were Joan Reuning and Lorraine Fink. I also observed private lessons of several foremost Massachusetts suzuki teachers who organized teacher training workshops with well-known suzuki masters such as William Starr and Shinichi Suzuki himself. I taught at ANMS from 1980 to 1984 and Longy from 1980 to 1987. I directed both suzuki programs at Longy in the 1980s and at Brookline Music School in the 1990s. In the fall of 1992 I began teaching beginner violin courses at the Boston Center for Adult Education. Since there had not been a violin for the adult course anywhere in Boston before, seventeen students signed up for the first class! I was asked to teach an adult course in Brookline and Cambridge, but did not have the time. I suggested colleagues and friends for those positions. Since the fall of 2003 I've been teaching at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. We have a beginner, a duet and string orchestra course and I give teacher training classes. It seems all musicians have their most dramatic story to tell about a violin, viola, cello or bass accident they had experienced. At the end of my freshman year of college, I was commuting by bus and subway to go home; it was a long commute. While waiting for a bus I had extra time to take a walk. I proceeded away from the center of town and was crossing the street when a car came rushing around the corner and hit my violin out of my hand!! It flew up into the air and came down and crashed on the ground!! This was a wonderful modern Italian violin my parents bought me in the 5th grade. A Guilio Degani! It had a major sound post crack which was repaired, but the sound was not as loud or as sweet as it originally was. Eventually I traded it in for another violin. Please write to me and tell me your most devastating story. It may make me feel better, but I still feel sadness and guilt when I think of that wonderful violin. I know I was very lucky I did not get hit by the car myself! The ABCs of Strings method series developed as a result of teaching beginning, intermediate and advanced students of all ages after my first twenty years of teaching. My primary aim is to make the playing of a stringed instrument easier and more accessible to everyone of any age group. You can learn more about my method of teaching on The ABCs of Violin for the Absolute Beginner DVD and The ABCs of Violin for the Intermediate Player DVD. The first book of my series, The ABCs of Violin for the Absolute Beginner, was published on January 8, 1998. I had three volumes in print when I attended a Suzuki Convention in Chicago, Illinois as an exhibitor in May of that year. As I was taking a limo taxi from the airport to the convention center, I met the president of publisher Carl Fischer Music who asked me to send him my books. Three months later I signed on with Carl Fischer Music. The enthusiasm for my method books at the convention was substantial; all 130 books brought were sold! Thank you to the dedicated, hard working staff of Carl Fischer Music for making my ABCs of Strings method so widely available. Thank you to all of my students for teaching me to become a better teacher over the years. Thank you to all of my teachers - from grade school through college and post-graduate studies - for your expert guidance and support. And lastly, thank you to all of the teachers, students and parents using my method books in private studios, classrooms and home practice. For a list of teachers using my method, click here: Teachers May we all share in the joy of spreading the fine art of string playing! Sincerely, Janice Tucker Rhoda Author of The ABCs of Strings

Published by Carl Fischer Music