{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/6049ce165e66895efa7f67fd/6049ce1f440b3614ff5a4f9d?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"Emma Colligan on violin pedagogy and New Zealand during lockdown","description":"<p>Hello,</p><p>In this 20-minute episode I reconnect with one of my violin teachers, Emma Colligan. You can find the episode on <a href=\"https://open.spotify.com/show/4emtCs5Kwv0ptixIz8XYGy?si=PFRyk2GGQquPwCd24_VhuQ\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Spotify</a> and <a href=\"https://shows.acast.com/walk-the-talk/episodes/emma-colligan-on-violin-pedagogy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Acast</a> or listen here on Patreon! </p><p><img data-media-id=\"88675488\"><em>With Emma, 2009</em></p><p>Emma Colligan now teaches 50 young violin students at her School of Violin in New Zealand. </p><p><img data-media-id=\"88677752\"></p><p>She also performs with Orchestra Wellington and does freelance gigs. </p><p>(0:11) In 2006, Emma was studying her Violin Performance Masters at the Longy School of Music and ended up structuring all her courses around her favorite teacher and mine: Mr. Mark Lakirovich. </p><ul> <li>\"I was like, this is great! I get to structure my whole program around my favorite teacher!\"</li></ul><p>(1:22) While learning pedagogy with Mark, Emma also taught me and other students. I asked  if anything from Mark's lessons carried over in her current teaching. </p><ul> <li>\"Totally! Basically everything!\"</li></ul><p>(2:13) Before delving into her teaching experience in New Zealand (and online teaching during lockdown, and lockdown itself), we reminisced about Longy and lessons with Mark. </p><ul> <li>\"You couldn't really repeat that time of my life. I was in the right place at the right time to get that experience; just kind of lucky.\" - Emma</li> <li>\"I just remember spending hours in that teaching room, and he was always an hour behind - and it didn't bother me at all! – and you kind of just knew that if you were last you were not gonna start on time, but you had to show up on time just in case.\" - Emma </li> <li>\"Time just disappeared! You'd get to listen in to the previous lesson, and that was such good teaching too.\" - AE</li> <li>\"Or the next lesson! I just found it fascinating, watching. Especially when he was working with younger students. I'd never seen him working with such talented kids where it makes a massive, <em>massive</em> difference how you deliver and what you give.\" - Emma</li></ul><p><img data-media-id=\"88676909\"><em>The Generations Concert. Mark and Emma are pictured first on the left. Original PC: N.L.'s dad.</em></p><p>(4:16) Emma would always have a notebook with her at lessons. She still has those books, and read back on some entries.</p><ul> <li>\"First of March, 2006. Wohlfahrt Etude. Aldís. There are two kinds of bow directions. Down bow and up bow. Have you invented a third kind? Sideways?\" –Emma quoting Mark</li> <li>\"You've knocked on the wrong door. D-flat is D's neighbor.\" – Emma quoting Mark</li></ul><p>(5:40) The long-lasting value of Mark's practice techniques. </p><ul> <li>\"Rhythm practice, double stop practice...staccato, martelé...\" -AE</li> <li>\"Yeah, that whole system– I teach that now to my students too.\" - Emma</li></ul><p>(6:13) Emma's students love her.</p><ul> <li>\"I just try to get them to love violin, but I actually think most of them – barring maybe 5 to 10 cause I've got about 50 kids – I think most of them just come to hang out with me, and talk to me about stuff that's going on at school. They just think that it's fun. But at the same time that's good too. Obviously we're still doing violin stuff. If you enjoy that part of your day it will translate into you liking the violin.\" - Emma</li></ul><p>(7:40) It's not all jolly fun, of course. Teaching 50 students can take a lot out of you. </p><ul> <li>\"You get pretty tired quite quickly; it's a lot of energy. And you always have to be thinking ahead and if you're not really feeling it you have to act like you are.\"</li> <li>\"But the kids usually make me feel better and they'll say something really funny. Sometimes I have to write them down without letting them see that I'm writing them down. Cause I know that I'll find it funny later.\"</li> <li>\"Now I'm on my long break. No teaching until first of February. And I find that I really need that time. Kind of like your June-July.\" </li></ul><p>(9:47) This year isn't the year for a summer academy. But speaking of music academies, this year, and keeping in touch with old teachers...</p><ul> <li>\"Remember how he'd always say when his phone rang? 'Oh! Must be Bach!'\" - AE [laughter] Mr. Mark would pretend his phone calls were from composers whose music we were playing during the lesson.