---

Learn More About Katherine's Experience:

Chinese Mandarin was my first language and I still speak it at home to this day. Although my writing and reading abilities are limited to basic, but useful, sentence constructions, I do speak fluent Mandarin and know quite a few idioms and proverbs. Having grown up in the metropolitan city of Beijing, my pronunciation is as standard as it gets and I do not have an accent of any type. I can also teach pinyin, which has been an indispensable tool all my life, to Chinese speakers who can't read characters. Pinyin is a phonetic way of writing the proper pronunciations of Chinese characters and makes the four dialects (or tones) a lot easier to remember. If anyone is interested in learning only how to speak Chinese, I am the perfect person to come to. And because I believe that learning a foreign language is made easier with usage and the proper environment, my tutoring sessions would be taught in as much Chinese as the student can handle. I will engage students in conversations using every day phrases and greetings to develop their listening and speaking skills, the two most important for communication. violin I first started playing the violin 10 years ago and have been in love with it ever since. I've had a total of 6 years of one-on-one private lessons at two reputable music schools, Temple and Settlement. The latter of which I recently qualified for proficiency level 4 (out of 5) and a scholarship. My first real orchestral experience came at 8 years old when I was concert master of our elementary school orchestra. From that day on, I have gone up to middle school and finally high school orchestra (I am currently concert master of my high school orchestra). 2 summers ago, I held a job position as second chair in a summer orchestra that that was sponsered by the School District of Philadelphia. Last year I joined the Philadelphia All-City High School orchestra as a first violin. The All-City orchestra is extremely competitive and auditions high schoolers from all over Philadelphia. Not only have I had plenty of orchestral experience, I've also played in ensembles. 2 years ago, I spent a semester in a strings and piano trio in Settlement. However, I felt the trio couldn't keep up with me in many ways and therefore formed my own trio with flute, cello and violin. My trio has played in nursing homes, churches, and our school. Not too long ago, my high school conductor made me the leader of second violin sectionals where I got to work alone with a small group of middle schoolers. The sectionals were very successful and I really enjoyed helping everyone learn their music. Despite my orchestral and ensemble background, I have been formally trained as a soloist (by my private teachers) and perform solos many times a year. Because of this, I usually encourage kids to pay close attention dynamics and style so their pieces will not bore the audience. I also place great emphasis on intonation and tone quality as those are the most exposed areas in solos. However, I've had more than my fair share of orchestral experience so I can also give pointers on how to blend sound and follow the conductor. I am willing to share my passion for the violin with anyone who is willing to learn!