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Melinda Rice

educator

About this Artist

I am a violinist, a violist, an improviser, and a music educator. I believe in a pedagogy that approaches music learning as a joyous process that can lead to commitment and discovery in many areas of a person’s life. It has been that way for me.

I was born in Pennsylvania to a music teacher, and I began violin at a young age. As I grew up, music took me to many different places – I traveled to England, France, and the Netherlands with an orchestra, I studied at the Suzuki camp in Japan, and I began to work with a Conflict Resolution theatre troupe in Philadelphia, writing songs and acting.

Music eventually brought me to California, where I earned my Masters in Violin Performance from California Institute of the Arts (2006). I love to improvise and play chamber music. I am a conductor/arranger for a beginning string orchestra, and I love to make music with students in private, group, and chamber settings.

As an LA Philharmonic Teaching Artist, I can offer collaboration in these areas:

Violin and Viola Technique and Repertoire

Improvising

Chamber Music

Physical Fitness and Healthy Practices with the Instrument

The Very Open Rehearsal (in which students watch an open rehearsal and learn rehearsal and practice technique as they are lead to investigate the music being created in front of them)

Some of my most valuable teaching experiences have happened through collaboration with school music teachers, in which we have worked to create a workshop that will uniquely reach the needs of their students. I love to see students take joy in music, and take ownership of their musical learning because of that joy.