CelloLEAP Studio

09/11/2024

TRILLIUM is celebrating 10 years of sharing music!
Join us for our next concert. It is modeled on Tapas: ten plus one favorites selected from our entire ten years. It opens with a love song (without words) by Mendelssohn, an elegiac trio by Arensky, one of the Dumky trios by Dvorak, and the rollicking Gypsy Rondo by Haydn. After a short break, Sowash’s riotous Galop piles on joke after joke, contrasting with dark Tangos by Piazzolla, and ending with the folk-like and smoky-lounge Cafe Music of Paul Schoenfield.
This concert happens on Saturday, September 28, in the Harold and Jean Lambert Recital Hall of the Clayton Center at 7:30 pm. The event is free.

08/03/2024

My student, Christopher, nominated me. I am honored to have received this!

03/24/2024

Some more great moments with dear people at the SAA/ASTA conference in Louisville. My heart is full!

03/20/2024

Can’t wait to see so many friends in Louisville at the SAA/ASTA conference!
Underway shortly!

01/06/2024

11/14/2023

Post-concert in the lobby. Very round of my Co-principal Yourh Orchestra student, Alex!

07/08/2023

Learning to sit with your cello is easier when you have friends along for the ride!

08/04/2022

Intrinsic Motivation or Extrinsic Motivation for the very young student?
I just got off the phone with a dear colleague who needed a little help with a four year old she is working with. She already has lots of good ideas and tools in her tool box, but needed a bit of reassurance that her ideas were on target. What might be missing from interactions with this child was a sense of fun and "play" in the lesson. He was digging in his heels and was not willing to do what she was asking.
How to remedy this? In my experience, de-personalizing and adding a game or a stuffed toy who directs the lesson, or using a prop like a game board is often novel enough to engage a reluctant child. If that fails, work with the parent, play to the child while they color a cello picture, or do a non-instrument specific activity, like singing or movement to recorded music away from the cello will go a long way. Remember if you get ten good minutes out of a 30 minute lesson with a four year old, you're doing great! Art takes TIME.

07/02/2022

09/21/2021

Trillium and friends returns to the stage at Maryville College’s Lambert Recital Hall on Saturday, October 2nd, 2021 with a new friend! Violinist/ Violist Sara Lee Cho will join us in the Brahms Piano Quartet in G minor. This photo from our last fall concert of 2019, pre-pandemic, with tenor John Wesley Wright. Can’t wait to get back!

03/28/2021

New Website up today!!!
https://www.celloleap.com/

Love. Education. Artistry. Progress.   We are all eager to “get back to normal”, and I am so excited to be able to offer in-person lessons again. However, all indoor lessons will need to be masked until further notice. More about Cello LEAP Studio and Alicia  Artist’s BioAlicia Randisi-Hooke...

03/25/2021

Please read about this "first lady of the cello", a great mentor and teacher to many and a trailblazer to whom we women owe so much.

Elsa Hilger (13 April 1904 – 17 May 2005) is less of a household name than some solo cellists, but she is no less distinguished. Not only was she a prodigy, she was also the first full-time, non-harpist, female musician in a major American orchestra. Early Life Hilger’s story began in Trautenau,...

11/20/2020

2020-2021 Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition
2020-2021 Live Streamed Final Round of Competition – December 7, 2020!
Congratulations to the 2020-2021 Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition Finalists:

Carlene Soderberg, cello

student of Alicia Randisi-Ho**er

Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1 in e-flat minor, I. Allegretto

10/15/2020

Really looking forward to another backyard studio recital on my patio this Sunday, October 18th at 3:00 pm. Bring a blanket, a lawn chair, snacks and the family, for music performed by students aged 3 to adult. DM me here for address and directions if you need them! All are welcome, especially families with young children!

09/28/2020

There are some wonderful things that have come from this pandemic. This is one or them.

CelloBello is thrilled to announce the inaugural Audition Preparation Workshop!

