About The Instructor
A FUN AND DYNAMIC LEARNING EXPERIENCE
Eileen Riechard Drew
Eileen Riechard Drew is a native of Atlanta. She joined the Gwinnett County Orchestra Program in 1982 as a student violinist, under the direction of Edith (Kendall) Benson, the orchestra program founder. She studied violin privately with Norman Bernal, Brad Stewart, Sonja Foster, David Arenz and Levon Ambartsumian. During those years, Mrs. Drew was a member of the Gwinnett Festival Orchestra (today known as the Kendall Orchestra), the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra (ASYO), the Georgia All State Orchestras, and she was Concert Master and Concerto Competition winner of the Gwinnett Honors Orchestra (now called the Gwinnett County Youth Symphony, or GCYS). She was nominated for and attended the widely acclaimed Governor's Honors Program (GHP) in violin performance, in which she sat as Concert Master for the six-week period. Mrs. Drew attended Emory University and was a double major in Music Education and Music Performance. She graduated with the Nationally recognized academic honor of Phi Beta Kappa. Mrs. Drew spent eight years teaching in the Gwinnett County Public Schools, with a focus on directing high school orchestras, until she decided to dedicate her full attention to teaching in her private music studio.
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In 2001, Mrs. Drew directed two high school chamber ensembles on a concert tour to Vienna and Paris; she also performed on the tour on violin and cello. Mrs. Drew has played professionally with, and been a long-standing member of, the Gwinnett Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gainesville Symphony Orchestra, the North Georgia Symphony and the Gwinnett Symphony Orchestra. Mrs. Drew has also performed with the Atlanta Symphony, the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra, the Atlanta Virtuosi and the DaSalo Solisti Chamber Orchestra. In addition, she has recently played live concerts with Josh Groban and Barry Manilow.
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Mrs. Drew has been teaching weekly private lessons since 1989. She has mastered the art of teaching both the young and the old, using scales, technical exercises and solo pieces. With careful instruction, kindness and laughter she has spread the love of music to hundreds of private students and their families.
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