Traditional and Suzuki Violin
Teaching Artist Statement
My teaching connects the professional perspective of a concert violinist with conservatory training, Suzuki pedagogy, and individualized development. I organize lessons around progressive goals in posture, tone production, bow control, shifting, vibrato, scales, études, and repertoire, so technique consistently supports musical expression. Complex challenges are divided into manageable steps, while guided listening, imagery, and deliberate repetition strengthen accuracy, interpretation, and efficient practice habits. Auditions, recitals, competitions, and ensemble work provide meaningful milestones that build preparation, stage presence, and confidence. Students also learn to assess their own playing, identify problems, and make informed interpretive choices. My role is to offer focused guidance while gradually encouraging independence, helping each learner develop discipline, curiosity, and artistic judgment. Ultimately, I aim to cultivate musicians who are confident, expressive, independent, and ready to bring high standards to every performance setting. This approach gives my students a practical framework for progress, purposeful study, and rewarding long-term growth.
Teaching Bio
Boston-based concert violinist Ming-hang Tam brings performance standards to teaching through a curriculum combining conservatory training, audition preparation, Galamian and Carl Flesch scales, Kreutzer, Dont, and Ševčík études, and Suzuki pedagogy. Since February 2018, Tam’s teaching method has yielded audition and competition success. His students have earned violin positions in Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras and New England Conservatory Preparatory School, 15 SSC String Competition/String Festival honors from 2023 to 2026, and the 2023 SSC Youth Concerto Competition’s sole violin prize across all divisions. Tam established an online studio in 2020, earning TakeLessons’ Student Favorite recognition among the top 15 percent in his specialty nationwide and Lessonface’s Student Favorite and Popular badges, later expanding in person across Greater Boston in 2023. Suzuki appointments span South Shore Conservatory, Traditional and Suzuki Violin Faculty since 2019; Suzuki Institute of Boston, Violin Faculty and Artist-in-Residence, 2018–2024; and Suzuki School of Newton, 2022–2025. As a Boston Philharmonic Orchestra Crescendo Music Education Teaching Fellow from 2022 to 2024, he taught at Boston String Academy using Géza Szilvay’s Colorstrings Method. Since 2024, he has taught violin, viola, and double bass in Milton Public Schools Applied Lessons Program using Essential Elements for Strings by Michael Allen, Robert Gillespie, and Pamela Tellejohn Hayes. After passing the Suzuki Association of the Americas Violin Comprehensive Audition, Tam completed registered training between 2019 and 2022 in Every Child Can!, Suzuki Principles in Action, Suzuki in the Schools Levels 1–2, Violin Units 1–10, Violin Practicum, Violin Teaching Strategies, and 100 observation hours. Trainers included Allen Lieb, Christie Felsing, Joanne Melvin, Rolando Freitag, Thomas Wermuth, Patricia D’Ercole, Judy W. Bossuat-Gallic, James Hutchins, Charles Krigbaum, and Timothy Durbin. He holds a Master of Music in Violin Performance with Academic Honors from New England Conservatory, studying with Nicholas Kitchen, and a Bachelor of Music in Applied Music–Violin from Eastman School of Music with Renée Jolles.
Performance Bio
Praised by The Boston Musical Intelligencer for his “silken solos,” Boston-based concert violinist Ming-hang Tam is a soloist, concertmaster, principal violinist, and editor spanning orchestral, operatic, chamber, new-music, theatrical, and historically significant performances. Professional engagements encompass Opera Cambridge—Handel’s Samson, 2025 American Prize in Opera Performance winner, and Gian Carlo Menotti’s Labyrinth American live premiere; Cappella Clausura with SHIFT Orchestra Project—Ethel Smyth’s Mass in D Boston premiere, also proofreader of Amelia LeClair’s 207-page new-edition full score and 32 parts, acknowledged in Breitkopf & Härtel’s 2027 edition; Boston New Music Initiative—14 world or state premieres; Dee Opera Orchestra and Chorus—Bunker Hill Monument bicentennial and Battle of Bunker Hill/United States Army 250th anniversaries; South Shore Conservatory—Traditional and Suzuki Violin Faculty since 2019, Duxbury Music Festival/Evenings Under the Stars soloist and chamber musician, and editor of Ravel’s Boléro chamber music arrangement for Duxbury’s 20th Anniversary Concert; Cape Symphony—JAWS in Concert, marking the film’s 50th anniversary; Plymouth Philharmonic—America 250; and Commonwealth Lyric Theater—Alexander Prokhorov-Tolstoy’s Pinocchio: The Musical world premiere. Appearances reach Boston Symphony Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Jordan Hall, Harvard’s Sanders Theatre, Emerson Colonial Theatre, and Plymouth Memorial Hall, while recognition comes from The Boston Globe, BroadwayWorld Boston, Britain’s Women’s Song Forum, and Azerbaijan’s State Committee on Work with Diaspora. Grammy Award-winning collaborations feature Kevin Puts and Renée Fleming—Letters from Georgia world/New York City premieres; Aaron Jay Kernis—Symphony No. 4, Chromelodeon world premiere; Jennifer Higdon—Cold Mountain Suite Massachusetts premiere; and Eileen Ivers—Plymouth Philharmonic’s Celtic Spirit. Honors comprise Sullivan Rep’s A Little Night Music as Solo Violin 1, contributing to its music director’s 2025 Elliot Norton Award, plus the City of Boston Opportunity Fund and Massachusetts Cultural Council Cultural Sector Pandemic Recovery Grant. Tam earned a Master of Music in Violin Performance with Academic Honors from New England Conservatory, studying with Nicholas Kitchen, and a Bachelor of Music in Applied Music–Violin from Eastman School of Music with Renée Jolles. He plays an early-18th-century Parisian violin labeled “Gaffino, Cto. di Castagnery, rue des Prouvaires, Pariggi 1745” and a circa-1920 silver-mounted Victor François Fétique bow with original principal parts certified by Isaac Salchow, both acquired through Tarisio New York.
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