Drawing on their vast experiences as soloists, chamber musicians, and world-renowned teachers, CelloBello will offer a two-week intensive, featuring multiple masterclasses led by Bonnie Hampton (San Francisco Conservatory of Music, formerly of The Juilliard School), Hans Jørgen Jensen (Northwestern University), Paul Katz (New England Conservatory), Astrid Schween (The Juilliard School), Brinton Averil Smith (Rice University), and David Ying (Eastman School of Music).

These classes will focus on the standard conservatory audition repertoire.

LEARN MORE: https://www.cellobello.org/audition-preparation-workshop-2020/

08/05/2020

Don't miss this opportunity to play with great musicians and to connect with other Suzuki kids all over the country!!

07/14/2020

Encore is our new series of concerts performed by Menuhin School alumni and current staff.

07/07/2020

This excellent program for middle through high school students has openings for its virtual string bootcamp. Great preparation for Youth Orchestra Auditions and enrichment with a terrific faculty:
http://www.arconetwork.org/wp/summer-boot-camp-2018-2/

04/25/2020

A delightful video for children of all ages. Chelsea Greeson, this one's for your family:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTg8glZXnxo&t=438s&fbclid=IwAR0hQk_yd41rHfAXPHrl86j005mkasAOx0FJ30FoslumcHq8JfWNlBOsSbw

Roni's Music Room was created in the midst of the Covid19 Pandemic to give parents a small break from entertaining their kids and kids a great opportunity to...

03/20/2020

Dear Students and Parents,
One year ago last week, we began spring break and it feels as if I have lived six life times since then.
Additionally, the very real threat of COVID-19 is now dominating the new cycle and demanding extra attention to our health and safety. There is uncertainty around Knox County and private school closures at this time and I am checking for updates daily.
With the safety and health of our families, at the forefront of my consciousness, I have decided to follow the lead of the Suzuki Association of the Americas recommendation to move private lessons online. I believe we are fortunate to be able to move to online teaching with relative ease in this time of smart phones, tablets and computers, and I am choosing to see this as an extraordinary learning opportunity for all of us. With parents and students cooped up together for at least the next two weeks, the internet can provide us with an amazing opportunity for connection with each other. It can be a great adventure and a marvelous way for students to connect with a person they admire and respect ( who me? ) each week. It might be the best part of their week, with sports teams suspended and other activities curtailed.
We are all in this together, and it has always been the Suzuki tradition to rise to the occasion. I believe this will make us all better; myself a better and more concise teacher, and the students and parents better organized in note taking and assisting with home practice. I know this is difficult and surprising, but I think it’s the best we can do given the circumstances we find ourselves in at present.
Accordingly, I am asking that, if you know your preference for a lesson time to be shifted earlier in the day, please let me know. Once school is back in session, if it indeed is, we will keep our regularly scheduled times through the end of the year. If it is not, and adjustments to your lesson time can be made, please let me know as soon as possible, and by Sunday evening at the latest.
I will not be able to hold group classes, or or spring recital, but am looking into safe alternatives. During the time school is closed, I am considering having a “MORNING MINUTES” gathering on ZOOM, to do some warm ups and to share tips for better posture and technique. These would take place twice a week on a day I set after I hear from all of you. I will also be using some props, and have fun projects and assignments to do at home to keep things fresh and interesting for all of us.

 Another idea is to have an outdoor play together on my lawn, safely seated 6-8 feet apart. And to upload “recital” performances to YouTube on a private setting so that relatives at a distance can see them. I am about to get really creative trying to solve this challenge we are all facing!
I will do all I can to keep lessons going for your child. It’s so important right now to keep things as normal for our children as we can.

01/21/2020

I have been so fortunate to stay in touch with many of my students, and to be a part of their adult lives. It’s a wonderful life!

I'll be there for you...if you need me.

01/17/2020

Excited to be heading to Ohio
and teach for the Dennison U. Winter Suzuki Festival!

01/09/2020

Register today for the weekend workshop! There are only 6 days left to register at the $135 rate.

12/31/2019

I love this!!! This is what I hope to instill in all of you!

It happens all the time in my lessons. A student plays a phrase, makes a mistake—or two—stops, shrinks back in their chair, and sighs, “that was really bad.” That’s when I say my favorite line: “Be more specific.”