Transmitting knowledge and experience has always been important to me. From 1974 to 1981 I taught violin at the Academy for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, whereby my teacher Franz Samohyl took me on as assistant and entrusted his class to me.
In 1987/88 I taught at the University of Santa Barbara (California), substituting for Ron Copes, who was on sabbatical. I was from 1995 to 2000 guest professor at the Music Academy in Graz, and during this time (actually up to 2008) directed the string orchestra project EYCOS. Parallel to this I was also pedagogically active at the Vienna Music Academy.
Apart from this there have been special projects such as Password: Classical with the Vienna Philharmonic (a series introducing students to concerts of that orchestra), and activities in conjunction with the Prokopp Foundation in Salzburg. Recently I was director of the Schoenberg Academy for composers and musicologists in the Arnold Schoenberg Center, Vienna. These examples should demonstrate the variety of the pedagogical approaches to which I feel connected.
Several pedagogical works have begun to develop out of these activities, for example the first volume of my violin method.
Here an excerpt from the introduction to this volume:
»This work is multi-faceted. It is naturally first of all a pedagogical text, out of which teachers can choose what they view as useful and applicable to their pupils. It is also a progressive reference work on the technical and acoustic possibilities of violin playing, and finally also a kaleidoscope of the innumerable possibilities in composition for this grandiose and versatile instrument. Each of the short pieces or duets, each of the exercises or studies, is occupied with a clearly contoured particle of what we in its entirety call violin technique, examines it from various points of view, and experiments with it. The coordination of two diverse techniques, such as those of bowing and fingering, is sometimes developed and worked through as if under the microscope, in filmic slow motion, or in time-lapse photography. Thought for its own sake also has its place in this work: not thought in concepts and words but rather thinking in pitches and rhythms, and then last but not least, reflective thought about methods of work and practice. This planned instructional work can also be seen as documenting etude of an art which, despite superficial contemporary manifestations and the current curtailments of music instruction in many pedagogical institutions, is cultivated more than ever. Finally, this collection intends to bring the young student closer to new and newer music in its diverse manifestations.«
This volume contains studies, duets, and violin ensemble pieces. The author has also recorded these on CDs, providing the students with material for study and practice, as well as a »music minus one« series.
The violin ensemble pieces can also provide a first encounter with microtonal violin playing. I have recorded this part separately as ViolinMicroMix. It is included in a CD released by the Austrian Radio ORF in summer 2012.
At this time I am working simultaneously on the second and third volumes of my violin method.
My Gemini Duets, Studies for Strings, and Studies for Winds op. 29 can also be seen as works with pedagogical aspects.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4DSdxqzPjc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWNzs2erwuA