Winter String Workshop

Open to high school and middle school string players

Register
Sunday, January, 12, 2025, 10 am-4 pm
Event Cost: $40, lunch provided (scholarships available, contact wohn@wisc.edu for scholarship information)

Hamel Music Center
740 University Ave
Madison, WI

Hosted by Dr. Dawn Wohn and Dr. James Waldo

This workshop will focus on elements of a successful practice session as well as working on improving your performance skills. A luthier will be on site to offer mini checkups/consultations on instrument health and care.

Schedule

9:30 am: Check in

10 am: Faculty Welcome Recital

10:50 am Session 1: What is a successful practice session?

11:20 am Session 2: How to use scales and etudes in your practice (breakout by instrument)

12:30 pm-1:30 pm: Lunch/Luthier mini sessions

1:30 pm: Performance practice (mini masterclass) (breakout by instrument)

2:30 pm: String Ensemble sectional rehearsal

3 pm: String Ensemble group rehearsal

3:45 pm: Informal performance run through

Honors Orchestra Audition Prep Faculty

Dawn Wohn

Teaching Faculty, Violin

Praised as having "a joyful sense of freedom, and a pure, unencumbered tone" by BBC Music Magazine, violinist Dawn Dongeun Wohn has performed in concert halls across five continents including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center.

James Waldo

Lecturer, Cello

Cellist James Waldo is a sought-after chamber musician and recitalist. A regular performer at Midsummer’s Music in Door County, WI, James has appeared in chamber music settings at such venues as Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully and Merkin Halls at Lincoln Center, Piccolo Spoleto Festival, and more.

Experience the Hamel Music Center

Hamel Music Center

Located at the busy intersection of University Avenue and Lake Street, the Hamel Music Center, occupies one of the most publicly visible corners of the campus. The warmth of the precast concrete echoes the limestone of the historic and iconic campus buildings, but the forms of the Hamel Music Center reflect the forward-thinking, progressive, Wisconsin Idea. The space, through rhythm and syncopation, is designed to evoke the musical experience as one experiences the architecture through time. The syncopated curtain wall façade of the main entrance invites the public to enter the sheet music.

Mead Witter Foundation Hall

The Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall seats 413 (plus 8 wheelchair access) on the main floor; 153 (plus 2 wheelchair access) in the balcony; and seats 85 on bench seats in a choir loft. Total seat count is 661. A series of coffers—circular, recessed or projecting panels—along the walls also absorb and reflect sound back into the concert hall. Two 50,000 cubic-feet floating concrete reverberation chambers on the second floor, covered in fabric, are installed 30 feet high on each side of the concert hall stage. The chambers absorb sound and reflect it back out into the audience. Motorized curtains can be drawn around the walls to adjust the level of “live” sound in the hall.

Collins Recital Hall

The Collins Recital Hall seats 189 on the main floor (plus 3 wheelchair access) and 104 in the balcony, with an additional three for wheelchair access, to total 299. Warm wooden elements include wooden planking sourced from tribal lands of the Menominee Indians in Wisconsin; wooden “petals” on the lighting “tiaras” suspended from the ceiling; and framed glulam beams (laminated timber of exceptional strength) that support the cement-filled ceiling. The hall’s colorful and dynamic wallpaper was designed by Tandem Press founder and printmaker William Weege, professor emeritus of UW–Madison’s Department of Art.

Information for prospective students

Learn more about our undergraduate admissions process.

We are a community of musicians, scholars, and teachers. Since its beginning in 1895, the School of Music has lived out a commitment to practical and enriching student-centered musical education. Our faculty and staff provide models of academic and artistic leadership, and our students reap the benefits of a dynamic public university and the limitless intellectual and artistic opportunities provided in Madison, Wisconsin.

What we look for in our applicants

Just like the UW–Madison’s general admissions process, the School of Music has a holistic application review. While individual specialties may apply their own criteria, broadly speaking we are looking for qualities such as leadership, community engagement, and success in other areas, in addition to academic excellence and potential for growth and achievement in music. Pre-college musical opportunities and interests vary widely between individual applicants. Musical engagement and drive to excel may be evidenced by a wide range of qualifying experiences. We also consider personal background and potential to contribute to the School of Music community.

Mead Witter School of Music