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Mainz ProjectThese were at least the seeds which sprouted later, through experience, and my mentor, Josef Gingold. His generosity of spirit, his humanity, and love for life radiated with a force. He inspired his students to love music, the violin and therefore, life. He was a wonderful storyteller, and could make even the most awful of jokes hilariously funny. What a sense of timing! We learned rubato that way. I had other influences also and here I would like to mention a few: Arthur Grumiaux, Shinichi Suzuki, Jascha Heifetz, Denes Zsigmondy, Gyorgy Sebok, David Oistrakh, Dinu Lipatti, Clara Haskil, Annie Fischer, Yehudi Menuhin, Rostislav Dubinsky, Andras Schiff, Wilhelm Fürtwangler.  Many of them through recordings, and a few through personal contact. And of course, there were the influences through reading great literature, and seeing great art.

Getting your education through experience and music gives you such a sense of gratitude, and makes you believe in something greater than just looking at objects. Beautiful objects were created by someone, someone with a big spirit after all! Having contact with people who are more mature than you, more enlightened than you, more experienced that you, gives you such a feeling of inspiration, and only underlines your own feelings of believing in the impossible. It is faith in life. That is what leads me to value education more than anything. I want to give each child the feeling of making the impossible possible. I want them to feel their inner creative spirit, their innate potential, they’re uniqueness. I want them to respect life and make this world a more compassionate, enlightened, kinder world, a world with a bright future. It is up to us to give our next generation the tools, knowledge, and especially the spirit to navigate our rapidly changing times with insight, foresight, love and passion.

As a musician, I have firsthand knowledge of how powerful music is to transform childrens’ lives. Because it is everything; language, sports, science, math, philosophy, history, art, spirit, LIFE! It is the best way to educate children. It begins at that critical time and allows all that innate creative potential to flourish and blossom. That is why I have dedicated my life to music education. Education must be serious and fun, work and play, challenging and simple, creative and thoughtful, structured and free. This balance is difficult to strike, but without it, we have at least some chaos! I developed my method to try to accomplish this, and I hope it will help at least some people. We cannot and should not treat children like robots. They need structure, but not for us to tie them down rigidly. They have souls, each unique. We must respect that and deliver a curriculum which fosters individuality, confidence, creativity, and a belief in themselves, a faith in life.

I believe with good education, we can and will see a future which is full of light and happiness. We need to work together towards our common goal, our common good, a joy of life. Back