Ms. Laura Eis

Violin, Viola, Cello Teacher

Laura Eis

SAA Member

Contact

Greenville, NC
203-252-4266
[javascript protected email address]

Laura Eis, raised in West Hartford, Connecticut began playing the violin at age nine. Throughout her pre-collegiate education she studied violin with Steve Wood while continuing to play in the public school system. During her junior year of high school Ms. Eis toured in Europe with I Giovani Solisti, a select group of 21 string players from both of the high schools in West Hartford. She also appeared as soloist with the Conard High School Orchestra during the spring of her senior year.

Ms. Eis matriculated to Susquehanna University in the fall of 1996 where she soon established a teaching studio of 15 violin students through the SU Preparatory Program. During her sophomore year of college Ms. Eis assumed the position of concertmaster of the newly formed SU orchestra under the direction of Dr. Jennifer Sacher Wiley. In addition to playing in the SU orchestra, she also managed the orchestra and was the student coordinator for the PADESTA w/ PSOA Festival in the fall of 1998. Her private teachers and coaches at SU included Dr. Wiley, Dr. John Zurfluh, Carl Iba, and Andrew Rammon.

Her summers were spent pursuing educational experiences in both teaching and performing. In 1999 Ms. Eis received training in the Suzuki Method at a Suzuki Teacher Training Workshop at Ithaca College. The summer of 2000 she spent in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado at Rocky Ridge Music Center. Ms. Eis returned to Ithaca College in the summer of 2003 to receive her Suzuki Book 2 Teacher Training with Edward Kreitman and later completed the Suzuki Book 3 training at The Hartt School of Music with Stevie Sandven. In 2005 she received Suzuki Book 4 Teacher Training with Edmund Sprunger at Ithaca College. During the summers of 2006, 2009, and 2010, Ms. Eis spent two weeks in Stamford, England playing chamber music at the Stamford International Music Festival.

In the spring of 2001 Ms. Eis student taught in the Williamsport Area School District under the supervision of Walter Straiton and James Bertrand. She graduated from Susquehanna University cum laude with a BM in Music Education and a Pennsylvania teaching certificate in 2001.

From 2001 to 2004 Ms. Eis taught private violin and viola lessons to a studio of over 50 students in central Pennsylvania. She was the founder and music director of the Susquehanna Valley Youth Orchestra and was the director of the Susquehanna University Preparatory Program. Ms. Eis was a violin and viola faculty member at the Suzuki Music School of Westport in Westport, Connecticut from 2004-2006 where she taught private lessons and group classes.

Other notable engagements have included performing as a guest section player for the Penn State Chamber Orchestra’s 1999 European tour, playing principal second violin of the MENC Future Teachers of America Honors Orchestra at the 2000 national conference, competing as a semi finalist in the 2001 Susquehanna University Concerto Competition, and playing principal second violin of the PADESTA w/ PSOA Orchestra Festival at Penn State University in 2001. Ms. Eis has also performed with the Williamsport Symphony Orchestra, the Susquehanna Valley Chorale, the Williamsport Chamber Choir and Orchestra, the Hershey Park Pops, the Smokey Robinson Band, the Fayetteville Symphony, the Tar River Orchestra, the New Carolina Sinfonia, the ECU Chamber Orchestra, was concertmaster of the Beaufort County Concert Orchestra, and is currently the concertmaster of the Pitt Community College Orchestra. In March of 2008 she played principal second violin with the Susquehanna University Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in celebration of the schools sesquicentennial. During the summer of 2008 Ms. Eis performed in England as a musical ambassador from North Carolina, and performed and taught in Brazil for Music Alive! A US-Brazil Higher Music Education Consortium with the Orquestra Filarmônica do Espírito Santo.

In May of 2008 Ms. Eis completed the Master of Music degree in Violin Performance and Suzuki Pedagogy at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. Her private teachers and coaches included Dr. Jorge Richter, Yoram Youngerman, Emanuel Gruber, and Keiko Sekino. She was office manager to Suzuki teacher trainer Joanne Bath, and completed Suzuki Teacher Training for Violin Books 1-10. As a graduate assistant Ms. Eis was the director of the Ira Hardy Suzuki Violin Program at Bath Elementary School and has been the assistant director of the North Carolina Suzuki Institute since 2007. In May of 2009 Ms. Eis completed a Certificate of Advanced Performance Studies in viola with Melissa Reardon at ECU and is currently working on a second Master of Music degree in music theory. She continues to perform at the university and in the community and is the current treasurer of the North Carolina Suzuki Association. Ms. Eis teaches private and group violin and viola lessons in Greenville, NC, and hopes to eventually become a Suzuki teacher trainer.