About Me
A native of Des Moines, Iowa, Julie Stroud has had a wide-ranging variety of teaching and performing experience. She began violin study in 1975 with James Brauninger. She was an active member of the Greater Des Moines Youth Symphony, Valley Strings and Symphony, Des Moines Youth Chamber Players, and a four-year All-State violinist.
Several years of real life and "do I really want to play violin?" followed, while she started college and worked in several different fields, including all facets of the hospitality industry and homeless advocacy. The violin won and Julie began teaching in western Kentucky in 1993, joined the Paducah (KY) Symphony Orchestra as a substitute violinist, and began studying Suzuki pedagogy and philosophy. She has been an active member of the SAA since 1993, and has trained with master teachers Craig Timmerman, Louise Wear, Linda Fiore, Rudy Hazucha, Susan Levine, and Joe McSpadden.
After an exhaustive (and fruitless) search for a violin teacher who would accept adult students, Julie returned to school in 1998 at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where she studied violin with Don Zimmer. In 2002, she earned a Bachelor of Music in performance from UTC, graduating magna cum laude and with highest honors in music. During her time at UTC, Julie performed in master classes given by Daniel Heifetz, debuted as a soloist with the UTC Symphony, was selected by the music faculty as the 2000-01 Presser Foundation Scholar, and received several academic awards. She also substituted for the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, and taught Suzuki and traditional lessons for the Cadek Conservatory and Central School of the Arts. Julie was initiated into Theta Mu chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota in 1999.
In 2004, Julie was awarded a Master of Arts in Music from the University of Northern Iowa. Julie's performances at UNI included master classes with Peter McGuire (Minnesota Orchestra), and Ray Shows (Artaria Quartet); working with student composers and chamber ensembles; and an appearance at "Beethoven-fest!", a mega-recital showcasing all ten of Beethoven's violin sonatas in a single afternoon. Her Masters project included a review of the Jascha Heifetz Collection in the Library of Congress; analysis of Heifetz's transcriptions of the songs of Claude Debussy, using the original manuscripts as the primary source; and as a student of Frederick Halgedahl, a violin recital that included the UNI premiere of Heifetz's La Chevalure. Julie taught private Suzuki and traditional violin lessons for the Cedar Rapids Symphony School, where she also taught large-group lessons as a public school string enrichment specialist. She also subbed for various orchestras, including the Dubuque Symphony and Waverly Community Orchestra.
Julie continued with post-graduate study in musicology at the University of Iowa, studying television music and the role of female composers and performers in the nineteenth-century. She counts among her mentors and influences Renee Cox Lorraine, Rebecca Burkhardt, Marian Wilson Kimber, and Roland Carter.
Dreams of an illustrious career in academia ground to a halt in 2005, with the unexpected but cherished arrival of a new baby. In 2006, Julie launched Violinnovation, a web-based violin studio. Violinnovation was recently included as one of a handful of music businesses in The Savvy Musician, a newly-published guide to the business of music, written by Dr. David Cutler, composer and professor of music at Duquesne University. In May 2009, Julie moved back to central Iowa after a two-year sojourn in Topeka, Kansas where she was a member of the Topeka Symphony Orchestra. She is currently playing with the Des Moines Community Orchestra, teaching students in Nevada and New Jersey, and "gigging" for weddings and other events. Julie also enjoys reading, writing, playing with food, dirt, and power tools, and laughing at the antics of husband/computer wizard dude Pat, four-year-old son Eric, and Purrcy the cat.