Past and present students and parents have provided the following testimonials about Elaine’s teaching and how violin lessons enriched their lives.
Going to Ms. Badiere for violin lessons was one of the best decisions I have made. Ever since I came to her when I was but a five year old, to now as I am eleven, she has painstakingly worked to progress me as a young violinist with a passion that I have not experienced in any other teacher. She works with me on every one of my pieces until I am able to play it from the heart and able to let the music flow through me. The end of the lesson does not stop her from taking me on longer until I have more fully grasped the concept or skill I am attempting to learn.
Through the good days and the bad she encourages and trains me until I perform with excellence. An example of this is when I was practicing for the ASTA exam which is a violin evaluation/assessment. I recall I was furiously working on my material up until the day before the exam with problems popping up everywhere. She worked with me through this until the last day and continued to support me on the day of the exam. With all Ms. Badiere’s superb training backing me, I was able to achieve the Honors Award at the exam. Learning violin with Ms. Badiere gives me joy and a sense of accomplishment. This solid foundation of music that Ms. Badiere is giving to me, is something I will take on and use for the rest of my life.
– Ryan Saldanha, Fort Collins, Colorado
Elaine has given Ryan a great foundation and continues to encourage and inspire him to be an excellent violinist. We value her attention to detail , ensuring that Ryan gets the most out of each piece . Play-ins, recitals, and preparing Ryan for exams, gives him the opportunity to grow and gain confidence playing in front of an audience. Elaine’s passion and love for music encourages Ryan to work hard and keep going even though the music is sometimes challenging and may not come as easily as he would like it to be.
Ryan continues to enjoy playing the violin and thrives on the sense of accomplishment he gets from it.
Thank you Elaine for your excellent teaching, dedication, enthusiasm and passion.
– Kevin and Tina Saldanha, Fort Collins, Colorado
Dear Elaine,
I wanted to thank you for everything you’ve done for me. You’re the
reason I stuck with violin for so long. I have had a lot of violin
teachers, but none as great as you. I’ll always remember a day I was
practicing a piece to perform, and when I played it for you at my
lesson you said, “Well, you know the notes…Now let’s put some life
into it!” That really changed the way I look at music, and life in
general. Thank you for a wonderful 5 years; I’ll never forget it.Abby
– Abby from Fort Collins, Colorado
Elaine Badiere: My teacher trainer and mentor. The lessons I learn from you are truly priceless. I cannot tell you how influential you have been in my life and how much I appreciate it. Over the years I have not only had a great teacher, but I have gained a true friend.
Thank you.
– Chad Fisher, Fort Collins, Colorado (Chad was recently recognized by the Poudre School District – read more)
Elaine Badiere was very instrumental in the early years of my life. She helped build the very foundation on which my life now stands. Finding the right pitch, maintaining the correct timing, hitting the right notes, being precise, repeating the scales over and over again were the fundamentals that she drilled into me time and time again until even as a 7 year old kid, it became as easy as breathing. She wanted the best and so I had to give nothing less. This discipline and commitment I learned through Ms. Badiere over the 8 years I studied violin with her, has proved to be an invaluable asset through my life.
I am proud to say as a result of this experience I was able to apply this principle of striving for excellence in obtaining my doctorate in medicine. Thanks Elaine for teaching me the beautiful art of violin playing and what hard work can achieve!
– Dr. Kelita (Sinclair) Fox, Manhattan, New York
My daughter Kelita Sinclair took violin lessons with Elaine Badiere in her youth and has since gone on to graduate from Medical School doing Family Medicine in Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan New York.
Elaine takes great pride in teaching her students and views their success as an extension of who she is. Her focus was never on how many times a piece had to be practiced but was on how well the piece of music was played. She is a perfectionist who believes “if a piece of music is worth playing it is worth playing well.” Elaine would send her back to practice the piece over and over until it met her standard, which was very high. Elaine made sure every “i” was dotted and every “t” crossed until the end product was a masterpiece. The pride and joy that we felt coming to the recitals to hear the finished product of what Elaine had been working on with Kelita for that year, was worth every penny and time spent taking her to lessons.
The character that Kelita built about not giving up early in life was applied to her studies. The amount of studying she had to do never bothered her as long as she accomplished what she set out to do. Thanks Elaine for instilling that in her because she watched many of her colleagues fall by the wayside buckling under the pressure of the work and eventually giving up. The system is geared towards weeding people out and having only the very strong survive.
The training the discipline and character building that she developed during those years of taking violin lessons no doubt contributed to what she has now accomplished.
Thank you so much Elaine from the Sinclair family for the role that you played in our daughter’s life. It was an investment worth its weight in gold.
– The Sinclair Family, Caledon, Ontario, Canada
Elaine Badiere was my first violin teacher, and I studied with her for almost ten years. She really understood how to connect with children and always showed infinite amounts of patience. Elaine explained concepts clearly, using lots of kid-friendly imagery (i.e. a sandwich for the ABA form of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”) With her impeccable technique, it was always easy to understand and to follow her movements.
But most importantly, she helped me develop a lifelong love for music and for the violin, organizing group lessons and recitals so that her students could share experiences and play for others. One of our memorable trips included a performance for the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa.
My mother, a piano teacher of 30+ years herself, agrees that Elaine Badiere is a creative and highly qualified teacher—one that any student would be lucky to learn from!
-Bernice (and Grace) Lau, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I was very fortunate to get Mrs. Badiere as a violin teacher. She taught me The Suzuki Method for violin from the age of 12 until I was 18 and I have fond memories of her from that time period. I remember that her best qualities were her patience, calmness, and focus on making sure that each class was a successful one towards my progression as a better violinist. She never once made me feel inept or insecure about any area of my violin learning but instead provided me with constant guidance and encouragement.
Strings in Motion, comprised mainly of pre-teens and teens who all played a form of “strings” (violin, cello, etc.), was also a major part of my formative teen years and it was due to Mrs. Badiere. She encouraged and supported me as well as her other students who were in this program to take our violin lessons outside of the classroom and perform. I will never forget when we had the opportunity to travel to Ottawa and Quebec to perform because it was through those experiences that I started to develop life learning skills such as work ethic, independent thinking, confidence in front of an audience, and a sense of self-worth.
I know that learning to play the violin was a pivotal influence in the development of my overall character. I have always believed that my violin lessons and performance opportunities with Mrs. Badiere helped change the quiet, introspective, shy child and teenager that I was into the well rounded, confident, independent adult that I am today and for that I will be forever grateful.
Thank you for being a wonderful violin teacher Mrs. Badiere. You will always be in my heart and in my memories.
-Tusha Makavita, Brampton, Ontario, Canada