About the Studio
Galamian Violin Studio was established in 2022 in Melbourne by Arash A’alaee, a violinist and composer with more than 30 years of experience as performer, teacher and composer. The studio is named after Ivan Galamian (1903 Iran – 1981 US) , the greatest violin teacher and pedagogue of 20th century. Our goal in Galamian Violin Studio is to revive the old-school violin pedagogy heritage combined with the latest learning theories. The current trend in all education systems follows a quantity based approach, meaning that the number of intake is more important than the quality of output. This represents the commercial aspects of the system where no school would reject a new student regardless of the fact that they may know this particular student would fail for sure.
We, in Galamian Violin Studio do not believe that every child is to be a violinist. “ All children can play violin” is a quantity based approach and skips many other factors in learning an instrument and the main goal here is to recruit as many student as possible to feed to the system commercially. We believe that some are born to be a violinist and most are not, we believe in having a gift and hence we pick our students carefully. However, we may give a chance to some, but if we realize that it is not working, we will withdraw the student quickly to avoid a potentially gifted pianist to play the violin by force.
We also do not believe that for instance, listening to Mozart will increase the IQ of a baby in the future, rather we believe that buying Mozart CDs will increase the credit in the bank accounts of people behind such claims. We have concluded that all trends in music education are part of a commercial system in the music industry; most of the researches are funded by a few major corporations doing business in music and hence, they are misleading people for good!
Galamian Violin Studio is where we are honest with you and you will have a clear picture of your own capabilities in violin as a student.
NOTE: We advocate “Russian bow grip” and “No-shoulder rest violin hold” at Galamian Violin Studio as our principles. Should you play violin already, we would decide to keep you under your current Franco Belgian bow grip and using shoulder rest OR we will help you switch.
Disclaimer
Galamian Violin Studio is an independent entity and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or otherwise connected to the estate or family of the late Ivan Galamian. The use of the name “Galamian” is intended purely as a respectful tribute to his enduring legacy and contributions to the art of violin pedagogy. Our studio honors his influence, but we have no formal association with his estate, family, or any organizations bearing his name.
About the founder
Arash A’alaee was born in 1977 in Shiraz, Iran. He began learning the violin at the age of 11 and joined the Shiraz Chamber Orchestra at 15. He wrote his first composition at 16, which was performed by the Tehran Symphony Orchestra in 1994 at Vahdat Hall, conducted by F. Nasseri (Parastoo for String Orchestra). Arash established two successful music schools, Bariton Music School in Shiraz and Parmida Violin Club in Tehran, where he began researching violin pedagogy more closely and practically. He also served as a violin lecturer at the University of Sedaya (UCSI) in Kuala Lumpur from 2008 to 2010 and participated in a masterclass with Anna Chumachenco in 2007. In 2006, Arash founded the Tehran Quartet, where he performed as violin II alongside virtuoso violinist Ali Salehipour (violin I), Kaveh Tasiry (viola), and Nazanin Ghorrab (cello).
He has published two pedagogy books, An Introduction to Violin Instruction for Children (2007) and The Fundamentals of the Violin Hold (2023), and has two more books to be published soon. He has also published two poetry collections in Persian titled «قایق، آینه، سیب» and «هرنگاهت» in Iran. Arash is currently the CEO of a technology company in Australia, while music remains his passion.
You can find some of his composition scores here.