Springfield Area String Teachers

Margaret Blair, Westfield MA
Instrument(s): Violin, viola, beginner cello
Style: Classical
Student type: Beginner, intermediate, advanced
Contact email: margaretblairstudios@gmail.com
Contact phone: 413-303-0088
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Professional Credentials
Margaret Blair studied at the University of Massachusetts, Westfield State College, and Meadowmount Music School under Lucy Robert and Charles Treger. With 20+ years of teaching experience, Blair combines elements of Suzuki, traditional, and contemporary teaching methods to make each lesson engaging and interesting.

Charles Smith, Chicopee MA
Instrument(s): Cello
Style: Classical, Fiddle, Other
Student type: beginners, intermediate, advanced, children, adults
Contact email: csmith@cks.edu
Contact phone: 585 356 4533

Professional Credentials
Cellist, Charles Brayton Smith has distinguished himself as a versatile performer of both the classical and contemporary music repertoire including such diverse genres as jazz, folk and dalcroze eurythmic improvisation. At the age of fifteen, he played the cello for the first time, and prodigiously made his orchestral solo debut with the Buffalo Youth Symphony as well as receiving both the prestigious Ambassador and Presidential scholarships to the Longy School of Music of Bard College as a student of Dr. Terry King.

During his tenure at the Longy Conservatory, he served as Dr. King’s teaching assistant, where he gained invaluable experience working with undergrad and graduate students. In addition to his teaching, Mr. Smith has taught numerous outreach workshops for the culturally underserved communities of New England and New York and served on the faculty of El Sistema Boston.

Charles has performed as principal cellist of the Lyrica Boston Chamber Orchestra, the King Cello Ensemble, the Longitude Contemporary Music Collective, and as a guest cellist in the Buffalo Philharmonic. Mr. Smith’s solo recitals and performances include such diverse concert venues as the Kleinhans Music Hall of Buffalo, NY, Vienna’s Musikverein, and the Rodolfnum Dvorak Hall in Prague, Sanders Theater at Harvard University, the School of Music at Colorado University, Christ the King Seminary, Diocese of Buffalo, and the Roxbury and Waltham, MA public elementary schools.

Mr. Smith holds a performance diploma from the Longy School of Music at Bard College and will be graduating from Empire State University with a B.A. in Philosophy in the Spring of 2015. He is currently collaborating on a cello methodology book on cello technique with his teacher and mentor, Terry King.



Teacher Comments:
I believe that all learning—and more importantly, all authentic teaching—is motivated by this basic human need: the need to find the answers. Therefore, rather than being one who simply dictates information to others, my role as a teacher is to be at the service of the questions and curiosities of the student.

I love to learn; acquiring knowledge is its own reward. I am grateful to be a teacher, because it gives me the opportunity to share that love with others.