Denise Chevalier’s Palo Alto Violin and Viola Lessons

Denise is an excellent teacher. Between my two kids, we’ve had six violin teachers, and Denise was by far the best. I only wish we had found her first! My daughter learned more in the first six months with Denise than she had in the previous three years. She genuinely has her students’ best interests at heart and she goes out of her way to find ways to connect with them, and she gives praise when it’s due. Our previous violin teacher never had recitals, and my daughter never learned to play with piano accompaniment, but Denise includes that in her instruction. She also pays great attention to detail, but doesn’t overwhelm the student with detail at the expense of the big picture. Her prices are reasonable for the high-​quality instruction she gives. And she’s never berated my daughter for not practicing enough — she understands that kids cannot always practice every day every week no matter what. I wish we’d found Denise years earlier!

Denise has been our 13 year old’s private viola instructor for the past 18 months now. We are so very grateful for Denise’s expertise and teaching style. Beyond instilling proper habits and technique, she gives continuous timely feedback, and asks many questions during each session to help our son process and develop new skills. Thank you Denise for providing Alec many tools for healthy striving, and enjoying the gift of music! With appreciation, Peter

I’ve taken violin lessons with Dr. Denise Chevalier for the past 2 years. I’ve truly enjoyed her teaching style — thoroughly knowledgable in all aspects of violin while making her lessons fun and supportive for her students.
I’d taken lessons as a child and had a very hard time with it but restarted when my son wanted to learn an instrument in his school music program. I am so glad I restarted with Denise. Through lessons with her I’ve learned that I truly appreciate and love the instrument. I’ve also had a lot of fun exploring different types of music.
I truly recommend Denise!

Denise is a fabulous music teacher and works well with both adults and child students.
Denise switches from fun music, to focusing on improving my technique to increasingly more difficult pieces that challenge me and expand my skill level. The variety keeps me interested and engaged.
I started going to her in 2008 as an adult and have really learned how to play the violin. She was very good about setting my expectations about how I could expect to progress. Her advice helped me not get too impatient. I’ve stuck with it and now my husband has started to come to lessons to accompany me on the piano. She’s a lot more demanding on the younger students in terms of getting them to practice and to excel. Even so, she has occasional opportunities for adult students to showcase their talents or prove their abilities through certification programs. There’s talk of recital performances and of joining chamber groups for adults.
I recommend Denise very highly.