Expertise • Enthusiasm • Excellence
“All our experiences with Sally have been wonderful. Despite having a hard time getting started with her daily practice, my daughter says she wants to be an artist and a violin teacher when she grows up. She said that Sally is ‘great’ and ‘good at helping you feel determined’.
Maybe the strongest compliment to Sally is the following anecdote. In 2015 our family moved to Vancouver, BC, and my son, then 6, continued violin lessons with a local teacher. But he missed Sally and never clicked with the new teacher. Each time we came back to MA for a visit we set up a lesson with Sally. It's to her credit that a student would want to schedule a lesson during their vacation! When we moved back to MA in 2016 he was thrilled to restart lessons with Sally on a regular basis. Our son's positive experience is why we decided to have our daughter start violin with Sally instead of continuing with the cello, which she had started in Vancouver.”
- parent of children ages 12 and 9, both students of Sally since age 4
Sally Martin
Violin/Viola, Suzuki Violin/Viola
Sally gained her BMus degree from Indiana U School of Music (one of the top university music schools in the country), working with Yuval Yaron, Joseph Gingold and James Buswell. She is also certified through Suzuki book 5.
Sally has performed with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Osnabrück Sinfonie Orchester, Germany, among others. As a chamber musician she appears with several duos and trios, and was the violinist of the Nordwestdeutsches Kammerensemble (piano quartet) in Osnabrück.
In addition to Wayland School of Music Sally teaches at All-Newton Music School, where she is also Coordinator of Suzuki Department, and the New School of Music, Cambridge.
Meet Sally
- How/what age did you start your instrument?
Age 9, in 4th grade - Did you come from a musical family?
Yes, my mother played organ in church and sang, my father played clarinet in the town band. - Best, funniest or worst musical memory from childhood?
I remember the first day of private lessons, when I was 12. I had this picture in my mind of my teacher to be a portly older gentleman in a suit, but he turned out to be a skinny college student in jeans and a flannel shirt, with coffee breath! (I still have my notebook from those days- in one place he wrote, “Elbow, dammit!!!”). - A highlight or two from your performing career:
All the years I performed as a sub with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in the famous Kleinhans Music Hall, architecturally beautiful and with excellent acoustics- you could hear everyone around you clearly, making it easy to blend with the section. Michael Tilson Thomas got his start with the orchestra in the 70s, and the time he guest conducted was one of my most inspiring orchestra experiences. - What do you love about teaching?
Teaching violin I feel like I have a weekly appointment with a friend, and it’s a treat to get to see them every week, get to know them more and more, help them to learn to play better and like the violin and music more and more, and to be able to express themself through it. It never gets old because each person is different and has a different voice on the violin. I like it when they randomly tell me something about their day or their life. - What would you like your students to know about you?
I’d like my students to know that I really like them and like teaching them, and I love it when they practice a lot and see their own progress. - Can you share a non-musical fun fact about you?
I have always wanted to own a horse, and still hope to when I grow up!