Rhea Edelman

violin

Rhea Edelman, Executive Director and Chair of Strings at SMID, earned her DMA in Violin Performance at the University of North Texas under the instruction of Dr. Felix Olschofka. During her time at UNT, she was also a teaching fellow for both the violin department and the pedagogy department teaching violin lessons and string methods. 

Raised in Portland, Oregon, Rhea graduated magna cum laude from Whitman College with BAs in both music and biochemistry. In 2008, she completed her M.M. in Violin Performance and Suzuki Pedagogy at the Cleveland Institute of Music studying with David Updegraff and Kimberly Meier-Sims.

While at CIM, Rhea taught Suzuki violin extensively through both the Sato Center and the Solon Center for the Arts, where she maintained a large private studio. Rhea has also been a guest clinician at workshops across the country, including Texas, Ohio, Arkansas. Louisiana and Maine. She spent four summers on the violin faculty of the Encore/Coda summer music camp in Sweden, Maine where she was head of the string department and chamber music coordinator.

Along with teaching, Rhea enjoys playing as a tenured member of the Abilene Philharmonic. In addition to modern violin, Rhea studied Baroque violin with Cynthia Roberts and has a related field degree of Early Music. She has performed in masterclasses and concerts with members of Apollo’s Fire and Tafelmusik (Toronto). She has performed with Dallas Bach and has toured internationally with the Baroque group Musica Angelica. 
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While attending Whitman College, Rhea was a NCAA Division III competitive swimmer and is also an accomplished equestrian. In addition to music, Rhea enjoys spending time with her husband and son, their two rescue dogs and her horse.

You can contact Rhea Edelman at [email protected]