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 – February 24/25, 2021
Jaron
– Reminder: most of your strings are out of tune so if you can, please bring your violin to school one day and have your music teacher there tune it for you!
– Recommended practice time: 15 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: G, D, and A Major scales (make sure to squeeze your second and third fingers together on the fingerboard and do your usual bow hold and posture check before playing), O Come Little Children (lots of improvement with the up bow! Keep it up and prepare for a final play-through!), and May Song (focus on dotted-quarter rhythms in the beginning and E-string crossing in the second line)
Olivia
– Recommended practice time: 30 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: review 2-octave scales (especially those with shifting, and continue to try to memorise fingering patterns for each scale), Avatar State (we will be wrapping this up soon but keep on focusing on shifting to third position at the end), and Mirror duet (with focus on second section and keeping those eighth notes even!)
Amaia
– Reminder: if you can and have time, please get your violin tuned! I know it can be difficult during the pandemic, so I recommend calling ahead to a music store like Long & McQuade and seeing if they can do curbside pick-up for tuning. Another option is to see if a music teacher at Amaia’s school knows how to tune a violin. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about this!
– Recommended practice time: 15 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: G, D, and A Major scales (doing a posture and bow hold check each time before playing, and make sure to squeeze the second and third fingers together on the fingerboard!), Twinkle (theme and variations – especially with variation B, see if you can sing “bacon and” before playing), and Lightly Row (first line – play through slowly and learn the notes)
Hendry
– Recommended practice time: 20 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: G, D, and A Major scales (1 octave), C Major scale (2 octaves – and keep on doing your posture and bow hold checks each time you play), Minuet 2 (slowly play through and get familiar with the notes, and look out for up-up bowing pattern), Question (we are not playing this one as consistently but make sure to keep practicing this from time to time), and Starting the Case (practice E-flat Major to get used to fingering pattern for second section, and first two lines of second section – watch out for low first finger!).
Grace – congratulations on finishing your first song, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!
– Reminder: if you can, please purchase Suzuki Violin Book 1
– Recommended practice time: 15 min/day, 5 days/week
– Practice: down-up-down-up bowing pattern using long bows on open strings, G, D, and A Major scales (doing a posture and bow hold check each time you play), and Lightly Row (with focus on half notes and using those long bows).
Thank you and happy playing!
