VIOLA LESSONS
Orange County

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Liz Kim
My daughter was on the fence about taking violin lessons until she met Ms. Lydia. After her initial trial class with Ms. Lydia, she said "sign me up!" She looks forward to Wednesdays when she meets with Lydia and she ALWAYS has fun. She does homework and practices voluntarily.I brought my 6 years old daughter to the school a month ago. There we met Feliks, our instructor in cello. He is patient, kind, and knows how to deal with little ones. If you're looking for an excellent teacher - there he is! He brings all his great knowledge and experience to class to share love for music with his student.
Lydia is amazing. My daughter started playing the Viola in the IUSD strings program and her skill and technique have vastly improved over the past five months with the guidance of her instructor. Lydia is a very patient and encouraging teacher. She could immediately identify my daughter's weaknesses and began to train her to overcome them and she continuously inspires my daughter to feel more confident in her ability to playFeliks is an outstanding teacher. He really loves music and instills love of music in the kids he teaches. My daughter is 10 and has been learning cello with Feliks for the past 1 year. She loves him and loves the cello, thanks to Feliks. He doesn't look at the watch and teach. He works very hard with her. He inspires her to go above and beyond average. We are very grateful to have Feliks as our daughter's teacher. I wish him and the Russian School of Music all the best in the future.
My 5 year old daughter takes violin lessons with Lydia, and she loves taking lessons with her! Lydia is an absolutely wonderful violin teacher!!! She really knows how to keep my daughter engaged and the lessons fun and entertaining for a 5 year old. I wanted my daughter to learn to love music and love playing violin, and Lydia does a fantastic job of inspiring my daughter while teaching proper violin technique and music theory. Highly recommend this school and Lydia!!!My son has made so much progress during the short time he's been taking cello lessons here. Feliks is a wonderful teacher. He has so much patience and has made my son feel comfortable. My son is so impressed with how much he has already learned from Feliks. We are so happy we found the school.
Our students love us
Mark Bekman
Simon Lee
We accept everyone believing that every student is a gifted violist that just needs our support.

Practicing is an essential part of learning viola and we work with our students helping to optimize their home practice routine, checking their progress daily, giving them assignments, watching their videos and texting practicing tips.
Our Values
Support

Why Orange County students learn viola with us?

Everyday we work hard to help our students make their dreams come true
We succesfully prepare our viola students for Certificate of Merit, ABRSM; all sorts of auditions: school, scholarships; and to any level of competitions: State, National, International
We select a unique study plan for all our viola students based on their strengths, talents and aspirations spending lots of extra time out side of the lessons helping our students to push their limits
Our Experience
Individual Approach
Learn viola with the best teachers in Orange County

Viola Lessons Near me

Russian School of Music Irvine provides a unique opportunity of studying with outstanding musicians, viola teachers and concert artists. We conveniently located near John Wayne airport and offer private viola lessons in Orange County to residents of Irvine, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, San Clemente, Costa Mesa, Corona Del Mar, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Tustin, Orange, Anaheim

Viola Lessons for kids

Viola Violin Lessons

Viola Lessons Online

Our private viola classes designed for your children to encourage kids' interest in music from an early age and develop excellent technique which will affect their pace of learning and success in the future
Our adult viola classes are not very different from those for children because they are about you, the student, and our highly experienced faculty will work with you to achieve your goals whether you're doing it for self-enrichment, preparing for college or major International competitions
In response to COVID-19 we switched most of our viola classes to online lessons and now teach viola worldwide
Our Teachers
FELIKS VOLOZHANIN
Director of String Program
ANTON SMIRNOV
Piano Program
IRINA KULIKOVA
Director of Guitar Program
Enroll Today!
First lesson-FREE! Come and check us out!

Trial lessons' length — 30 min.
Engaging Lessons
Tailored just for you!
Feliks Volozhanin is a Director of String Program at Russian School of Music Irvine, cellist and cello teacher. He loves and truly enjoys teaching having over twenty years of experience both in Russia and in the US. His teaching philosophy is to share what he learned from a great Russian cello school: superb technique and expressive musical interpretation.

Feliks' students have the highest succsess rate of auditioning to Irvine Honor Orchestra: 1/3rd of 2017 Irvine Elementary Honor Orchestra cello section are his students. His teaching philosophy is to nurture and forster students' creativity, passion, and love for music sharing what he learned from a great Russian cello school: superb technique and expressive musical interpretation. Feliks' students successfully compete at various competitions and are members of different orchestras including Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra, All Southern California Elementary Honor and Irvine Honor Orchestras, and Orange County Youth Symphony.

