Interview with Kathryn Andersen - The Juilliard School

Not so long ago we had an amazing conversation with Kathryn Andersen, Regents curriculum specialist from Juilliard, and so we want to share it with you! So let’s get this started!

As she is a professional violin player we asked her why she chose violin above other instruments. She first said that her family is not a musical family, then she told us that when she was in Year 4 there was a lady that came and performed a piece of music on the violin. She truly enjoyed it. So after school she ran home and told her parents that she wanted to play the violin and so there it was, the story was about to begin!

As we continued the conversation...Did she like her lesson? Well, as she explained, everyone has hard weeks or hard pieces to learn and it is sometimes a struggle. However she always left her lessons feeling motivated and having learnt something. We could understand what she was saying as everyone has hard times in their learning experiences. She told us that she had to compose music at her school and that sometimes she enjoyed it and sometimes she found it quite hard.

Since we all know that she is a really incredible violinist we asked her how many hours she practiced for every day (as we realised that she didn’t get ‘that good’ from only spending a few hours a week). She told us that when she was young she used to practice from 1 to 4 hours. Then we wondered how did she have time to study? Well, she surely she had to make time...and stay up late!

A random fact for you - she has already played to Hillary Clinton!

Did you know that Kathryn has not got a particular favourite type of music. We thought that she would love to play classical music as this is what she plays on her violin. We asked her if she had ever tried playing rock on her violin before...she hasn’t, but now we have asked her about it she is going to try!

Article by Nicole and Sima, Students in Year 6S