Eugenia Meltzer

Violin and Piano

Eugenia Frith Meltzer grew up in Champaign/Urbana, IL. She was the daughter of two artists and encouraged to pursue the violin. Her violin teachers included Paul Rolland, Endre Granat, and others at the University of Illinois. Her summers were always spent at Illinois Summer Youth Music and Meadowmount where she studied with David Cerone from Oberlin. The practice minimum at Meadowmount when Galamian was the head was eight hours a day.

Eugenia decided to explore her art background and came to Minnesota to get a Masters degree in the U of M’s Museology program, during which she interned at the MIA. While in grad school she played violin with the Minneapolis Civic Orchestra and joined the Musicians’ Union. “Those were fun times!” she says, “I played backup to Dave Brubeck, Barry Manilow, and Stevie Wonder!”

She then pursued another Masters degree, this one in Violin Performance, when she heard that Sidney Harth, concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, was coming to the University of Wisconsin.

Life and jobbing brought her to the Chicago area. She was hired by the Avoca School District to run its orchestra and Suzuki program. Her program was very popular and grew so large that it added three more string teachers. Students were able to start Suzuki lessons in the lst grade. By the 4th and 5th grade they had a choice of two orchestras, and by the time they got to New Trier High School, there were four high level orchestras. In this environment, Eugenia and her husband raised three kids, all of whom started with Suzuki and continued in music until they graduated.

Eugenia is also a ceramic artist. When she retired from teaching at Avoca, she built a big studio in Alfred, NY. Alfred University is one of the meccas of ceramics and it is a community of artists. “I loved working there” she says, “but it was time to move back to the Twin Cities. I need to be closer to my kids and grandkids.” All her children live now in the Midwest, so Eugenia bought an old house in St. Paul which she renovated during the COVID lockdown. After teaching remotely for 18 months, she is looking forward to teaching once again in-person.