COREY GEMMELL, VIOLIN TEACHER

An Innovative Teacher

​

I have taught violin for over 30 years. I work with students of all levels, ranging from beginners to advanced violinists and all the way to professional violinists perhaps looking for other perspectives. After starting at the Kingsway Conservatory of Music I taught for several years at the Royal Conservatory of Music as well as at the University of Western Ontario’s Don Wright Faculty of Music. I am currently a member of the Royal College of Examiners with the Royal Conservatory of Music and I am on faculty at the National Music Camp of Canada as well as the Great Lakes International Summer Music Institute at Algoma University. I have had the privilege to be an adjudicator on numerous panels across Canada for various local festivals, awards competitions and the Canadian Music Competition. Several of my students are themselves violin teachers, schoolteachers and professional performers with various ensembles and orchestras across North America. At present I maintain a private studio offering lessons in person as well as online from across Canada.

With my experience working with a broad range of levels I am equally at home preparing a violinist for a music festival, school music tests, Royal Conservatory of Music Examinations, university auditions and professional auditions. I myself was fortunate to have teachers who imbued my musical education with a strong sense of curiosity and a desire to understand not only how things should sound better but also the mechanical means by which this might be achieved. Thus, my approach at any stage is one of analyzing musical as well as technical challenges, seeking possible solutions and employing methods to get results. Having a vast library of materials, I often use study methods and exercises from many sources. If I find that there is not one suitable for the task at hand then I, along with my student, go through the process of creating one. I liken my instructional approach to that of a handyman or tradesperson; first one needs to build up a studio or garage and fill it with various tools and equipment. Then one needs to learn how to use them and finally, and most importantly, one needs to learn when to use them. 

My approach to teaching the violin is the same I use as a performer.  In this way my activities as a performer and my work as a violin teacher are profoundly linked together, one assisting the other as I am equally at home on the concert stage as I am in my teaching studio.