Daniel Winnick, Violinist and Teacher

Hi there! I'm Daniel Winnick, a violinist and violin teacher in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Welcome to my website!

Use the tabs above to learn more about me, or scroll down this page to see highlights from my bio and to learn a bit about my story.

Bio highlights

Performing:
-Assistant Concertmaster of Dearborn Symphony Orchestra
-Member of Flint Symphony and Battle Creek Symphony
-Have played with Michigan Opera Theater, Kalamazoo Symphony, Transsiberian Orchestra, and many others!

Teaching:
-Private teacher in Ann Arbor since 2009
-Violin/Viola Faculty, Cultural Art Strings of Manchester, Michigan
-Have taught group violin classes at Rudolf Steiner School of Ann Arbor and the Sphinx Organization's Overture Program in Flint, Michigan
-Summer teaching at Friends Music Camp, Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana

Click here to read a full, formal bio (the kind you might see in a concert program).

my story

The violin was my first love.

I was seven years old, sitting in the back seat of my mother’s 1985 Honda Accord as we drove home from the music shop in central New Jersey, and my eagerness could not be contained. I unpacked the ¼-size rental violin with the intention of playing it as we sped down the highway. Following the salesperson’s instructions, I carefully held the rosin block in my hand…and scraped it across the violin strings, instead of the hair of the bow. (Apparently I hadn’t listened very well to those instructions!)

As all beginning violin students do, I had a lot to learn.

Years of hard work under the guidance of great teachers led me to where I am today, performing and teaching violin and viola throughout southeast Michigan and beyond!

A quiet kid finds his voice.

I was shy in elementary school, but when I heard some older students give a brief concert for my 1st-grade class, I knew I had to play the violin, and I wasn’t shy about saying so!

For several years, I studied violin by the Suzuki method in the studio of Mary Anne Walker in Princeton, New Jersey. I remember making quick progress at the beginning, but it didn’t last! Mrs. Walker taught me about persistence and work ethic, and my parents provided me with the encouragement I needed to keep pursuing what I loved—even though there were many days I felt like giving up!

During those years, I attended weekly private lessons and group classes and traveled in the summer to Ithaca Suzuki Institute, where I received instruction from other top Suzuki pedagogues like Teri Einfeldt, Geri Arnold and Terry Durbin.

I started to get serious!

As a teenager, I joined the Greater Princeton Youth Orchestra (later called the Youth Orchestra of Central Jersey) and spent summers playing string quartets at Kinhaven Music School and Point Counterpoint in Vermont.

Playing in groups brought me out of my shell, and as I made new friends who shared my interest in music, I began to discover an unexpected self-assurance and focus that carried over into other areas of my life.

I studied briefly with Joseph Kovacs before joining the studio of Nancy Wilson, with whom I continued to study while in high school. Mrs. Wilson introduced me to the Mendelssohn and Bruch violin concertos, as well as J.S. Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin. I attended chamber music coachings at Westminster Choir College, and I joined the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra under the baton of the great Joseph Primavera, who at that time was in his fiftieth season as music director—unbelievable! Maestro Primavera was tough on us, but it was clear he loved us too—and his love for the music itself was palpable and exhilarating. My experience in PYO was crucial to my decision to pursue music as a career—and when Maestro named me Principal Second Violin during my senior year, I couldn’t have been more proud.

Then I became a Wolverine.

Coming to study at the University of Michigan was one of the best decisions I ever made! There, I worked with incredible teachers and drew inspiration from the creativity and dedication of my fellow students, many of whom remain my friends and colleagues to this day.

At Michigan, I completed two bachelor’s degrees: Violin Performance and History. My violin teacher was Andrew Jennings, but I also worked with Kathryn Votapek, Yehonatan Berick, Christopher Harding, Ellen Rowe, and others. I played in a quartet with my friends Tom, Mili and Sarah—the Baits Quartet—and we stayed together for five years, performing for alumni events and giving our own full-length recitals. I took a class on jazz improvisation and played for Professor Kenneth Kiesler’s conducting seminar, which gave me new perspectives on what it means to interpret music—it’s much more than playing the notes on the page!

During this time, I also got my first professional ‘gigs,’ performing concerts with the Dearborn Symphony (of which I would later become the Assistant Concertmaster) and the Kalamazoo Symphony. I discovered that southern Michigan was full of opportunities to make music with wonderful people, a hub of regional orchestras and strong music education programs.

Now I'm proud to call Michigan home.

Since 2010, I’ve lived and worked in Ann Arbor, performing in some of the many orchestras in the surrounding region. Here is a sampling:

Teaching has been a primary focus for me after graduating from U of M. A friend of mine left town in 2009 and needed to find a new teacher for his student, Max—he became my first student! (Max now attends Michigan State University.)

Since then, I have maintained a small private studio in Ann Arbor, as well as a studio in Manchester, Michigan, as part of Cultural Art Strings. I have taught for the Sphinx Organization in Flint as part of its Overture program, which provides free after-school violin classes for students who cannot afford to take lessons. Working with a diverse range of students, seeing the effect learning an instrument can have on a child’s life—as it did on mine—has deepened my commitment to music in ways I couldn’t have imagined!

I was privileged to join the faculty of the Rudolf Steiner Lower School in Ann Arbor from 2014 to 2017, teaching violin classes to grades 2-4. Teaching at a Waldorf school—where computers are absent from the classroom until grade 9, and art is integrated into all aspects of the curriculum—reminded me that the human spirit is fueled by acts of discovery and creativity. It reinforced my belief that there will always be a place for learning an instrument like the violin, even in tough economic times and in a world where it seems like we are always staring at screens!

In 2015, I joined the faculty of Friends Music Camp, a music camp run according to Quaker values and principles on the campus of Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana.

All work and no play?

Music is both my career AND my hobby, since I enjoy it so much! I love to gather with friends to read string quartets, or just jam on fiddle tunes in the shade of an old oak tree.

My other interests include writing, reading books (especially history, poetry and first-person journalism), getting outside to run, bike or kayak in the warmer months, and whenever possible: Travel! Recent trips I’ve taken have included New Orleans, Portland (Maine), Boston, New Mexico, West Virginia, and an absolutely stunning trip to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and the Apostle Islands in northeast Wisconsin, where a friend convinced me to take a dip in Lake Superior. (It was very, very cold.)

I’m also fortunate to be able to work on rewarding side projects. For many years, I was an active participant and leader in the Classical Revolution movement, which brings chamber music performances to non-traditional venues like coffee shops, restaurants and bars. (Read a great article on this from Mother Jones here.) I now perform frequently with my friend Rick Robinson, a former Detroit Symphony bass player who leads small ensembles as Mr. CutTime! (Check out his website here.)

Of course, wherever I go, my violin goes with me…