Lecture Presentation & Discussion
Zach Ebin, director
February 12, 2025 @ 8:00pm
Turner Hall, Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
One of the most significant ways in which university music programs interact with the community around them is through precollegiate music education. While performances and lectures can bring in audiences from the community several times per year, precollegiate education can bring in members of the community on a weekly or even more frequent basis. Due to a universities size and resources, compared to community music schools and private music teaching studios, universities are uniquely positioned to draw in a greater and more diverse student body. If precollegiate programing is integrated into the university, precollegiate music education can generate new audiences for university music programs and serve as an important link between the university and the “real world.” Further, almost all, if not all, of our graduating students who pursue musical careers and strive to share their music with the “real world” will engage in teaching music to children in some form. This event will help prepare our students for this work.
Ching-Yi Lin, Professor of violin at Western Kentucky University
Violinist Ching-Yi Lin’s performances and masterclasses have taken her to the Barratt Due Institute of Music in Norway, the Shenyang and Xi’an Conservatories in China, Northwestern University, Vanderbilt University, and the University of British Columbia. She’s also performed in New York on the Museum of Modern Art’s Summer Garden Series, at the Sejong Center in South Korea, in Taiwan at the National Concert Hall in Taipei, and will be performing at Carnegie Hall in March of 2024.
Ching-Yi is the recipient of the prestigious Jefferson Award for Public Service in Washington, DC, recognizing her work in bringing music into the lives of young people throughout her community. In 2017, Ching-Yi received a Sisterhood grant from WKU to direct student teachers and volunteers in teaching the violin to refugee children in Bowling Green, KY. In 2020, this program developed into a non-profit organization called Bridging Cultures with Music. The program offers college music majors an opportunity to teach, inspire, and make an impact in a global classroom setting.
Ching-Yi is active in national and international pedagogical organizations. She currently serves as the Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Suzuki Association of the Americas. She is also a board member for the Daraja Music Initiative, a non-profit organization in Moshi, Tanzania, where she founded a beginning strings program for students of the Majengo Primary School. Lin regularly presents at the American String Teachers Association National Conference and is an active clinician and adjudicator.
Meredith Blecha-Wells, Professor of Cello, at Colorado State University
Praised for her “beautifully full and lyrically strong tone” by Gramophone Magazine, Meredith Blecha-Wells is a sought-after performer and instructor. She has played throughout much of the United States, as well as Europe, Australia, South America, and Asia. Currently based in Colorado, Dr. Blecha-Wells recently joined the faculty at Colorado State University.
Dr. Blecha-Wells previously served as the Professor of Cello at Oklahoma State University where she was awarded the College of Arts and Sciences Junior Faculty Award for Scholarly Excellence as well as the First Lady of OSU Distinguished Music Professor award. A passionate pedagogue, Dr. Blecha-Wells is committed to raising the efficiency and joy in learning. Her students have gone on to remarkable programs including the Juilliard School, the New England Conservatory, the Eastman School of Music, Rice University, the University of Michigan, the Manhattan School of Music, the San Francisco Conservatory, Northwestern University, Indiana University, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the University of Southern California, DePaul University, and the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. Additionally, her students have won several competitions including the YoungArts National Awards, the Classics Alive Artists, Enkor International Competition, American Protégé Competition, Ad Astra String Competition, MTNA, Hyechka String Competition, among others. Dr. Blecha-Wells' students have also been selected to participate in prestigious festivals including the National Youth Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra 2, Aspen Music Festival, Brevard Music Festival, Eastern Music Festival, Green Mountain Music Festival, and several others.