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 6/7, 2021
I hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving weekend!
Jaron – great work sight-reading the last 2 lines of Allegretto today!
– Recommended practice time: 15 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: window washer bow hold exercises, G,D, and A Major scales (doing our usual posture and bow hold check each time before playing, try to keep curved bow hold during at least one scale each), Perpetual Motion (practice playing through without stopping and with consistent tempo), and Allegretto (full piece – play through slowly and get familiar with the notes, especially in the second half).
Olivia – good luck with your duet performance!
– Reminder: upload information for ABC to go back in-person
– 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, focus on E Major with the shift to fourth position), Mirror duet (adding in slurs and keeping consistent tempo with partner), Go the Distance (ending section and shifts), and see if there’s anything you want 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 (full piece – play through slowly and get familiar with the notes, especially in the second half, and starting phrases with the up bow), and May Song (beginning phrase, and look ahead if you’d like!).
Preet – congratulations on learning your first full song!
– Recommended practice time: 15 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: window washer bow hold exercises, warm-up 0-1-2-3-2-1-0 on each string, G, D, and A Major scales, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (theme – full song, play through slowly and get used to the notes, and variation A first two lines, look ahead if you’d like!).
Grace – I hope you feel better soon!
– Recommended practice time: 20 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: 2-octave scales (focus on differentiating B-flat and B Major, and also the scales with shifting, G and D Major), Happy Farmer (watch out for intonation on A string and save the bow), and Gavotte (play through first four lines slowly and get familiar with the notes).
Hendry
– Recommended practice time: 30 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: C, D, E-flat, F, and G Major scales (doing our usual posture and bow hold check each time before playing, with focus on new scale G Major with shifting to third position), Long Long Ago (prepare for final play-through next time with down-up-up bowings and dynamics), and Catharsis (play through sixteenth note and triplet passages slowly, and then build faster until you reach the tempo, and continue to watch out for low first finger and high third finger).
Thank you, stay safe, and happy playing!
