Elizabeth Faidley

Hailed as an “amazing and inspiring teacher” by the New York Times, violinist Elizabeth Faidley is a highly sought-after pedagogue.  The recipient of the American String Teachers’ Association 2011 Studio Teacher of the Year award for New Jersey, she has been honored with multiple teaching awards, including ones from the Union City Symphony and the Korean Radio Broadcast Network. In addition to being a member of the Manhattan School of Music Precollege faculty, she teaches violin performance to aspiring players from ages 3 to 23 in her private studio. Her students have won national and international competitions and have performed in Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, and the White House. They are routinely accepted, with scholarships, to the world’s premier music conservatories. The New York Times described Ms. Faidley as “fiercely yet compassionately committed to her students, to her colleagues, and to the art of music.”

Ms. Faidley became adjunct faculty at the Hartt School before the age of 30. She has also served on the college conservatory faculties of Montclair State University’s Cali School of Music and Hunter College’s School of Music.  She holds a Master of Music degree in violin performance and pedagogy from the Peabody Conservatory of Music and was inducted into the professional music fraternity, Pi Kappa Lambda, which honors integrity, superior music performance, and academic success.

Ms. Faidley won the prestigious Melissa Tiller Memorial Prize for graduate performance and, while still a student at Peabody, joined the faculty of both the preparatory and conservatory divisions after serving as a teaching assistant to Shirley Givens. Her other major pedagogical influences include Ivan Galamian, Joseph Gingold, Paul Rolland, Shinichi Suzuki, and Rebecca Henry. She also studied with such masters as Daniel Heifetz, Yuri Masurkevich, Christian Teal, and Qing Li.

Ms. Faidley has served on the faculty of the Summit Music Festival, New York’s premier summer chamber music institute. She has been invited to teach and give master classes in Italy, Germany, Spain, Russia, Norway, and Africa, and has provided private lessons in pedagogy to major violin performers and teachers throughout the United States. In the summers, Ms. Faidley holds specialized camps for her students.

Ms. Faidley has been invited to be the keynote speaker, along with Nobel laureates, at the 2018 World Education Day in Jinan, China. A frequent presenter and master class clinician, she recently spoke at two national conferences for the American String Teachers’ Association. The first lecture focused on balance in violin technique and pedagogy. The second presented a series of unique technical etudes for every stage of violin playing.

Ms. Faidley also shares her passion for teaching through her writing. She has completed work on the second edition of Pre-Twinkling to the Stars: Your Joyful Journey Begins, which focuses on a strong technical foundation for beginning violinists. Her second book is a beginning theory workbook for beginning and intermediate violinists. She has published several essays in the American Suzuki Journal and is currently writing a third book on the art of pedagogy entitled, What Happened to the Nurture? The book reflects her teaching philosophy, which seeks to empower the entire, unique person as the foundation of the musician. Ms. Faidley’s violin, a generous gift from several patrons, was crafted by Lorenzo Ventapane in 1835.

Manhattan School of Music Precollege faculty since 2007.