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 – January 5/6, 2022
Happy new year, everybody! I hope you all had a wonderful winter break!
Jaron
– Recommended practice time: 15 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: G, D, and A Major scales (doing our usual posture and bow hold check each time before playing, and make sure your fingers are not stretched too high for 3-2-1-0 going down the scale), and Allegretto (watch out for leaps 1-3-2 and continue adding in the accents).
Olivia
– 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 review old scales like D and C Major), Mamma Mia (play through and get familiar with the notes again, and make sure to incorporate more dynamics especially at the beginning and end), and see if there’s anything you want to add to our Zero to Hero arrangement.
Amaia – congratulations on finishing May Song!
– Recommended practice time: 15 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: G, D, and A Major scales (doing our usual posture and bow hold check each time before playing, and make sure your hand does not slide up the neck of your violin), and Long Long Ago (watch out for your first finger on D string (E) in the third line and add in long short-short rhythms).
Grace – congratulations on finishing Suzuki Violin Book 1!
– Recommended practice time: 30 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: 2-octave Major scales (look out for shifts to fourth and fifth position and try to keep your fingers closer together in those higher positions), and Judas Maccabeas (play through slowly and get familiar with the notes, and focus on fourth line with the accidentals and string crossings).
Hendry
– Recommended practice time: 30 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: C, D, E-flat, F, and G Major scales (2 octaves, doing our usual posture and bow hold check each time before playing, and really paying attention to intonation do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do), D minor scale (1 octave, review the differences between natural, harmonic, melodic), Two Grenadiers (watch out for 1.5+0.5 syncopated uneven rhythms, and make sure your low first finger for B-flat is low enough), and Catharsis (aim higher for shifts to third position, and aim lower for low first fingers for E-flat and B-flat).
Thank you, stay safe, and happy playing!
