Instruments: Violin, Viola
Styles: Classical, Central & East European Folk
Ages: 8 – adult
Specialties:
- Beginner to early advanced classical (up to and including Mendelssohn Concerto)
- Systematic and thorough foundational training for a healthy and effective approach to the instrument
- Technique mastery
- Developing problem solving skills for individual practice
- Reading & music theory
- Listening & learning by ear
- Hungarian, Romanian, Roma, and Ukrainian folk repertoire and style techniques
- Small ensemble coaching
Dr. Colleen Bertsch is a violinist and music educator with over twenty-five years of experience teaching beginning to advanced classical violin and viola. She is a licensed K-12 instrumental music teacher and has directed orchestra programs in Hastings, Bloomington, Roseville, and Stillwater school districts. Her primary teachers include Joanne Cohen, Mark Bjork, and Lucia May. In addition to performing with orchestras in North Dakota and Minnesota, she has collaborated with Joe Chvala and the Flying Foot Forum, Minnesota History Theatre, and has had the pleasure of backing fantastic acts including Semisonic, The Moody Blues, Jeremy Messersmith, Davis Bain, and substituting for The Laurels String Quartet.
Colleen is also an ethnomusicologist who specializes in Central & East European folk music. As recipient of a Fulbright Research Award, she worked closely with Ovidiu Barteș, one of Romania’s top folk orchestra music directors, as well as some of the greatest tradition-bearing Roma violinists in Transylvania. She is co-founder and fiddle player for the Balkan party band Orkestar Bez Ime, winners of a McKnight Fellowship for Performing Musicians, and Szászka, the only Transylvanian string band in the American Midwest. Her most recent project is Soul Trouvère, a violin-accordion duo with Christian Kuffner of the popular New Orleans band Zydepunks. Colleen began performing with Ethnic Dance Theatre’s Folk Orchestra in 2000, and has served as its music director since 2017.
Dr. Bertsch received a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology and musicology from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and undergraduate degrees in violin performance from Concordia College, Moorhead, and music education from UMN-TC. She currently teaches Worlds of Music at Augsburg University and is the proud new owner and director of Chanson Voice and Music Academy.
$50 – 30 min.
$70 – 45 min.
$90 – 60 min.
Payments are made in advance and valid for six months. Lessons cancelled at least 24 hours in advance will be rescheduled. With the exception of emergencies, student cancellations within 24 hours of the lesson time will be charged.
Contact for availability.