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 – October 27/28, 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 make sure your fingers aren’t stretched too high), Perpetual Motion (keep aiming for that final play-through! Practice playing the whole piece without stopping and with consistent tempo), and Allegretto (add in rhythms short-short-long).
Olivia – good luck with your playing test!
– 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 especially on scales with shifting such as D and E Major), Danse Macabre (shifting positions, and watch out for B-flat and E-flat in the key signature – lots of low ones!), and see if there’s anything you want to add to our Zero to Hero arrangement.
Amaia – your Halloween costume looked fantastic, I hope you have a great Halloween!
– 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 – although your posture and bow hold look great, just a good routine to have!), O Come Little Children (try to aim for finishing this piece in the next few weeks, focus on incorporating long and short rhythms into the second half of the piece, the first half sounds good), and May Song (full piece now, focus on second line, just play through slowly and get familiar with the notes).
Preet
– Recommended practice time: 15 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: 0-1-2-3-2-1-0 fingering patterns on each string (warm-up), G, D, and A Major scales (doing our usual posture and bow hold check each time before playing), Twinkle (theme and variations A, C, and D – make sure C and D have different rhythms for long-short-short and equal 1-2-3-), and Lightly Row (watch out for second line and playing 5 of each note, and make sure your hand isn’t slowly sliding up the neck of the violin).
Grace
– Recommended practice time: 20 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: 2 octave Major scales (with focus on shifting to third position in G and D Major, plus our new scale shift to fourth position in E Major), and Gavotte (practice sixteenth note passages slowly and then increasing tempo, and watch out for intonation and try not to go too sharp in the first section).
Hendry – congratulations on playing through to the end of Catharsis! Now, to master it!
– 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 pay close attention to intonation), D minor scale (1 octave, natural and now adding our new harmonic scale, where the seventh note is raised to C#), Waltz (add in dynamics, legato, and tempo changes), and Catharsis (practice third position shift at the end, and keep watching out for key changes between E-flat Major and D Major).
Thank you, stay safe, and happy playing!
