Teacher Profile: Evelyn Gray

About Evelyn Gray

Evelyn teaches Violin to introductory and intermediate students. She has both experience with musicians who are looking to hone their pre-existing skills as well as beginners who have never touched an instrument in their lives. She teaches Violin in a classical style emphasizing musicality and ear training as well as technical skills. She also has experience in fiddle tunes and modern music so the direction of the student’s musical journey can have many facets.

Evelyn Gray grew up around Washington DC and began private music lessons at the age of 6. She began at the Levine School of Music where she primarily learned under Mary Findley using the Suzuki Method. She started lessons young because she was passionate about music and desperately wanted to play the violin. She has other siblings who also played instruments, so music was an amazing bounding tool, as well as a wonderful creative outlet. At the Levine School she performed in chamber ensembles led by teachers like Vasily Popov, as well as violin groups as led by Susan Fuller called District Strings. District Strings would perform at venues like The National Cherry Blossom Festival’s opening ceremony, the Atlas Theatre, as well as other local festivals and recitals. At 13, Evelyn began private lessons with Greg Penny at Montgomery College in Rockville MD and continued those lessons until mid-high school, where she participated in her high school’s chamber orchestra.

Since then, she has broadened her musical horizons and participated in events like the Swannanoa Folk Music Festival for traditional song and fiddling. Studying Mathematics and then Chemistry at Montgomery College followed by the University of Maryland where she spent several years working in research including a position as a Thermal Coatings Engineer at NASA Goddard in Greenbelt MD. Now residing in the Seattle area, she is pursuing her love of music professionally as a private music instructor.

Evelyn is a motivated violin teacher because she is passionate about the music, but also understands that a strict formulaic methodology isn’t the right fit for every student. Practicing music her whole life helped her in ways that extended past her instrument; self-determination, self-discipline, and creative expression helped Evelyn in her career as a student working in Aerospace. She looks to extend those ideas to her students that playing music can be meaningful in more ways than imaginable.