Kristin Palombit's Cello Studio

“The art of expression through ease of playing.”

Music is born of singing and the natural rhythms we hear about us every day.  The instant a string is plucked or a bow caresses the string, music is being made. My goal is to work with you to bring out your own inner voice.  Each one of us has a beautiful and particularly unique way of expressing ourselves no matter what level of proficiency we have reached on our instruments. To be a musician and artist involves daily discipline and exploration, and challenges nearly every aspect of our being.

Music is a joyous gift we enjoy our entire lives and it is a blessing we share with others.  I love my job as a cello teacher and chamber music coach.  I learn so much from my students and my life is filled with music of the great composers!  

I work with students of all ages, starting from the age of four and half.   I have several years of training in early childhood music with Westminster Conservatory, and have completed Orff level one training.  I incorporate concepts of music and movement in my teaching.   At the moment, I am experimenting with concepts of improvisation and jazz at least once a month with my students in their lessons.  

I have spent much of the past fifteen years abroad, in remote corners of the world as I have assisted my husband with his field studies in Primatology.  In this capacity, I have been fortunate to have been immersed in the natural world of the Sumatran Rain Forest for 2.5 years, as well as the Okavango Delta in Botswana for 3 years and Laikipia, Kenya for 5 years.  During this time I home-schooled our two children for much of K-6 grade.  I am fascinated with traveling and have been blessed with many opportunities to have cultural exchanges with musicians and people in many parts of the globe.

I strongly encourage my students to take piano lessons simultaneously with cello, and to begin studies in music theory and ear training at a young age. Regular disciplined practice is the daily "work" of a musician.  My students are required to practice 300 plus minutes per week.  I give many guidelines to insure this time is spent in a productive manner.  One of the most inspiring events for young musicians is to attend live concerts!  I believe that students can progress very quickly in an atmosphere that encourages them to develop their listening ears and their critical  thinking skills so that their practice sessions are very productive and creative from the start.  Through attending live concerts, hearing their peers, performing in ensembles and listening to cds, young cellists are quickly drawn into the beuatiful web of the cello repertoire and practice in order to perform new pieces which they've heard and love.

My students are given the opportunity to play in a recital each Spring, and can  attend cello group class several times a year.  In the group class, students gain confidence in sight reading and performing for their peers.  In addition, once a year,  a guest cellist is invited to conduct a master class with my students.  As a musician and teacher, I invite opportunities to coach chamber orchestras, duets, piano trios, piano quartets, string quintets, string quartets, and string trios.

To be honest, music and cello playing, in particular, was never “easy” for me.  The challenges I have encountered and overcome in music (and continue to explore) have brought such great rewards in my life.  This hard work overcoming obstacles in my own playing has, I believe, helped to make me  a patient , nurturing and understanding teacher.  I have been fortunate to have worked for several years with Margaret Rowell, who brought much greater ease and fluency to my cello playing and gave my more confidence in my own strongly felt concepts of musicality and phrasing.  

I also learned a great deal about teaching from my fine teachers and coaches: Gary Hardie, Margaret Rowell, Irene Sharp , Nicholas Anderson, Debbie Davis, Ovidiu Marinescu and my current coach, Jonathan Spitz.  

For four years I worked very closely with Jean Mauro, a fine conductor of the West Windsor -Plainsboro High School South Orchestras, as the string coach for three excellent orchestras.  During this period I was  coached intensively by Ms. Mauro.  I also had further training with the talented pianist and conductor, Chiu-tze Lin, in conducting.  I toured with Ms. Mauro and the WW-P orchestras to Russia, Boston, Austria and Toronto. 

 Music is a performing art that offers opportunities for individual expression at a very high level.  My time with the cello consists of practicing, performing, teaching and being coached.  These activities are all consuming and bring me daily joy, inspiration and peace.  Through coaching cello and chamber music, I am constantly refining and expanding my knowledge of  the art of phrasing and bow technique for each individual piece based upon many factors: historical studies of the period, an exchange of ideas with my students and concepts of the natural beauty of a phrase based on singing.

My students have recently performed in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall with American Fine Arts Festival,  Youth Orchestra of Central Jersey, NJ All State and Regionals Orchestras, the prestigious Handler Master Class Series,  the Eastman Conservatory Summer Program, the Young Artists Programs at Westminster and Rutgers.   In 2007, I co-designed and directed the Princeton Bach Workshop with Swiss cellist, Eva Kuhn.  I love to teach, to coach chamber music and to play the cello!

  
*My husband studies apes and monkeys and I play cello=Monkcello! Please contact me at: monkcello@comcast.net

Address:16 Prospect Ave, Plainsboro NJ 08536