My Teaching Philosophy
a Letter from Petia
Teaching the art of violin to students of various ages and backgrounds has been a privilege for me during the last 15 years of my career. Being a music educator, mentor, or pedagogue has had a tremendous impact on my personal development as a musician in general and as a violinist in particular, for the more perspectives there are from which a musician would choose to approach a particular music masterpiece, the wider the horizon and the more profound the knowledge of that musician will be.
“The beauty of learning to play a musical instrument at an early age is that it creates the focus of attention and dedication necessary to succeed in all of life’s demanding endeavors.”
The relationship between a teacher and her students is a two-way path. While a student gets to learn all the subtleties of an art that a generous teacher is able and willing to share, a perceptive teacher is able to extract the most crucial aspects of a student’s feedback in the form of questions, comments, and more obvious performance challenges in order to then shape that feedback into an ever evolving knowledge-base, and make it helpful to more and more students. This is how long-term teacher-student communication grows into a nourishing relationship full of mutual respect.
Being a teacher carries a tremendous amount of responsibility with regards to a student’s self-esteem, critical thinking, and self-discipline that will be applicable in every aspect of life later on. One of the toughest challenges in making all these wonderful things come to a realization is keeping it as simple as possible in the teacher-student relationship.
I like to keep things simple. A long time ago, I committed to being honest with and also nourishing to all of my students. You can ask each and every one of them and no one will dispute what I just said. I will give your child (or you, if you are the student) constructive feedback that will help develop his or her observational and listening skills, as well as create a practice approach towards the violin that can be applied in other daily activities and areas of long term self-improvement such as school, homework, relationships with family and peers, and much more.
“Your child develops observational and listening skills, as well as a practice discipline that applies to every other area of long-term self-improvement.”
My purpose as a violin teacher is to gradually reveal the multiple intricacies of the violin while creating a positive learning environment in which your child will thrive and achieve a sound sense of personal accomplishment in addition to a clear understanding of the responsibility that he or she accepts at the end of each session in order to be able to carry the desired improvement to a full realization. While the whole process takes years of learning, you as a parent will inevitably notice the advanced maturity level of your children that will result from their daily violin practice.
Finally, please remember: this is not a destination but a journey!
Thank you for visiting!
Petia Radneva-Manolova
“Petia is that rarest of artists: a gifted performer and a masterful teacher of her art. ”
