Who's Who at the Center for Young Musicians: Ashley Buckley

Ashley Buckley

Who’s Who at the Center for Young Musicians: Ashley Buckley

A new school year will mean new faces at the Center for Young Musicians! We are excited to announce that new teachers for piano, cello and guitar will be joining the CYM family, bringing unique experiences and solid training in music education. And as always, we happily look forward to greeting new students and their families.

To help everyone get to know each other a little better, we’ll be posting short bios on all the CYM teachers and staff. Read on to get cozy with Ashley Buckley, a Violin Teacher at CYM since 2011.

Ashley Buckley, violinist, earned her Bachelors of Music degree with distinguished honors at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and her Masters of Music degree at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Music. During her studies at Carnegie Mellon, she was a member of the Dorothy J. Starling Foundation String Quartet, which was featured in performances at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington) and Severance Hall (Cleveland). As a member of the Parnassus String Quartet, she was featured in performances in the Grand County Concert Series in Fraser, Colorado. Ms. Buckley has studied chamber music with members of the Cleveland Quartet, Pacifica Quartet, Alexander String Quartet and Cavani String Quartet.

 

Currently, Ms. Buckley resides in Pittsburgh and is an active performer and teacher in the area. Ms. Buckley is a founding member of the Freya String Quartet, artists of Symbiotic Collusion. The Freya String Quartet actively performs, collaborates with other artists, gives masterclasses, and does educational outreach all throughout the tri-state area. Ms. Buckley is also a founding member of Pittsburgh’s Living Room Chamber Music Project, a local group of musicians dedicated to bringing chamber music back to its place of original intent; the living room! Additional recent performance engagements of Ms. Buckley’s include those with the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra and the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh. Ms. Buckley has performed live shows with popular artists Josh Groban, Barry Manilow, and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. She has recorded with local artists Ben Hardt, Joy Ike, Isaac Merz, and Tim Ruff. A strong proponent of music as a means for cross-cultural dialogue, Ms. Buckley has worked with Global Volunteers and Cultures in Harmony on projects in Ghana and Turkey.

 

Ms. Buckley is registered through Violin Book 2 with the Suzuki Association of the Americas.

 

 

At CYM this year, Ms. Ashley teaches private violin lessons, Literacy, Classical and Legends group classes, and Early Childhood Music classes.

 

Q & A with CYM:

 

CYM: Favorite piece of music to play and/or favorite composer?

Ms. Ashley: My favorite composer is Brahms! I love playing all four of his symphonies, especially the 1^st and 2^nd. I also love to play his violin sonatas. My favorite is Sonata No 1 in G major. Secretly I wish I played the cello, so I could play one of my all-time favorite pieces; Brahms’ Sonata No. 2 in F major for cello and piano!

 

CYM: Do you play other instruments other than the instrument you teach/study?

Ms. Ashley: I do not officially play any instruments aside from what I teach, but I do have a habit of collecting instruments, and I have lofty goals for my musical future! I’ve collected a few native drums from places I’ve traveled, and I also recently acquired a mandolin. While I love playing the violin, I also have dreams of being a cellist some day! Did I mention the cello is my favorite instrument?

 

CYM: When/where/how do you listen to music for fun?

Ms. Ashley: I am constantly on the go for teaching and performing, so I most frequently listen to music in my car! I usually sing along, whether or not there are words. My current playlist includes the Beethoven String Quartets (I am a huge fan of the Takacs Quartet!), Natalie Cole, Jeff Buckley (no relation!), Jake Shimabukuru, Madeleine Peyroux, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and Rusted Root.

 

CYM: What is one thing people would be surprised to know about you?

Ms. Ashley: I LOOOVVVE folk music, and did a fair amount of Irish fiddling and Irish dancing when I was younger, winning medals in both. I won USA’s National Fleadh and was a National Irish Fiddling champion (junior division) when I was ten. As a result, I got to go to Ireland to compete. I was no match for the native Irish fiddlers, but I had a great time traveling to Ireland! Fiddling didn’t turn out to be my forte, but I still love all kinds of folk music. My older brother is a professional, touring Irish fiddler, so now I live vicariously through him!

 

CYM: What has music given you?

Ms. Ashley: Music has been one of the most important things in my life. I have been surrounded by music since I was a baby, being the youngest of three. My older brother and sister were Suzuki students before I was born, so music has been in my life from the very very beginning. Needless to say, I would attribute most of my favorite things in life to music. Not just classical music, but all styles. Of course, I love playing music, and I love listening to music. My violin has developed into my second voice, and sometimes feels like my first! In addition to that, though, my involvement with music as a young child introduced me to people and places that I would not have been exposed to otherwise. My violin has given me the opportunity to travel worldwide (Ireland, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Ghana, Turkey, and more). It has allowed me to share a common language with people I have met that I could not otherwise speak to, whether when I was young, attending music camps with German, Japanese, or Russian students with little English, or whether I was in Turkey performing concerts with musicians that did not speak English at all. To me, music is beauty, expression and communication, but also so much more. My closest friendships have budded through my involvement in music. I have met and gotten to know people with vastly different life experiences, which has helped me grow as a person. I have gotten to see parts of the world I would not have traveled to if not for my violin. Now, in my every day life, I get to make music with my closest friends on a daily basis. I get to communicate and interact with children and young adults through this medium that I love. Music continues to be the driving force in my life, and I love that I get to share it with the people around me every single day.