Violin Bootcamp

Before teaching for Mason Community Arts Academy, Claire was a teaching assistant at the Baltimore School for the Arts where she coached chamber music, directed sectionals, and assisted with the orchestras. She also taught privately in an outreach program that provided free lessons to inner-city school children, To Work In Gaining Skills (TWIGS). She has also been on faculty at the Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory Outreach Department. During her teacher training, Claire completed two levels of Suzuki teacher training at the Greater Washington Area Suzuki Institute and studied pedagogy with Rebecca Henry at the Peabody Conservatory. In summer 2013, she attended a pedagogy workshop at Indiana University directed by Mimi Zweig.

As a performer, Claire is a member of the first violin section in the McLean Orchestra. She is a founder of the Faculty String Quartet at Academy. Highlights from the 2016-2017 season include a solo recital at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, orchestral performances with the McLean Orchestra, and chamber music performances as part of Fairfax City’s Spotlight on the Arts festival.

Claire created a recital to promote the music of female composers in June 2016, in which she and her students performed with pianist David Norfrey and Cora Cooper, the editor of the Violin Music By Women Anthologies. She performed works by Rebecca Clarke, Clara Schumann, and Amanda Maier. In addition to performance, Claire co-taught a teacher training workshop on the Violin Music By Women Anthologies and awareness of gender issues in the modern violin studio. Her blogs on the subject have been featured on Violinist.com.

Claire holds a Master of Music degree from Peabody Conservatory and a Bachelor of Music degree, summa cum laude, from Baldwin-Wallace College. Her primary teachers include Rebecca Henry, Keng-Yuen Tseng, Burton Kaplan, Julian Ross, and Lisa Cridge. She performs on a modern violin made by Tetsuo Matsuda.

In May 2016, Rachel completed a Master of Music program in Violin Performance at George Mason University. While at GMU, Rachel studied with June Huang and was concertmaster of the Mason Symphony Orchestra. In April 2016, Rachel gave a solo recital at the United Christian Parish in Reston, VA.

Rachel holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Violin Pedagogy from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where her primary instructors were Mimi Zweig and Dr. Brenda Brenner. While at IU, Rachel studied the methodology of pedagogues, Paul Rolland and Shinichi Suzuki. These influential violin teachers greatly enhance Rachel’s teaching style. While studying at IU, Rachel was a lead teacher for the Fairview Elementary Violin Project, a music program for underserved children in Bloomington, IN. She also taught supplemental lessons at the IU String Academy. From 2008-2012, she was a member of the IU symphony orchestras, performing in a vast array of orchestral, operatic, and ballet performances. In 2010, Rachel performed a solo recital at Ford Theater at Indiana University. In 2012-2013, Rachel taught elementary general music, elementary violin class, and middle school string orchestra at KIPP DC public charter school in Washington, D.C.

Rachel is committed to developing professionally as a teacher and performer. She is an active member of the American String Teachers Association and is on the board of the Virginia chapter of American String Teachers Association. One of her duties as a VASTA board member is to produce and publish ‘Fingerboard’ e-newsletters for the string teaching community of Virginia. In 2015, 2014 and 2012, Rachel attended the national conferences for the American String Teachers Association.

Most of all, Ms. Renner is fascinated with teaching. Her students provide inspiration for diving further into her musical studies and learning more about transmitting technique and musicality through each lesson. She has received training in the Suzuki Method, the Mark O’Connor Method, a certification in Music Mind Games, and has attended numerous teacher workshops. In addition to her private teaching, Ms. Renner teaches music and movement classes at several area preschools.

Ms. Renner received her Masters of Music in Viola Performance, with an emphasis in violin and viola pedagogy, from the Peabody Institute in 2014. She studied under Victoria Chiang and Rebecca Henry. She also received her Bachelor of Music at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she studied with Katherine Murdock.