Teacher Profile: Travon DeLeon

About Travon DeLeon

Travon DeLeon, a native of South Bend, IN, is a Violinist and Strings Specialist who is an active Washington, D.C. area educator who works with students throughout the DMV. In addition to teaching Strings (Violin, Viola), Travon also teaches Piano.

At the age of eleven, Travon began studying Violin in school. His immediate love for the instrument propelled him to pursue private lessons one year later with Zofia Glashauser and Samantha Choi, associate concertmasters of the South Bend Symphony Orchestra. Throughout his high school (and college) studies, he also gained a passion for learning as much about music and strings study as possible and expanded his range to secondary areas of focus, like Piano and Music Theory.

Travon has a degree in Violin Performance and Political Science from the University of Notre Dame, where he sat as concertmaster for the Notre Dame Symphony Orchestra. In addition to being a performer, Travon was also a member of Notre Dame’s Composer’s Consortium (CoCoNd) and has composed solo and chamber works for Violin, Viola, Cello, and Piano.

After graduating from the University of Notre Dame in 2020, Travon worked as orchestra director of Navarre Intermediate Center in South Bend, IN. At Navarre, he taught Violin, Viola, Cello, and Double Bass in a group setting. More recently, Travon has expanded his teaching to encompass one-on-one private lessons. As a private instructor, Travon demonstrates his passion for music by coaching students on the projection of the instruments’ sound, expressive intonation, a wide breadth of repertoire, and beauty of tone, among a wealth of other essential skills necessary for expressive music-making. His approach to teaching comes with empathy and compassion balanced with a seriousness toward the art of Strings Pedagogy.

In 2016, Travon had the opportunity to be part of the United States’ National Youth Orchestra. As part of this orchestra, Travon performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City, the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Smetana Hall in Prague, and Trivoli Hall in Copenhagen. He has played for renowned conductors Valery Gergiev and Christoph Eschenbach and with soloists Emanuel Ax and Denis Matsuev. From this experience, his passion for music led him to pursue summer music programs at New York University, Northwestern University, and the Curtis Institute of Music. Travon looks forward to continuing his growth as a musician and artist as he continues to teach his studio and pursue his post-graduate studies.

When Travon is not teaching or practicing Violin, you can find him enjoying yoga, long walks, weight lifting, mathematics, and his guilty pleasure, reality television.