PRIVATE LESSONS
Private Lessons are an important component when learning a musical instrument. Lessons offer the chance for greater accountability, individualized instruction and attention, increased motivation and more opportunity for greater success—private lessons definitely offer any child the best musical education.
Before committing to private lessons, please review the KCHS Orchestra Private Lesson Handbook. Students, parents, lesson teachers and directors need to adhere to the handbook policies in order to for the private lesson program at KCHS to be successful.
You will need to turn in a signed Private Lesson Agreement (last page of the handbook) before you can take lessons.
PRIVATE LESSON STAFF
CELLO & BASS
Mr. Scott Card, Cello
Scott Card is starting his 31st year of private studio teaching and is currently Principal Cellist with The Opera in the Heights. In addition to active freelancing, he maintains a private cello studio in the Conroe, Klein and Humble school districts.
Mr. Card has been on the faculty of Lamar University in Texas, Oklahoma City University in Oklahoma and Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina. He has been principal cellist of The Woodlands Symphony Orchestra and assistant principal of The Victoria Symphony. Prior to moving to the Houston area, he was a member of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic cello section.
Mr. Card has been the recipient of an Aspen Music Center Fellowship, in addition to being a part of the American-Russian Youth Orchestra and Chautauqua music festivals. He was a Teaching Fellow at the University of North Texas for three years.
Mr. Card received a Masters of Music from the University of North Texas and a Bachelors of Music from Ohio State University. His major teachers include Carter Enyeart, Alan Harris, William Conable and Jeffrey Solow.
Mr. Nick Puccia, Bass
Nick Puccia is a Houston-based performer, teacher, and composer. He has been playing double bass for nearly 19 years, and has 10 years of private teaching experience in the Houston area. He often coaches orchestras at schools in the Klein, Katy, Spring Branch, and Cypress school districts.
Nick holds a Master's degree in double bass performance and pedagogy from the University of Houston, and has studied under Sandor Ostlund (Baylor University), Dennis Whittaker (University of Houston), and Eric Larson (Houston Symphony). He has also played in the masterclasses of Paul Ellison (Rice University), Francois Rabbath (author of the Rabbath method for bass), and Lynn Seaton (University of North Texas). His style and technique experience covers a wide range, including Classical, Jazz, Baroque, Mariachi, Tango, and many other genres. In his free time, Nick works as a composer and producer of electronic music for small independent films and video games.
VIOLIN & VIOLA
Mr. Jonathan Griffin, Violin/Viola
Jonathan Griffin is a violist/violinist with cultivated experience from living and working in New Orleans, South Florida, Spain and France. For more than 15 years he has played in multiple orchestras and chamber groups as well as formulated strategies to stimulate the learning experience connecting the musician and the instrument. He has taught private lesson in academies/schools live and on line for the many years. Teaching has given his students an infused lifelong passion for music as an artform.
Lydia Feazell is a native Houstonian. Inspired by her parents, Jimmy and Nancy Simon, each members of the Houston Symphony and her violin teachers, Harold Hess, Fredell Lack and Albert Meunzer, she pursued a musical career. She earned a BME from the University of Houston and continued her public school teaching career of 28 years in the Houston area.
While teaching at Memorial Middle School in the Spring Branch Independent School District, the orchestra earned the honor of being named State Champions four times in a row, several Best in Class trophies in the Galveston Isle Festival and the invitation for the orchestra to perform in the “Festival of the States 2004” commemorating the unveiling of the World War II Memorial in Washington DC.
After retirement from the public schools, she moved to Fayetteville, West Virginia and was given the opportunity of being a faculty member and board member of CODA Academy of Music Summer Camp. Although she has moved back to Houston, she continues her involvement with the academy each year.
Ms. Feazell is currently a substitute teacher in the Klein, Spring Branch, Cy-Fair, and Katy School Districts mostly substituting for orchestra directors on maternity leave. She is often called in to schools to give clinics to orchestras during contest season. She is an adjudicator at Solo & Ensemble Contests, Pre-UIL and UIL events and she teaches private lessons on violin and viola in her home.
Lauren Chauvin, Violin Instructor
Lauren Chauvin is a violinist, violist and fiddle player living in Spring, TX. She started learning Suzuki Violin Method at the age of 5, and her first teachers were Debbie Elafros and Cynthia Rubin. She attended HSPVA, and was a member of the Texas All State Orchestra in 1999. Lauren holds her Master's Degree in violin from the Eastman School of Music where she studied with Charles Castleman, members of the Rochester Philharmonic, The Ying Quartet, and Eastman faculty. She also holds a Bachelor's Degree from Louisiana State University.
Lauren has a passion for teaching and performing. She has 19 years of experience teaching violin, viola and fiddle, and 8 years of experience teaching orchestra. Her students have a track record of making Region, All State, and achieving high ratings at Solo and Ensemble and UIL. Prior to this year, she was the Head Orchestra Director at Jersey Village High School for 5 years, and Head Orchestra Director at an Intermediate School for 3 years. Both of these schools were considered "Title 1" by the state of Texas, and she enjoyed inspiring her students to achieve their goals, and worked to build up the Orchestra programs.
Her performance experience includes being a substitute violinist with the Houston Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Baton Rouge Symphony, a core member of the Symphony of Southeast TX, and a leader in a string quartet. She has performed in orchestras in Europe and Japan. She was a fiddler in a band for several years, which gave her the opportunity to enjoy the art of fiddle improvisation. She has played with churches around Houston and worked with singers/songwriters in studio recording sessions.
Lauren is currently enjoying being a mother to her new baby, and lives in Spring, TX. She teaches violin, viola and fiddle lessons at her home studio, plays "gigs" in the Houston area, and continues to do studio recordings as often as possible.
*References for both teaching and performing are available upon request.