The Director
Artistic Expressions director Heidi Daniels began violin studies the age of 8. She was the oldest beginner in her Suzuki class, and by the age of 10 was the youngest in the advanced Suzuki class. She studied with various Suzuki teachers until the age of 15, when she commenced studies with National Symphony Orchestra violinist Vernon Summers. At the age of 17, she met Ronda Cole, renowned Suzuki pedagogue and teacher-trainer, and a friendship and mentoring relationship began. She continued studying with Ronda during her college years at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she earned a Bachelor’s of Music in Violin Performance, Summa Cum Laude, in May 2003.
In October 2003, Heidi traveled to Cologne, Germany, where she was Interim Director of Vivace Strings Studio for one year. While there she taught a dozen students ages 3 to 13, learned to teach in German (a language she still doesn’t speak) and adventured extensively in eight countries.
Notable achievements include a solo appearance with the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Prince William (1996), two years as assistant concertmistress of the renowned American Youth Philharmonic (1998-1999), including a stint as principal second violin during the orchestra’s concert tour of Russia in 1998; two years as a member of the National Symphony Orchestra Youth Fellowship, an elite and highly coveted scholarship and education program (1996-1998); soloist on the Kennedy Center’s Millenium Stage (1997), soloist at The Barns of Wolf Trap (1999), finalist in the National Symphony Orchestra’s Young Soloist Competition (2001) including a performance of the Sibelius violin concerto in the final round at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater; and being a founding member of Chamber Music Connections at the University of Maryland, an innovating education program designed to take chamber music into elementary schools (2000-2003).
Heidi has participated in the ENCORE School for Strings in Ohio, the Kennedy Center Summer Music Institute, the Allegheny Music Festival, and The Greater Washington Suzuki Institute. She has performed in masterclasses with Pamela Frank, the Ahn Trio, Ida Kavafian, and Luis Haza, and has studied with members of the Gaurneri Quartet, Cavani Quartet, Ying Quartet, St. Lawrence Quartet, and William Preucil (Concertmaster, Cleveland Orchestra) and James Stern (faculty, University of Maryland). Her Suzuki pedagogy studies have been with Ronda Cole, Katie Lansdale, Martha Shackford, and Louise Behrend.
During her college years Heidi was a founding member of the Choo Choo String Quartet, an innovative and revolutionary force in the University of Maryland School of Music. The quartet performed several recitals, was profiled in College Park Magazine and The Washington Times, and was an award winning member of Chamber Music Connections, the university’s outreach program to public elementary schools. As part of the Connections program, the quartet performed educational programs many times throughout each school year in various elementary schools in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
Heidi currently is the director of Artistic Expressions, a violin studio in Northern Virginia, and is in the beginning stages of founding a concert series featuring young professionals and pre-professionals from the D.C. area, designed to raise awareness and financial support for humanitarian and social causes. She performs with the National Philharmonic Orchestra and free-lances throughout the Washington, D.C. area.
In Heidi’s words…I love slow mornings and fast dancing, chai lattes and warm Thai food. My favorite things (apart from violin!) include reading and writing, but nothing beats a deep conversation with a good friend. I used to be a “doer” but I wore my body out and now I’m learning how to “be.” I was told about God from the beginning of my consciousness, and I came to know him very early. Our life together has been a dance, a painting, a poem. It has grown by tears, by study, and by the way he shows himself to me in the sunset. I like things very neat and organized, and if my space is a mess, the inside of my head is a mess too. I can be very, very silly – just ask anyone who has seen me in my “loopy” mood late into the middle of the night. I love traveling – experiencing new places, new people, new things. I want my soul to expand, to learn to embrace the world. I am 26, but I still have the daydreams of a schoolgirl. I am someone who questions. I like to read and study and talk to people with other viewpoints, because I have learned that I am often wrong about what I think, and I am informed and challenged by people who have perspectives that differ from my own. However, I don’t really like intellectual arguments or debates. I used to – I used to thrive on such things. But I learned along the way that while you can use an argument to prove a point, you can never use an argument to love someone. I care about wellness, mostly because I drove my body into the ground and now I have to learn how to take care of it. What I want more than anything in the world is to walk in intimate relationship with a few, to share our lives and our hearts and our tears and our dreams together. In the last couple of years I have fallen in love with Africa, in particular the children of Darfur. Their faces make me weep, even more because there is so little I can do for them. I know the pain of unrequited love…I know what it means to have your heart shattered and your name dragged through the dirt because you were bold enough, daring enough, to love another person and in the process believe that maybe, just maybe, you could be loved in return. I love the color red. There is a passion, a commitment, a wildness to it. I love words and the way that they can make ideas and thoughts come to life. Most of all, I love life. It’s so beautiful, even when it hurts and even when it’s not what you want.