Mr. Russell T. Fallstad

Violin, Suzuki Early Childhood Education Teacher

SAA Member

Contact

Lewisburg, WV
435-232-2860
[javascript protected email address]

Violinist, songwriter, and music producer Russell Fallstad tours internationally and records with the renowned rock-pop-hiphop-violin duo, The Dueling Fiddlers. He began violin/viola lessons at age 5 in the public schools in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and received two classical performance degrees from Northwestern University. Shortly after college, he founded the Fry Street String Quartet, mentoring with classical legends Isaac Stern, The Juilliard Quartet, and The Emerson Quartet.

He subsequently toured and recorded with the Fry Street Quartet for 12 years before taking a hiatus from the classical world. Recently Russell has been developing a touring rock violin show called Rocktacular, which features local Suzuki kids from each city as part of the performance. He is also developing an online release of a new method for Suzuki learning at all ages called the HeartStrings Education
helping all musicians to play by ear, read, and improvise with equal ease, and he founded a music school chain called HeartStrings Academy, which has locations in Washington DC, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Russell taught college music performance for 7 years as a faculty member at Utah State University, and has also taught young children at Northwestern University, The Western Springs School of Talent Education/Naperville Suzuki School, The Music Institute of Chicago; he has taught String Pedagogy at DePaul University; and he founded the Suzuki Pedagogy Program at Utah State University’s Caine School of the Arts. Russell recently worked with actors in the Hollywood movie “A Late Quartet,” as musical coach during filming, has numerous videos on YouTube, and appears in an episode of the PBS children’s program, “Abracadabra.”