Kendra Grittani is an experienced cellist, having started playing at only four years old. Kendra has completed her Masters in cello performance at McGill University with accomplished symphonic and chamber musician, and cello professor, Elizabeth Dolin.
Kendra has performed with various orchestras including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the McGill Symphony Orchestra, the McGill Opera Orchestra, the Kitchener Waterloo Symphony, the Thunderbay Symphony Orchestra, and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada.
Recently, after forming the piano trio, Trio Meira, the chamber group swept the McGill Chamber Music Competition 2018, being awarded 1st prize. Along with a debut performance in Montreal, Trio Meira was awarded a week long residency at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.
Kendra has also had the privilege to perform alongside accomplished professionals such as Axel Strauss, Stephane Lemelin, Elizabeth Dolin, Ariel Barnes, Riko Higuma and many more. Kendra is currently a substitute musician with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra cello section, the Kitchener Waterloo Symphony cello section, and the Thunderbay Symphony Orchestra cello section. Kendra is working as a freelance cellist, chamber musician and as a private teacher in Toronto.
Get to know Kendra…Beyond the Bio!
Hobbies: Aerial Acrobatics, animal care.
Musical influences: Johannes Moser and Santiago Cañon-Valencia
Favourite food: Sushi
Least favourite food: onion
Favourite music: Esperanza Spalding and Ariana Grande
Favourite song: Midnight in Harlem – Tadeschi Trucks Band
Favourite musical theatre/opera: Hamilton
Favourite book: The Book Thief
Best thing about teaching at ABC: Exchanging teaching techniques with other excellent teachers
Latest Homework from KENDRA
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Matthew March 28th
Shifting exercise
- when landing on the shift, think of dropping the arm weight, don’t let your fingers flatten or buckle
- remember on the A string your left elbow will come closer to your body
G major 2 octaves
- even when doing one notes per bow, make sure it’s slow and from tip to frog
- try adding more than one note per bow if you feel comfortable going faster. Listen for tone and clarity of sound. The sound shouldn’t be wispy
- keep working with drones
- practice hiding your shift in the slur by gliding the finger/left hand along the string without touching the fingerboard. Raise left elbow before the shift.
- practice the shift with a metronome so you make sure you’re landing in time after the shift
- work on string crossing coordination with the bow. make sure left hand is downall the way before bowing
Keep working on D major
Elephant Waltz
- practice with G drone
- careful to not flatten fingers when switching between strings
- bring hand more compressed in higher positions
- check 4th finger D and fourth finger G with corresponding open strings
Tired Tortoise
- similar notes to elephant waltz regarding left hand, fingers and making the position smaller in higher position
- shift further back in 1st position
- work on adding the bow: string crossings! Practice as double stops, and rhythms. Think of the elbow anticipating the next string. Your elbow will trace a figure eight in the air.
- repeat the string crossing bar in the rhythm
- second half is softer and more in the string
- practice just A and D string crossings and try to make it sound as smooth as possible.
Minuet No. 2 (also in C)
- c drone. lower octave C and higher octave C should match
- the tendency is to be sharp. Check with open C string
- Great triplet! Loved the dynamics while pizzing.
- (second triplet was a little rushed) – practice singing it with correct rhythm
- subdivide long notes
- start addinig bow. make sure it’s sustained and connected
Preferred Books for Kendra’s Students
Click to buy them here, and they’ll come right to your house! What could be easier?
Suzuki Cello School
Teach cello with the popular Suzuki Cello School. The Suzuki Method(R) of Talent Education is based on Shinichi Suzuki’s view that every child is born with ability, and that people are the product of their environment. According to Shinichi Suzuki, a world-renowned violinist and teacher, the greatest joy an adult can know comes from developing a child’s potential so he/she can express all that is harmonious and best in human beings. Students are taught using the “mother-tongue” approach.
Suzuki Cello School
Teach cello with the popular Suzuki Cello School. The Suzuki Method(R) of Talent Education is based on Shinichi Suzuki’s view that every child is born with ability, and that people are the product of their environment. According to Shinichi Suzuki, a world-renowned violinist and teacher, the greatest joy an adult can know comes from developing a child’s potential so he/she can express all that is harmonious and best in human beings. Students are taught using the “mother-tongue” approach.
Suzuki Cello School
Teach cello with the popular Suzuki Cello School. The Suzuki Method(R) of Talent Education is based on Shinichi Suzuki’s view that every child is born with ability, and that people are the product of their environment. According to Shinichi Suzuki, a world-renowned violinist and teacher, the greatest joy an adult can know comes from developing a child’s potential so he/she can express all that is harmonious and best in human beings. Students are taught using the “mother-tongue” approach.
I Can Read Music
These easy-to-read, progressive exercises by Joanne Martin develop a student’s reading skills one stage at a time, with many repetitions at each stage. I Can Read Music is designed as a first note-reading book for students of string instruments who have learned to play using an aural approach such as the Suzuki Method(R), or for traditionally taught students who need extra note reading practice. Its presentation of new ideas is clear enough that it can be used daily at home by quite young children and their parents, with the teacher checking progress every week or two.
Position Pieces for Cello
Position Pieces for Cello is designed to give students a logical and fun way to learn their way around the fingerboard. Each hand position is introduced with exercises called “Target Practice,” “Geography Quiz,” and “Names and Numbers.” Following these exercises are tuneful cello duets that have been specifically composed to require students to play in that hand position. In this way, students gain a thorough knowledge of how to find the hand positions, and once there, which notes are possible to play.
