September 2023 – What is being an orchestra teacher like? In this interview you will read about the story of Ms. Uy, what she does, and how she became who she is now.

Question: What is being an orchestra teacher like?

Answer: It’s very fun; I like what I do a lot. It is really cool to see the growth that the students can do from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

Question: Which school do you like working at best, and why?

Answer: I do not have a choice. I mean there are pros and cons for working at each school, but I feel like I enjoy my time at both. It’s not really a competition between those two; they are both really nice.

Question: What are your top favorite instruments and why?

Answer: Other than violin, I prefer cello. They have some really good solo pieces that are really nice to hear. Playing wise, I actually really like the bass. I didn’t get to play it in high school. I got to learn viola in high school and cello and bass in college. I feel like I grew a lot in bass just this past spring. It takes a lot of work, but it’s enjoyable.

Question: In your opinion, what is the easiest instrument in an orchestra?

Answer: I would say the one that is most natural-feeling is the cello. They get really complicated, of course, but the one that I feel like the students don’t really have too much trouble with is cello.

Question: Where did you go to school to learn the instruments that you know?

Answer: I actually learned violin when I was five. That was not through school but private lessons. So, my fifth birthday gift was getting violin lessons , and that was up in the Chicago Suburbs in elementary school. I was lucky that it had a class for 5th grade orchestra and that was in Welch Elementary.

Question: What was learning all the instruments you know like?

Answer: It was very fun. I think that the string knowledge is very transferable, so if you know the basics on one string instrument, you’re probably going to be able to figure out how the other ones work. There are a lot of different techniques that go into each instrument, but, for the most part, they are very similar except for the size difference.

Question: Do you think teaching is easier than learning?

Answer: No. Well, for me personally, I always really liked learning instruments, but teaching can be really difficult in terms of group classes. If it is just a one-on -one lesson, then it is easier to teach.

Question: If you were to play any other instrument that is out of orchestra what would it be?

Answer: In band, I think I would play flute just because it sounds so pretty. Also, when I had to learn a bunch of the band instruments, that’s the one that I sounded best on.  The other ones were too hard. Yeah, I think I would just play flute and if not flute, clarinet.