HeartStrings Academy

We're teaching kids to be talented learners, exceptional muscians, and successful, happy human beings.

Our goal is to give your child the keys to the wonderful worlds of music, learning, and expression. Along the way, they'll also learn some incredible life skills that go far beyond music--skills to enhance their ability to create succes and happiness in their lives.

A little about our director, Russell Fallstad:

Hailed for his “glorious strength” and “elegance” (New York Concert Review), Russell Fallstad has blazed an impressive trail as a violinist and violist since beginning Suzuki lessons in the Minnesota public school system. A violinist, DJ, songwriter, and music producer, Russell Fallstad tours internationally and records with the renowned rock-pop-hiphop-violin duo, The Dueling Fiddlers. He began violin/viola lessons at age 5 in the public schools in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and received two classical performance degrees from Northwestern University. Shortly after college, he founded the Fry Street String Quartet, mentoring with classical legends Isaac Stern, The Juilliard Quartet, and The Emerson Quartet. He subsequently toured and recorded with the Fry Street Quartet for 12 years before taking a hiatus from the classical performance world to pursue popular genres and innovative teaching projects. His latest project is the release of a new method for learning music at all ages called the HeartStrings Method. He recently founded a school of the same name (HeartStrings Academy) in Lewisburg, WV, and is working on an international release of the program online, as well as growing the HeartStings Program to the Washington D.C. area and beyond. Russell has taught young children at Northwestern University, The Western Springs School of Talent Education/Naperville Suzuki School, The Music Institute of Chicago; he has taught String Pedagogy at DePaul University; and he founded the Suzuki Pedagogy Program at Utah State University’s Caine School of the Arts, while a member of their string college-level performance faculty for 7 years. Russell recently worked with actors in the Hollywood movie “A Late Quartet,” as musical coach during filming, has numerous videos on YouTube, and appears in an episode of the PBS children’s program, “Abracadabra.”