September Teacher Feature: Alicia Monroe

Alicia Monroe is in her third year at Kids’ Orchestra teaching viola.

Hailing from Madison, Wisconsin, violist and educator Alicia Monroe has already proven herself to be a significant talent in both the performing and teaching fields. Monroe is currently pursuing her DMA in Viola Performance at Louisiana State University, where she is a Huel D. Perkins Fellow; she also holds a Masters Degree in Music from LSU and a Bachelor of Music Degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was a Chancellor’s Scholar. She has performed with such orchestras as the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, the Muncie Symphony Orchestra, the Anderson Symphony Orchestra, and the Beloit Janesville Symphony Orchestra. She is an avid teacher and actively involved in the Baton Rouge music education scene as a viola teacher for Kids’ Orchestra and violin/viola teacher with the Louisiana Academy of Performing Arts. Her primary viola instructors have been Elias Goldstein and Sally Chisholm; she has also performed with such musicians as Deborah Chodacki, Johanna Cox, Paul Badura-Skoda, Yung-Chiao Wei, and the Harlem String Quartet, among others.

What is the favorite part about working for Kids’ Orchestra?

My favorite part about working for Kids’ Orchestra is seeing each child’s excitement when performing at the end of each semester.

What is your proudest moment at Kids’ Orchestra?

My proudest moment at KO was when one of my student’s of two years played an arrangement of Silent Night as a duet with her clarinetist brother.

If you could meet anyone in the world dead or alive who would it be and why?

If I could meet anyone, it would be the late musician Leonard Bernstein. He was successful in virtually all musical realms as an incredible composer, pianist, music lecturer, and most notably, conductor.

If you could meet one musician, who would it be?

If I could meet one musician it would be the famous Dutch violinist Janine Jansen.