Violin Resources – A Performing, Learning, Artistic, and Teaching Web Resource and Platform for Violinists and Musicians, By Orion Music and Arts, Cambridge, MA, est. 2023

Dorothy DeLay, American Violinist and Pedagogue (1917-2002)

Miss Dorothy DeLay (left), sharing a moment with the Japanese-American violinist Midori (right), in her violin teaching studio.

One of the most outstanding of all North American violin pedagogues of the 20th century, the violinist and teacher Dorothy DeLay is known for having taught and mentored some of the most incredible musicians of this generation. Violinists from Itzhak Perlman to David Kim, Nadia Salerno-Sonnenberg, Anne-Akiko Meyers, Gil Shaham, Shunsuke Sato, Sarah Chang, and Midori, just to name a few, were all students of Miss DeLay, as she was by them known.

The recipient of countless teaching and national art or cultural awards, from Artist Teacher from the American String Teachers’ Association (1975) to the Sanford Medal from Yale University (1997), as well as the National Medal of the Arts (1994), among others, DeLay was also featured in numerous books, articles, research pieces, and documentaries throughout her career and beyond. 

Known not only for her work with gifted young adults at university and graduate level at the Juilliard School of Music, she is also known to have mentored and developed gifted young musical prodigies at the Pre-College division; succeeding at gifted musical education so greatly that they, too, was able to advance them to professional and successful music careers, even at young ages, and managing careers, outstandingly, no less than any of their other collegiate peers.

Herself an accomplished violinist, recitalist, and chamber musician, Delay’s teaching appointments extended from the Juilliard School to the summer Aspen music academies, the Meadowmount School of Music for gifted young musicians, the New England Conservatory, in Boston, Massachusetts, and even the Royal College of Music in the United Kingdom. 

As student Dijana Ihas described in ‘“She Gave Us the Courage to Explore’: the Mentoring Practice of Miss Dorothy DeLay”, DeLay’s teaching style was unique in its comprehension as well as emphasis on the individual as a a whole, particularly in light of their emotional and physical wellness, which, as a consequence, involved some counter-intuitive teaching methods like allowing students the freedom to explore and re-imagine. 

A groundbreaking teacher, she was a profound innovator in her field, and brought courage and encouragement as a holistic developer of the musician as a person and a whole, with great insight into the role and impact of comprehensive wellness for musicians.

A teacher of profoundly gifted as well as highly musical students alike, from a vast range of walks of lives, Miss DeLay was able to extend the talents of all of them through some truly pathbreaking violin methods and pedagogies.

Some of the books as well as educational material and packets that detail DeLay’s teaching methods, career, and success in light of violinistic development and teaching artistry can also be purchased with a contact form – please use contact form to reach us about purchases and more details.

Further learn about how Dorothy DeLay’s teaching methods can work for you

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