Teach Yourself Violin

The man who made me believe that it is possible to teach yourself violin is Professor Eric Lewis and I owe him a huge debt of gratitude. Professor Lewis’s credentials are first class. He has been on the music faculty of the Western Connecticut State University for over thirty years where, as director of chamber music and orchestral studies, he teaches string students, chamber music, music history and theory, and he also conducts the WCSU Orchestra.
Born in New York. Eric Lewis attended the Manhattan School of Music where he received both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in violin performance. He played in their world renowned Manhattan String Quartet, as first violin, performing on critically acclaimed recordings and winning plaudits from TIME magazine.
Another string to Eric Lewis’s bow (pardon the pun) was that he was the United States cultural ambassador to the former Soviet Union during the 1980s. During which time he performed and taught with the Manhattan String Quartet in all of the states of the Soviet Union before the 1990 dissolution.
As well as maintaining a busy teaching schedule, Professor Lewis has also managed to develop his chamber music, both as a performer and as a conductor. He has formed several ensembles including the acclaimed Prometheus Piano Quartet which is a touring and recording ensemble.
To top all this he has managed to launch “The Eric Lewis Method”, a revolutionary technique which enables people to learn how to play the violin extremely quickly and at a very low cost – the price of a couple of movie tickets. His plan being to make violin lessons accessible to as many people as possible.

In recent years, Eric Lewis has broadened his performing as a chamber music artist, violin soloist, and conductor with the formation of several innovative ensembles such as Delphi, a duo with soprano Dr. Margaret Astrup (WCSU Faculty member); the Camerata Chamber Orchestra founded with Katherine Dorn Lewis and Dr. Kevin Isaacs (WCSU faculty member) he conducts and performs as violin soloist; and the acclaimed Prometheus Piano Quartet, which is a recording and touring chamber ensemble.
Mr. Lewis also maintains a busy teaching schedule wherever he travels training young violinists and professional ensembles for performing careers. He has a major commitment to bring great music into the lives of school children and has given so far, over a 1000 young people’s concerts especially for children.

[MSQ], with Eric Lewis as its first violinist, has become well known as a premier touring and recording ensemble to classical music lovers all over the world – North and South America, Europe, Russia, China, and Japan. He was U.S. cultural ambassador to the former Soviet Union during the Glosnost era of the 1980’s giving concerts and teaching with the MSQ in all of the states of the Soviet Union just before its dissolution in 1990. Critically acclaimed recordings of his performances with the MSQ are available on Musical Heritage Society, Centaur, Newport Classics, KOCH International, ESS.A.Y and SONY Classics. The quartet was recognized by TIME magazine for their traversal of the Shostakovich String Quartets as the “Best classical recordings of 1991”. Also during the period of the 1980’s he gave concerts to an international audience over a network of 150 radio stations from the Music Mountain Chamber Music Center in Falls Village, CT. He was the music director there from 1981-1989.
Professor Eric Lewis has been on the Western Connecticut State University music department faculty for thirty years. In 1978, pianist Howard Tuvelle, WCSU professor emeritus and Marian Anderson asked Eric Lewis to join them in the formation of the Charles Ives Center for the Performing Arts at WestConn. Ever since then he has been as director of chamber music and orchestral studies teaching string students, chamber music, classes in music history and theory, and conducting the WCSU Orchestra.

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