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 – May 4/5, 2022
Just a reminder to record and send in a video of your performance by this Sunday, May 8th! All videos will be broadcast live on Facebook on Tuesday, May 10th, at 7 pm. For more information on how to do this, click here: https://www.music-lessons.ca/important-reminder-recital-changes/
Jaron – thanks for being proactive about finding fourth finger exercises!
– Recommended practice time: 15 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: G, D, and A Major scales (1 octave, doing our usual posture and bow hold check each time before playing), G Major scale (2 octaves, watch out for intonation and make sure your left hand isn’t sliding up the neck of the violin, and practice replacing open strings with fourth finger), and Etude (focus on stretching fourth finger more to reach E).
Olivia – hope you’re able to get some rest soon!
– Reminder: get the buzzing in your violin checked out
– Recommended practice time: 30 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: Review 2-octave Major and minor scales (try to memorise fingering patterns for each scale, and focus on B and B-flat Major – make sure to stretch fourth finger for B Major), Go the Distance (practice full run-throughs and make sure your left hand doesn’t slide up the neck of the violin and cause all your notes to be too sharp), Spring (first page shifts and bowings, and play through second page slowly and get familiar with the notes), and piano skills (white key triads and sight-reading simple songs).
Amaia – nice work on sight-reading Perpetual Motion today!
– Recommended practice time: 15 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: G, D, and A Major scales (1 octave, doing our usual posture and bow hold check each time before playing), and Perpetual Motion (play through slowly and get familiar with the notes).
Isabella
– Recommended practice time: 15 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: Practice holding violin under chin with hands and no hands (in both plucking and bowing position, and make sure to maintain posture while playing exercises instead of just first few seconds of playing), review bow hold and window washer exercises, practice bowing down-up-down-up on each string, and play A-string, D-string, and G-string bowing exercises on the second page of the packet.
Grace – congratulations on finishing essays and exams!
– Recommended practice time: 30 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: 2-octave Major and minor scales (focus on new D minor scales and the shift to third position, and play scales on piano first before playing on violin – let’s see if that helps!), and Hunter’s Chorus (practice playing off of the duet page to prepare for playing together, and with a faster and more consistent tempo).
Hendry
– Recommended practice time: 30 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: C, D, E-flat, E, F, and G Major scales (2 octaves, doing our usual posture and bow hold check each time before playing, and focus on new scale E Major – make sure to stretch fourth finger higher), D minor scale (2 octaves – natural, melodic, harmonic, make sure second and third finger on C string are squeezed together), Gavotte (make sure long-short-short eighth-sixteenth-sixteenth phrases have a short staccato bow for the first note, and prepare for final play-through either next week or the week after), and Catharsis (focus on second page and playing everything in tempo, it is a bit faster than you think).
Thank you, stay safe, and happy playing!