</li> <li>\"His phone was always ringing!\"- Emma </li> <li>\"And then he'd answer in Russian and be like, 'Da, da. Horosho. Baka.' [more laughter] That's all the Russian I knew.\" - Emma</li></ul><p>(10:27) I asked her if she'd talked to Mr. Mark recently.</p><ul> <li>\"Yeah, actually, he asked me if I wanted to teach at Cremona this year.\" Cremona, Italy is where Mark and others have organized an International Music Academy for several years.</li></ul><p><img data-media-id=\"88676584\"><em>My first recital at the music academy in Regensburg, Germany, 2009. PC: Emma.</em></p><p><img data-media-id=\"88677496\"><em>Cremona, Italy, 2013.</em></p><ul> <li>\"But then he sent me a funny email – you know how he is, and it was like: I don't think we'll be going to Cremona because of Corona, and I thought it was a joke but then I saw the news.\" </li></ul><p><img data-media-id=\"88686089\"><em>Using the radiator as a music stand.</em></p><p>(11:46) So things got real. But it didn't seem like it in the beginning.</p><ul> <li>\"I remember thinking nah it's gonna be fine. Nothing ever happens in New Zealand.\"</li></ul><p>(12:57) How New Zealand handled the COVID crisis – perks of being a kiwi? You get to live in an essentially COVID-free country!</p><ul> <li>\"Everyone did what we were supposed to do. People really care about each other and our country. And if you weren't doing what they're supposed to be doing, people would look at you like you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing.\"</li></ul><p>(13:30) After this conversation I have a lot of respect for the Prime Minister of New Zealand.</p><ul> <li>\"Our Prime Minister and government officials in NZ made it easy to follow rules at each level of lockdown. ... I kind of wish I was best friends with her. The other week I played a gig for the opening of Parliament, so I snuck a photo in.\" </li> <li>\"During lockdown level 4, which lasted 8 weeks, that's when I did all my online teaching. In the end sometimes I had a kid who was like kind of in the corner – and I just had to be like, ok, just keep going – and I'd only see the top of their head or their scroll.\" [laughter]</li></ul><p>(15:20) Where do Emma's students get their violins? </p><ul> <li>There's this generic-type Paganini brand! It's decent. (Paganini: a virtuoso violinist and composer with huge hands who could play tenths like nobody's business and who was rumored to have sold his soul to the devil so he could achieve such mastery in his performances).</li></ul><p><img data-media-id=\"88685974\"><em>A luthier in Cremona, showing how he painted varnish on the back of a violin.</em></p><p><img data-media-id=\"89155769\"><em>Recreating the scene in scratch art, 2014.</em></p><p>(16:04) Story of the mysterious full-size violin and its surprise restoration value :)</p><ul> <li>\"So the mother who'd initially found this violin for $20 got it to put over her fireplace as a decoration. She might've even used it for firewood later, it being only $20. But she gave it to one of my students to see if she could play it. It looked like it had character. When they took it to get restored, turns out it was worth 4000 dollars! But the funny thing was it didn't come with a case, so when she brought it to lesson, its scroll was sticking out of one of those reusable shopping bags, just holding it like this.\" [laughter]</li></ul><p>(18:42) Final anecdote and life-lesson quote coming full circle to the story of her first lesson with Mark Lakirovich: </p><ul> <li>\"He asked me to do double stop scales the first lesson and I was like <em>oh God... is he gonna be one of those teachers who's like, double stop scales! do this! do this! – </em>but then I think he realized that I was gonna work hard and we were gonna get along. <strong>If you work hard but don't take things too seriously, it's fine, you know?</strong>\" - Emma</li></ul><p>Adorable video here where her students give her rave reviews. <a href=\"https://www.nzmusicteachers.co.nz/emma-colligan/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https://www.nzmusicteachers.co.nz/emma-colligan/</a> </p><p><img data-media-id=\"88677164\"></p><p>A big thank you to Emma Colligan for joining me in this amazing and humorous conversation. She's paving the way for these up and coming Kiwi rockstar violinists! And a big thank you to our beloved teacher Mark Lakirovich for teaching us all, his students.</p><p>If you feel so inspired, reach out to someone who's made a big difference in your life, and thank them. Do it before it's too late. Not to be morbid, but who doesn't love to be appreciated and be able to savor it while they're alive and well?</p><p>Thanks for tuning in or scrolling through. Stay well and take care :)</p><p>Have a wonderful day,</p><p>Aldís</p>","author_name":"Podcast"}