ABOUT THIS WEBSITE

Michael Hopkins

Michael Hopkins is an Associate Professor of Music Education at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance in Ann Arbor, where he teaches courses in string education. Prior to joining the faculty at Michigan in the Fall of 2010, Hopkins was an Associate Professor of Music at the University of Vermont from 1999-2010 where he was conductor of the UVM Orchestra and taught courses in music education and music technology. He has appeared as a guest conductor at orchestra festivals throughout the United States and is the founding director of the Burlington Chamber Orchestra. Hopkins is very active as a composer and arranger, with over 30 published works for orchestra. His music is published by Alfred Music Publishing, Grand Mesa Music , Tunbridge Music, and Kendor Music Publishing, Inc. His works have been commissioned by many schools and ensembles throughout the U.S. He has performed as a double bassist with professional orchestras in Vermont, New Hampshire, Michigan, Colorado and Wyoming. Hopkins is the author of the award winning website, The String Pedagogy Notebook, a resource for string teachers and performers. The site has received hundreds of thousands of visitors. He has published articles in the Journal of Research in Music Education, American String Teacher and The Instrumentalist. He has served on the faculty of the American String Workshop, as the executive director for the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, and is past president of the Vermont chapter of ASTA with NSOA.

See a listing of Michael Hopkins' compositions at Lucks Music Library.

Visit Hopkins' YouTube channel to watch performances with the Burlington Chamber Orchestra.

Hopkins began his career teaching high school and junior high orchestra and band in the Colorado public schools. He spent eight years as music director of the Michigan ASTA Junior High String Camp, and thirteen years on the faculty of the Rocky Mountain Summer Music Camp. During this time he developed a strong interest in string pedagogy.

Credits

In addition to Professor Culver's course, a tremendous amount of information came to me through courses at the American String Workshops which were held in Ann Arbor, MI during June of 1992-1996

I received tremendous insight into my own playing from Stuart Sankey, Professor of Double Bass at the University of Michigan, who passed away in 2000.

I would also like to thank Carolyn Lukancic, John Dunlop, Bret Smith, James Froseth, Steve Reiley, Alec Mariani, Steve McNeal, Cameron Law, Lori Buonamici, Sandra Lascarro, Abby Alwin, Chris Hill, Anne Ogren, James Gross, Carol and Mark Palms, Anthony Stoops, Bob Phillips, Andy Dabcyzinski, Randy Sabien, and all the other great people with whom I have worked and learned so much from.

Special thanks to Roy Feldman for his assistance with the Care and Maintenance section and the staff of the Burlington Violin Shop. Thanks also to Joe Antoniolli, Graham Budd and Shirley Gedeon at the UVM Center for Teaching and Learning.

Students in my String Pedagogy class at the University of Michigan have made valuable contributions to the website as a class project. These students are Emily Barkakati, Lindsey Bordner, Stephanie Bork, Janet Cannon, Gunnhildur Dadadottir, Jamie Davis, Amelia Giles, Elizabeth Kim, Ashley Martin, Erin Nelson, Linnea Powell, Tea Prokes, and Juliet Yoshida.

I created this website in response to an idea that all people in the world, regardless of where they live, can now get access to quality information about string pedagogy thanks to the internet. The inclusion of images and movies can help people who may not have access to a local expert. Since this website began in 1996, I have received feedback from every continent (except Antarctica!) It is my sincere hope that the information on this site will continue to help improve the quality of string teaching and learning throughout the world.

You may download and share the information contained on this website with your students. Please include the copyright information found on each page of this website. You may add a link from your website to this website. Unauthorized commercial distribution of the content from this website, or publication of this content on other websites, is prohibited.

I hope you enjoy visiting this WWW site. Please send me some feedback via email, if you have time.

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