About Me

Hi, my name is Andrea Freng. I began playing violin in 1991 and really haven’t stopped since! I’m passionate about teaching others and would like to share my love of music and violin playing with you!

While obtaining my bachelor degree in Biology at Whitman College, I also studied violin and played in the Whitman College Symphony. After graduating in 2003, I taught violin part-time and played in several orchestras. I also took several tone and technique lessons with the baroque violin specialist Linda Melsted in Seattle, WA. In my free time I began learning piano and a little cello. I have also studied music theory independently and as part of my own private violin and piano lessons. I later obtained my bachelors and masters of nursing degrees at the University of Alabama in Huntsville - so my career as a Family Nurse Practitioner took center stage for a while. But while I worked full-time in that field, I was also the concert master of the Evergreen Community Orchestra in Everett, Washington.

My husband and I have 2 lovely, young daughters and I have found that the Suzuki Violin Method is excellent to use with children because it is fun and initially focuses on listening to the music and playing rather than just from reading music. This is how we first learn language, so it is a really natural method to use with children. Incidentally, it is really beneficial for adults too!

I began taking Suzuki training courses in 2021 and in the summer of 2023 I completed my first course at the Chicago Suzuki Institute. There I participated in lesson observations with many talented teachers and learned from the amazing Susan McDonald (she is the Program Coordinator for the Suzuki Program at the Community Music School of Webster University in St. Louis). It was an amazing, immersive experience and watching the kids there put the Suzuki method into practice while playing together gave me goosebumps daily.

My dream for this violin studio is to grow it into a full strings academy and give community playing opportunities in the forms of a youth string orchestra and an adult community orchestra. What I love about teaching the Suzuki Method is that it is simple, intuitive, and you start with real, beautiful music right from the beginning. No boring stuff! The recordings are beautiful to listen to as well. You begin book 1 with Mozart’s “Twinkle” variations and end with Mozart violin concertos in book 10. As students master the basic techniques and foundational pieces, I would like to introduce side pieces by lesser-known composers like Florence Beatrice Price and Fanny Mendelssohn.

I’m excited to teach you! Sign up for lessons today!