Feliks began studying cello at the age of seven. At the age of twelve he became a laureate of Chelyabinsk State Youth Cello Competition and continued his studies at State Institute of Music in Moscow, Russia where he studied with esteemed cellists Kirill Rodin (Tchaikovsky Competition Gold Medalist and professor of Moscow State Conservatory). Since moving to the United States, Mr. Volozhanin has won first prizes in many contests including the Elizabeth Harper Vaughn, the Rapides Symphony and the SLU Concerto Competitions, studying at Southeastern Louisiana University with Karen Jung. Feliks was a teaching assistant of professor Bongshin Ko at Cal State Fullerton and also served as a principal cellist of Cal State Fullerton Symphony and Cal State Fullerton Cello Choir.

Mr. Volozhanin performs in a guitar/cello duo "Irina & Feliks" with Irina Kulikova. His recent engagements include concerts in Dallas, Austin, New York, Los Angeles, Miami and others. In 2020, Feliks recorded a world premiere of Three Night Ballads for guitar and cello and the piece will be featured on a new CD of Irina Kulikova, It's About a Touch.
Volozhanin's performances have been broadcast on television in the United States as well as in Russia.


A graduate of Yale University School of Music, Anton Smirnov began his piano studies at the age of seven in Novosibirsk, Russia. He has made more than 1,000 public performances world-wide at venues that include Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center's Avery Fischer Hall, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Upon his graduation from Novosibirsk Conservatory, he moved to the US and graduated from Oberlin Conservatory with an Artist Diploma in 2010.

Anton is a dedicated and gifted teacher: last year 3 of his students won auditions to the Carnegie Hall. Besides teaching piano, Mr. Smirnov enjoys teaching chamber groups and conducting string orchestras.

As a soloist, Anton is a prizewinner of several international piano competitions including the Moscow International Competition for Young Musicians, International Russian Music Piano Competition in San-Jose, CA, Oberlin Concerto Competition, Corpus Christi International Concerto Competition, Louisiana International Piano Competition, the NTD International Piano Competition in New York, and others. He has performed as a soloist with various orchestras including the Tomsk Philharmonic Orchestra, San Jose Symphony and the Oberlin Orchestra. As a chamber musician, Anton collaborated with the members of Quatuor Ebene; double bass players Edgar Meyer Eugene Levinson, violinists Simone Perter, Mark Kaplan and Grigory Sokolovsky, violist Barbara Westphal, and many others.

Anton has participated in many international music festivals including "International Program New Names", Cassalmaggiore International Music Festival, Banff International Master Classes, and Sarasota International Music Festival. Anton is a member of the collaborative faculty at The Heifetz International Music Institute. He participates in the "Heifetz on Tour" music series, performing chamber music with finest young string players. He has also performed in the master classes of John Perry, Marc Durand, Robert Levin, Hung Kuan Chen, M. Boguslavsky, M. Delli Ponti, Boris Berman, Menahem Pressler and many others.
Irina Kulikova, Classical Guitar
Unanimously acclaimed for the rare beauty of her tone and her enchanting presence on stage, Irina Kulikova has established herself as one of today's world leading guitarists. She received over 30 awards for her artistry, including 1st prizes at the most prestigious international competitions, including Michele Pittaluga in Italy, Guitarra Alhambra in Spain, Forum Gitarre Wien in Austria and Iserlohn in Germany. Irina Kulikova graduated with distinction at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg (Austria), the Conservatoire of Maastricht (The Netherlands) and the Gnessin's Academy in Moscow (Russia).

She recorded four solo CD's, three of which are distributed worldwide by the Naxos label.
She tours far afield, with appearances at leading festivals in Europe, North America and Asia and in concert halls such as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, the Palau de la Musica in Valencia, the Musashino Hall in Tokyo and the Oriental Arts Center in Shanghai.
Our Students

Viola Lessons Orange County FAQ

WHAT INSTRUMENTS DO YOU TEACH?
We offer 30, 45, and 60 minute lessons in piano, guitar, violin, viola, cello, clarinet, bassoon and theory.
WHAT IS A SCHEDULE?
We offer only private lessons and, therefore, the schedule is based on teacher's and students' availablity. We do our best to accomodate schedule requests. We offer classes on the week days, as well as on weekends.
WHAT ARE THE GOALS OF THE CLASSES?
When you learn music, you learn a combination of cognitive skills that will help to advance in math, writing and communication.
These fundamental skills will allow students to excel in any path that they'll choose in their lives.

Learning music rewires the brain and teaches us to find discreet connections, make quick decisions and solve complex problems.

Our primary goal is to nurture and foster students' creativity empowering them to love, enjoy, and appreciate playing music once they grow into adults.

HOW EARLY CAN WE START TAKING LESSONS?
Almost every child is ready to take music lessons at 5 years of age.
Some children show an interest in music even at a younger age. For these kids we recommend scheduling a consultation to decide whether it is a right time to start.

HOW OFTEN DO CHILDREN PERFORM?
We offer two student recitals per year. Besides playing at the recitals, we encourage and prepare our student to participate in various competitions, auditions, talent shows and home concerts.
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