Switzerland
Holder of a Master of Music Education for clarinet teaching, Valentina shares her love for this instrument with young people. The main aim of her rigorous teaching is to have a ready ear for the pupil and always stimulate their curiosity, as well as an open-minded behaviour. In order to do so, she organizes different spectacles which offer a mix of artistic domains such as music, theater or traditional dances. She thus passes the passion and importance of music as a whole, of improvisation and of so-called « modern » music to her pupils.
Holder of a CAS (Certificate of Advanced Studies) in Willems Music Initiation, Valentina teaches this method of initiation to music, which is designed for children from the age of 4 and is based on their feelings and affectivity towards music. With the help of the four main domains around which Valentina articulates every single lesson (audition, rhythm, songs and bodily movements), the child lives the musical phenomena, feel them and become aware of them. This method of introduction to music takes place over three years and aims to refine child's musical ear and sense of rhythm: it also prepares for the practice of an instrument. At the end of the course, the child will have developed his hearing and his rhythm with harmony, thanks to a playful material; his sensitivity through songs and body percussions; his sense of the musical phrase by listening to excerpts of works, on which will be added rhythmic and auditory exercises; his sense of group evolving with his classmates.
Since 2018, Valentina has also been teaching in the early childhood (1-3 years): these lessons promote the discovery of a traditional and current repertoire of nursery rhymes, stories, gesture songs and lullabies, as well as the opportunity to learn several traditional songs and dances from different countries of the world in a foreign language. In these lessons, we can also find sound games with percussion instruments as well as various traditional dances in the form of rounds. With the help and reassuring presence of the adult, these lessons also reinforce the creative and emotional bonds between children and their parents: the adult shares the joy of dancing in the air of his own childhood with his child, and passes a special moment of happiness in music with him.
Valentina is responsible for the theory department at the Lausanne Conservatory.