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 – November 24/25, 2021
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 making sure 3-2-1-0 going down the scale isn’t too sharp), and Allegretto (watch out for phrases that have leaps and are not linear, and try adding in accents to your playing).
Olivia
– Recommended practice time: 30 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: review 2-octave Major scales (try to memorise fingering patterns for each scale, and focus on new scale F Major with shifts to third and fifth position), Pirates (watch out for accidentals and make sure you’re counting while practicing with your classmates), and see if there’s anything you’d like to add to our Zero to Hero arrangement.
Amaia – congratulations on finishing O Come Little Children today!
– 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 – make sure your bow is staying in the middle of the bridge and fingerboard), and May Song (we didn’t have time for this today but make sure to still practice it! Especially the phrases with dotted quarter and eighth notes).
Grace
– Recommended practice time: 20 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: 2-octave Major scales (with focus on shifting in E Major and F Major – remember that they are very similar in terms of fingering), and Gavotte (smooth over notes and bowings and work on making those musical decisions such as what kind of bowing to use, fourth finger or open string, etc.).
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 making sure intonation is good especially in E-flat and F Major), D minor scale (1 octave – natural, melodic, harmonic, with focus on our newer melodic scale, remember it is the 6th and 7th note, going a half step up on the way up the scale, and then back down to its usual note on the way down the scale), Bouree (prepare for final play-through by adding in dynamics and expressiveness), and Catharsis (work on playing beginning in a slower tempo, we will try to play together again next time!).
Thank you, stay safe, and happy playing!
