Hillary Schoap

Helen Callus’ greatest gift as a teacher is her extraordinary insight. She is able to see immediately through whatever layers of bad habits a player might have right down to the core of each person’s individual gifts. Students may come to study with Helen in the hope that they will come out sounding like her, but they will instead receive something much more valuable: they will be able to recognize and play to their own individual strengths as musicians. I have seen my peers overcome huge hurdles in a matter of weeks, and I myself have come out of two years of study with confidence in my uniqueness. I could not have asked for anything more.

Hillary Schoap, UCSB Graduate and Rice University graduate student