In June 2022, Dr. Collins and her husband moved to Saint Augustine, Florida from Northern Virginia. They are in love with the area and are having fun making their house into a home. Her husband had always dreamed of having a boat and a pool―and he is now happily enjoying both!

Dr. Collins's first love is teaching―the setting could be one-on-one or a string quartet or directing a youth orchestra.  Her gift of connecting with students, unique way of using simple visual words to clarify a technique and ability to demonstrate that technique, are why her student’s flourish musically, win competitions and have first chair seats in their orchestras.

String teachers regularly focus on the left-hand during lessons, referred to as “concrete techniques.” The left-hand is critical for success and with repetition, a student can learn the notes. Dr. Collins employs a different evidence-based strategy.

A highly sought-after pedagogue, Dr. Collins places significant emphasis on right-hand techniques―the bow―during lessons.  As a child working with master violin teachers, Arron Rosan and Charles Castleman she learned the bow was the soul of the violin. At the Manhattan School of Music, studying with Raphael Bronstein, Dr. Collins fine-tuned her pedagogy to optimize her framework and techniques for teaching and learning and their execution. Dr. Collins continued to build on these right-hand techniques. She culminated her studies through her dissertation, focusing on the vibrating string and its relationship to tone production. Her dissertation:"Connecting Science and the Musical Arts in Teaching Tone Quality: Integrating Helmholtz Motion and Master Violin Teachers’ Pedagogies."

Dr. Collins offers a free consultation lesson to students who are interested in joining her studio. She uses the Suzuki Method materials and philosophies when teaching beginning students. And her experience has shown that introducing note-reading from the beginning gives students the skills needed to master the art of sight-reading, the strongest footing for success in orchestra playing. 

Please e-mail, call or text Dr. Collins to set up a free consultation lesson.