Violin Studio Weekly Events 

Bowing Class, Thursdays 5:00-7:00
Violin students of Professor Lees have the opportunity to enroll in Bowing Class. This course was originally developed by Dr. Lees in 2006 for her viola students and gradually attracted the interest of violins students. Now popular among both violists and violinists, this course has been reformatted to explore bow technique, basic strokes, resources, study of major performing artists, and exploration of approaches to bow technique used by various pedagogues.

Tuesdays are VIOLIN DAY

Orchestra Repertoire Class, 2:00–4:00

CCM violin students are privileged to study violin orchestral excerpts with Professor Lees. Professor Lees vast experience as Concertmaster of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra draws a great deal of interest to this course, making it a popular course among violinists that fills up quickly. In this class excerpts are performed individually in preparation for graded mock auditions. Screened mock auditions are performed behind a screen for members of the CSO and members of the CCM faculty and video recorded so that students may review their performance and build an archive of their progress.

Tuesdays: Weekly Studio Class in Watson Recital Hall, 6:00-7:30
Violin students of Professor Lees have the opportunity to perform weekly on stage in Watson Recital Hall. This class provides a forum for students to offer feedback to their classmates in an encouraging atmosphere. In addition, students may use class time to play through orchestral excerpts they are preparing for upcoming auditions.

But wait....there’s more:

Students of Professor Lees also have the opportunity to have individual lessons with his graduate assistants on their assigned etudes, scales, arpeggios, and double stops in addition to their weekly private lesson. 

Viola Studio Weekly Events 

Tuesdays: Weekly Studio Class in Watson Recital Hall, 4:30-6:00
Dr. Lees’ students have the opportunity to perform weekly on stage in Watson Recital Hall. Students are video recorded and subsequently emailed their video for their own record and review. Performance related topics are covered as well as specific issues related to the students performing each class are addressed in a master class format. Students may also request comments from their classmates during this class.

Thursdays are VIOLA DAY

Orchestra Repertoire Class, 2:00–3:30
Orchestra Repertoire Class, 3:30–5:00 

Dr. Lees teaches two orchestral repertoire classes on Thursdays in order to accommodate the number of students interested in the class. In this class excerpts are performed individually as well as in viola ensemble arrangements so that students can learn important parts of the score by actually playing them. This process of playing the various parts of the scores facilitates the necessary internalization of the score. Mock auditions are performed behind a screen for members of the CSO and members of the CCM faculty. The entire process of an audition is simulated to give students the entire experience of an actual audition, everything from signing in, proctoring, voting, and an actual winner announced followed by individual comments from the committee are included. Students who don’t advance in the simulation take a seat behind the screen to observe the process. The mock auditions are video recorded by the “proctor” so that the students may later review their mock audition. 

Bowing Class, 5:00–7:00 

This course was developed by Dr. Lees in 2006 for her viola students to give them an opportunity to explore bow related issues and reinforce the basic strokes. This course has become popular among both violists and violinists and now explores the bow in terms of basic strokes, study of major performing artists, and exploration of approaches to bow technique by various pedagogues.

But wait....there’s more:

Students of Dr. Lees also have the opportunity to have individual lessons with her graduate assistants on their assigned etudes, scales, arpeggios, and double stops in addition to their weekly private lesson.