April 2011

Teacher Talk

A series of teaching-articles in the Strad Magazine

How do you determ­ine what rep­er­toire is best for a stu­dent?
Erika Burns, Seattle, US
Boris Kuschnir: It is import­ant to estab­lish the pur­pose for which rep­er­toire is being alloc­ated. In the case of pre­par­a­tion for a com­pet­i­tion, a solo per­form­ance with orches­tra or a recital, rep­er­toire should be chosen to be of max­imum interest and effect for the audi­ence in ques­tion, and should play to the student’s strength. If the aim is to develop spe­cific aspects of the student’s play­ing, the teacher should select the rep­er­toire with the same pre­ci­sion as a good doc­tor pre­scrib­ing medi­cine for a patient. The cor­rect choice of rep­er­toire is essen­tial for the tech­nical devel­op­ment of a viol­in­ist, and even more so in help­ing them become a fully roun­ded musician.