“We were thrilled to have found Emily to teach the violin to our middle-school-aged son over these past two years. Emily is simply an outstanding teacher and our son is making rapid progress under her guidance. She has a very engaging and upbeat teaching manner, with clear explanations for even difficult concepts. She also provides our son with a nice balance of technical and artistic instruction. The lesson exercises and pieces have been extremely well chosen and provide a great framework for the practice sessions between lessons. Her whole approach keeps our son engaged, and he is enjoying the violin more than ever under Emily’s guidance. In short, Emily is all we could ask for in a violin teacher for our son and we heartily recommend her to anyone wanting to study the violin.”
Greg and Suzanne Burton
“We are most happy to write these words of recommendation for Emily Derstine. Emily is our 13-year-old grandson’s violin teacher. We first hired Emily during the summer of 2019. She was highly recommended to us, by a local professional violin instructor. Emily established an instant rapport and created an excitement for learning the violin, in our grandson. She consistently models the concepts, checks for student understanding, encourages questions and is eager to provide thoughtful explanations. Emily is quick to praise obvious good practicing, student effort, and a lesson well done. At the conclusion of each lesson, Emily reviews the concepts learned, and then articulates written expectations and goals for the following lesson. Our grandson always looks forward to his violin lesson. Much of this we credit to Emily. She is an excellent teacher. We are both musicians and do so appreciate the professionalism and expertise Emily continues to share with our grandson!”
Maureen and Jack Coffey
Innovative Harmonies Studio 