File: swensonamy06-oh-gettingestablished_M.mp3
Speakers:
AS – Amy Swenson
KP – Curator Ken Perlman
KP: So you moved here in
AS: 1998.
KP: So how did you get established, teaching?
AS: I put notices up at the malls, I did a little advertising in the paper, and I got a few students, a small number, and my reputation grew from there.
KP: Were these private lessons or classes.
AS: Private lessons; I teach privately.
KP: How much do you charge?
AS: I charge $12 for kids and $15 for adults, for a half an hour to forty-five minute lesson.
KP: How many students are you teaching [now]?
AS: A couple of dozen right now, some adults and some kids: mostly kids. but I do have 5 or 6 adults.
KP: Is all of your teaching done here in this studio?
AS: Except for Community School.
KP: Tell me about Community School
AS: Community School is a way of passing time on PEI in the winter. It's a program for adults, or 12 and overs. And it's been running on the Island for a long time. And a lot of Community Schools do have fiddle classes or choir classes, or guitar classes, as well as all the sewing and painting that goes on.
KP: And is that in December and January?
AS: It varies. The Vernon River Community School is run in the Fall.
KP: Is that where you teach?
AS: I did. Sheila MacKenzie is teaching there now. I just found it was too much to teach two of them. I was teaching three at one point. I was teaching Vernon River Community School; I taught there for two or three years. And I taught Montague Community School, and that's in the winter, for two or three years. And I've stuck with the Murray Harbour group, teaching that, partly because there's a lot of advanced fiddlers there so I find it more interesting. But we do have two classes there, we have a beginners' class and a more advanced class. I always spend the first hour with the beginners, and then the second hour and however long we carry on with the more advanced students. So I've been doing that for several years at Murray Harbour. It was a great way to meet other musicians, it was a great way to meet people that needed lessons. It was also a great way to find people who needed repairs, because you wouldn't believe the violins that would come into Community School. And they'd say, "Oh my Dad gave me this one." And there'd be two strings on it, and the bridge would be off and the pegs wouldn't work.
