Trista Darrington

Trista started playing the violin when she was three years old with Andrew Pudewa, Shinichi Suzuki’s student, and she received her degree in violin performance in May 2014. In addition to performing, Trista is a passionate violin and orchestra teacher. She has taught private violin lessons since 2005, and she has taught fourth and fifth grade orchestra in the Logan, UT area through Mountain West String Academy. Trista recently moved to Nebraska and is accepting new students.

She has studied with many of the best teachers in the states of Utah and Idaho including: BYU-Idaho professor and performer, Emma Rubenstein, Fry Street Quartet’s, Rebecca McFaul at Utah State University, Dr. Donna Fairbanks at Utah Valley University, and David Park of University of Utah.

Trista has participated in many different groups including the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square performing weekly on live television broadcasts, Teton Chamber Orchestra, the Yellowstone Chamber Orchestra, Utah State University Symphony, Utah Valley Symphony, and served as concert mistress for the Utah Valley University Symphony. She was awarded the Performing Arts Student of the Year in 2014, and soloed with the Utah Valley University Symphony on Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole. She has performed throughout the United States and Europe in some of the most renowned concert halls including Musikverein, The Berline Philharmonie, Meistersinghalle, De Dollen Hall, and Jahrhunderthalle. Besides music she is readily involved with her church, family, friends, and the outdoors.

About the Studio:

I teach using the Suzuki method. It is a lot more than just using the Suzuki Repertoire. (In fact, I supplement the Suzuki method with pieces my students use a lot such as Happy Birthday, Jingle Bells, some pieces from Solos for Young Violinists, etc.) So what is the Suzuki method? It is a way of teaching guided by certain principles. Suzuki revolutionized the way of learning an instrument. He came up with the mother tongue method of taking aspects of how we learn a language and applying them to learning an instrument. The main aspects of the Suzuki method are the following:

* Listening—One must listen (lots) in order to progress. Most people can speak fluently in their native language from years of being immersed in the language.
* Positive Environment—We praise a baby’s first attempts at words, and we understand that they won’t speak in fluent sentences from the beginning. We enjoy each step of the process. This should be the same for the music learning process. We should not expect ourselves or a child who is taking lessons to play ‘fluently’ until one goes through the necessary learning stages.
* Repetition and Accumulation—We keep using the first words we learn. This is the same with Suzuki. We continue to review the pieces helping the student focus on more advanced aspects. I also encourage each student to do a solo recital where students perform the entire Suzuki book from memory when completed.
* Learning to Read—Just as we learn to read after we learn to speak, I teach my students to note read after they have had a chance to learn some pieces. I am a strong advocate of note reading, and this is a high priority and should be done after the basics of playing have been established.
* One of my favorite parts of the Suzuki philosophy is that talent can be taught. It does not matter if it takes 500 times or 5,000 times. Talent can be developed, and our abilities increased through our efforts!