OUR STORY

Violin Breakfast started in our home in 2015 when my daughter, Ava was 5. We were starting kindergarten that fall having begun informal violin lessons with me in the summer. I wondered how we would keep our momentum going once kindergarten started…while we were having her favorite breakfast in our kitchen, Ava looked sad for a moment and announced she felt sorry for her violin who couldn’t enjoy this time with us two rooms away. I saw her earnest face and answered that we could take our waffles into the music room to have breakfast in there. We ended up playing open strings to “wake up the room”. Ava smiled and said, “It’s Violin Breakfast!”…And so it began.

At the two week mark of this new morning tradition I realized it changed our energy, our connection to each other, even our mindset for the rest of the day. It heightened our curiosity & boosted our optimism for learning new things. It encouraged us to explore beauty in every way. We talked about color and texture and feelings. It changed us forever & here we are 11 years later. What was 10 minutes has become so much more.

When we moved to the west coast, a few students asked me to do pure fundamentals like I did with Ava & I hesitated. I was unclear if I could capture it outside my own home & on Zoom but I decided to try. Not only was it possible, it was beautiful and fulfilling even over a screen. Soon after that, the pandemic hit and I decided to try it in a zoom class setting. I saw kids all over the world on lockdown so I invited them to come together with me to create a safe place to learn and grow.

This is the story of Violin Breakfast!