SoCalViolin.com

LESSONS | REPERTOIRE | TRANSCRIPTIONS |
VIOLIN HISTORY

Welcome to SoCalViolin.com! I am a violinist, located in the San Fernando Valley. I have played the violin for most of my life and am devoted to passing on the great tradition of modern violin playing that I have learned through my extensive studies and performances over the decades. I am also dedicated to the cause of unearthing forgotten violin repertoire and bringing it back to the concert stages. I have an affinity for contemporary 20th century violin works. Please see my Repertoire.

I am available for Private Violin Lessons in person and via Zoom. I teach intermediate and advanced level students. If you are a high school or collegiate student performing a concerto or showpiece with orchestra or for a competition, I am happy to do sessions with you as an objective listener. Please email me at socalviolin1985@gmail.com for more information.


A few words of autobiographical info... I spent my formative years in Oregon, where I graduated from Oregon State University. After several years of working in Portland after graduation, I migrated south to Los Angeles. I attended UCLA for post-graduate studies and obtained a second degree from there. While a student in Oregon, I was a member of the Portland Youth Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Jacob Avshalomov. It was mostly during those years that I developed a deeper appreciation for 20th century works by such composers as Vaughan-Williams, Bloch, Szymanowski, Roy Harris, Charles Ives, and many, many others. My teacher during the four years I spent in this orchestra (the oldest youth orchestra in the US, and maybe the world) was Hugh Ewart, a former pupil of the legendary pedagogue Ivan Galamian at Juilliard, and for fifty seasons was Associate Concertmaster of the Oregon Symphony Orchestra. He was also Music Director Emeritus of the Young Musicians and Artists (YMA, Inc.) program in Salem. I worked for both the Oregon Symphony and YMA. I later studied with Carol Sindell, former Professor of Violin at Portland State University. I finished my formal training after moving to Los Angeles, with Ayke Agus.

Some of the other outstanding pedagogues I've been privileged to work with include Catherine Petersen (my first violin teacher, who was a pupil of D.C. Dounis), Lajos Balogh (pupil of Tibor Varga, who also worked with Kodaly), Sherry Kloss (legendary Teaching Assistant of Jascha Heifetz), Elaine Skorodin (1968 Paganini Competition laureate), Jeanne Skrocki (Associate Concertmaster of the Pacific Symphony), and George Shiolas (pupil of Charles Treger, 1962 Wieniawski Competition laureate.) I studied the piano and music theory with Sharon Sadilek-Baggett in Portland for six years, during which time I participated in and was a laureate of the Oregon Music Teachers Annual Composition Competition and Solo Piano Bach Festivals.

In addition to playing the violin, I am a sometime transcriber of pieces for violin and piano that were written originally for other instruments/orchestra. Please see the TRANSCRIPTIONS page.

In 2007, I began to build my Violin Autographs Collection, with help from David Sanders of the Chicago Symphony, who sold me a large number of items - artifacts, if you will - dating back to the year 1855! You can see these on the VIOLIN HISTORY page. It reflects, literally, over 160 years of violin history from Henri Vieuxtemps and Charles DeBeriot to Alexander Markov and Ida Haendel!

Thank you for visiting!!
-Andrew Ramage