OUR FACULTY

The String Project’s faculty are students at the Butler School of Music. Most are graduate students, although qualified undergraduates may be teachers in our program as well. Most of our teachers are students of music education, although many are performance majors interested in becoming excellent teachers. Our faculty have a wide range of backgrounds and experiences as teachers and performers; to find out more about specific teachers, visit our Faculty page. 

THE PRESCHOOL PROGRAM: CADETS

Our preschool cadet program, called Cadets, is a two-year program using the Suzuki Method and is open to four & five-year-old beginners. All students who begin an instrument with the String Project while in this age range participate in the Cadet program, regardless of their actual school experience. Cadet students all begin on violin and cello. Parents of students interested in viola or bass should not be dissuaded from joining Cadets, as the early start to music instruction will only help build a thorough base of music skills, and making the transition to another instrument in a few years is very feasible. Cadets is for both parents and students. They practice together and attend all classes, lessons, and other activities together. Students and parents attend one 30-minute group class on Saturdays. During the week, cadet students attend one class with their “pod,” a small group of students who take a group lesson together regularly. Cadet families also have one 30-minute private lesson each week. In the initial stages of Cadets, parents will learn the instrument along with their children in order to serve as the “home teacher.” As the students grow older, their attention spans lengthen, and their repertoire of skills and tunes increase, the majority of lesson time will shift from training parents in the skills to be taught and monitored at home to directly working with the student. For more information on the Suzuki Method, visit the Suzuki Association of the Americas website.

THE REGULAR (SCHOOL-AGED) PROGRAM

The regular program encompasses all of our students not in the Cadet program. Most of our students are full-time, taking part in both our Saturday classes and weekly private lessons with a member of our faculty; we also offer Saturday-only status for students who already have a private teacher and want to participate in our program. Students’ schedules for Saturday classes are dependent upon their level of experience. Beginning students take one-hour mixed classes in which students of all instruments learn together. Once students have gotten a grounding on their instruments and have learned several songs, they can join our beginning ensembles—instrument-specific group classes. Once students are ready, they can move from our beginning ensembles into Elementary Orchestra, and from there into other orchestras.

Orchestra students participate in a technique & Repertoire class as well as their orchestra. All students in the regular program also attend a class in our Musicianship sequence: classes that cover such topics as music reading, music theory, ear training, improvisation, and music history, among others. View the Guidelines for exactly which ensemble or orchestra a prospective student can expect to be placed in. These are the same guidelines that current students follow to be promoted to a new ensemble. The guidelines are based on the Suzuki Method repertoire, but literature of of similar difficulty that demonstrates the same skills can be substituted; scales, arpeggios, and other requirements should be performed as listed on the promotional guidelines. In addition to a list of repertoire and exercises that vary by level, students’ success in moving from one level to another, and especially in joining the program, depends on proper setup and technique as outlined in our technique and posture checklists.

OUR CLASSES

Our preschool cadet program is a program for children aged four and five, while our pre-ensembles are multi-intstrument classes for older beginners and our Beginning Ensembles are single-instrument classes for students in the early stages of study. Each level of Beginning Ensemble on each instrument is clearly specified based on demonstrable skills and level of repertoire. The number of ensembles between beginning level and orchestral participation varies by instrument, and the exact criteria for any given level may change from one semester to the next.

Students who have mastered the skills necessary to perform at approximately a mid-Suzuki Book 2 level (requirements are outlined in our section on promoting & juries) can join our beginning orchestra, the Elementary Orchestra. Currently, we have four orchestras: Elementary, Intermediate, Advanced, and Chamber. Students also participate in our Musicianship sequence—classes that cover such topics as music reading, music theory, ear training, improvisation, and music history. Students who have progressed through this sequence participate in elective classes, a set of courses designed by our faculty that allows students to learn from our teachers’ specific strengths and areas of expertise.

GUITAR PROGRAM

The guitar program emphasizes expressive music-making from the very first notes while teaching all of the essential technical and musical skills for first-rate musicianship on the classical guitar. The program is taught by graduate students in the classical guitar program at UT, which is highly regarded world-wide. The Guitar Program waiting list will be kept by the String Project office, but decisions regarding enrollment and admissions will be handled by the guitar program director and faculty.

OTHER OPPORTUNITIES

String Project Students participate in two gala concerts a year, one at the end of each semester. In addition, our Advanced and Chamber Orchestra students may compete in an annual concerto competition, while full-time students all play in studio recitals and have the opportunity to audition for the annual Honors Recital. Past special events have included our annual Eclectic Styles Festival and performances of String Project orchestras at the Texas Music Educators Association conference in San Antonio.