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 3/4, 2021
I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween and start to November!
Jaron – congratulations on finishing Perpetual Motion!
– 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 try to create smaller gaps in between your fingers), and Allegretto (watch out for 1-3-2 fingering pattern and try to add in short and long rhythms).
Olivia – good luck on your playing test, you will do great!
– Reminder: we will be online on Zoom next week
– Recommended practice time: 30 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: review 2-octave Major and minor scales (try to memorise fingering pattern for each scale, and focus on E Major shift to fourth position with high third finger), Danse Macabre (practice shifts to second, third, and fourth position, watch out for accidentals, and try to keep up the rhythms), and see if there’s anything you’d like to add to our Zero to Hero arrangement!
Amaia
– 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), O Come Little Children (this is coming along very nicely! Just keep up adding the short and long rhythm patterns to the whole piece), and May Song (with focus on the second line and bow crossing).
Thea – congratulations on finishing your first lesson!
– Here is the Google drive link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/13-qNAAapmHO1gFC9jwNAEtvyxOe4O30t
– Recommended practice time: 20 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: G, D, and A Major scales (if you can, play in front of a mirror so you can keep an eye on your posture and bow), Gavotte (play through first few lines and re-familiarise yourself with the notes), and Concerning Hobbits (play through first two lines and re-familiarise yourself with the notes, take out grace notes first if you need to and then add them back in once you feel comfortable with the main notes).
Grace
– Recommended practice time: 20 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: 2-octave Major scales (with focus on new scale E Major shifting to fourth position, and make sure to keep third finger high for G# and D#), and Gavotte (practice saving the bow during sixteenth note slurs and don’t be afraid to pizz harder at the end for more sound!).
Hendry – congratulations on finishing Waltz!
– 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 paying attention to intonation and singing the scale beforehand), D minor scale (1 octave, natural and harmonic, watch out for raised C# in harmonic with large gap between fingers), Bouree (play through slowly and get familiar with the ntoes), and Catharsis (watch out for key signature changes and practice shift in the end section).
Thank you, stay safe, and happy playing!
