JAVS Spring 2026

Practicing and Performing • “Hula” or gently wiggle the entire body—including arms, wrists, and fingers—while playing to encourage looseness and trust. • Create space between the left hand and the viola, as well as between the bow and the viola. Left-hand fingers should feel free to flop and even “make mistakes,” rather than being held in a rigid form. The bow can have this same sense of freedom. This is simply another way of saying: let go. • Challenge yourself to play one repetition of a phrase completely freely—almost too loose, or as if you were wearing gloves. This will reveal what still needs practice in order to play freely and reliably. If you can achieve both expression and accuracy while playing “sloppy loose,” you can do anything. • A mantra for pre-performance anxiety: I am a hard-working musician who deserves to be heard. • If you improve by 1% each day, that adds up to 365% improvement every year. Can you improve by 1%? Yes—you can. Ultimately, our practice reminds us not only how to teach, but why we teach. When we stay connected to our own curiosity and love for the viola, that energy naturally carries into the studio. Readers are warmly invited to write to the author to share their own tips, tricks, routines, or questions, so that this conversation can continue to grow within our viola community.

Andrea Priester Houde is an American violist whose genuine love and dedication to her craft can be seen in performances around the world and in the unique environment of her teaching studio. Houde is Associate Professor of Viola and String Area Coordinator at West Virginia University. She serves on the artist faculty of the Interlochen Arts Camp and is a board member of the American Viola Society. Houde has performed as soloist, chamber musician, and in orchestras in the United States, Canada,Europe, and Asia. She has recorded for the Delos, Parma, and Albany record labels. Her solo album, The American Viola, features early to contemporary American works for the viola, including the historic world premiere of the first American viola composition. on the faculties of the University of Delaware, Orfeo Music Festival (Italy), Endless Mountain Music Festival, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, and the Master Players Festival. She has given performances, presentations, and masterclasses at International Viola Congresses, American Viola Society Festivals, American String Teachers Association National Conferences, and at many universities across the US and on 5 continents. Houde has adjudicated both nationally and internationally, including national and regional MTNA competitions and as a first-round judge for the 2021 International Primrose Viola Competition. Studies were at the University of Memphis with Leonard Schranze and at the Peabody Conservatory with Victoria Chiang. Other teachers include Heidi Castleman, Jeffrey Irvine, Mark Jackobs, and David Holland. Houde lives in Morgantown, West Virginia, with her horn-playing husband Albert and their four children. Houde has a zeal for teaching and pedagogy that equals that of her performances. She has served

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Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 42, No. 1, Spring 2026