Master of Music (Boston University)
Bachelor of Arts (Brandeis University)
Zoe Fong is a M.M. graduate of Boston University School of Music and B.A. graduate of Brandeis University, where she studied music education and music composition respectively. She is a viola, violin, and ukulele player and has performed (primarily as a violist) in Canada, the United States, Austria, Germany, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and the Philippines. As a composition student at Brandeis, she focused on film scoring and minored in film studies, and additionally went abroad to Vienna, Austria for one semester to focus on viola performance. She loves musical theatre as well and has experience as a music director, conductor, performer, pit orchestra musician, and producer in various community and university productions.
While Zoe has found joy in many musical areas, she has found her true calling in music education. She has taught a range of ages and musical subjects including preschool music, elementary chorus, band, strings, and general music, middle school jazz band and strings, high school strings, chorus, and music theory, and private viola, violin, and composition lessons. There is nothing she loves more than sharing her passion for music and helping her students find their own passion and artistic voice.
Get to know Zoe…Beyond the Bio!
Hobbies: Teaching myself new instruments, dancing, reading
Musical influences: Kim Kashkashian, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Danny Elfman
Favourite food: Dumplings
Least favourite food: Broccoli
Favorite music: A little of everything!
Favourite song: Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen
Favourite movie: Ladybird
Favourite movie music: Edward Scissorhands – Danny Elfman
Favourite musical theatre/opera: Les Miserables, Hadestown, and Hamilton
Best quote from your teacher: “Don’t leave your baggage at the door. Bring it in and let’s make music with it.”
Favourite quote: “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” – Leonard Bernstein
Favourite book: The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon…and also Harry Potter by JK Rowling
Latest Homework from Zoe
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Weekly Homework Post – April 30th, 2020
I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy!
Olivia
– Reminder: try to find the Zoom link and music in your email a few minutes before class starts, so it doesn’t take up class time.
– Recommended practice time: usually, I would advise 30-45 min/day 5 days/week, but I know this is a difficult time and that it is hard to get the motivation to practice, especially as a social musician. So instead, try to set small, easily achievable goals. For example: “Today, I will practice for just 5 minutes” or “Today, I will play 3 scales.” Hopefully, these won’t seem overwhelming and will get you playing at least a little. And then later, we can keep adding on to it.
– Practice: All A scales (major, natural minor, harmonic minor, melodic minor – two octaves), go over left hand positions (1-2, 2-3, 3-4, open, and spock), and practice treble clef notation reading on musictheory.net. On the homepage, go to “exercises” and the first exercise “note identification”. Say the letter name out loud first before playing on your violin. Finally, go over the first few lines of Judas Maccabeas and listen to the piece on YouTube.
Hendry
– Reminder: we have a new lesson time of 2:15 pm. Thank you so much for your patience and understanding over the confusion and mix-up this week.
– Recommended practice time: 15-20 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: D Major scale (with both 1-2 and 2-3 finger positions), Oh Come Little Children (bowings), May Song (dynamics), and Long Long Ago (notes and rhythms, and listen to the piece on YouTube). Continue to slowly play through Question, and if you’d like, you can start looking at Disillusion. It’s a difficult piece but we will go through it slowly!
Thank you and happy playing!
