"Even into his 80s, my teacher, Stanley Ritchie, always said that the key to his success was his curiosity that propelled him to discover what new possibilities exist on the violin. Even Yo-Yo Ma has said: “I’m a curious kid, always going to the edge.” My goal as a teacher is to encourage this curiosity for knowledge and to give students the tools and techniques to find their own answers and voices on this beautiful instrument." - Kailey Richards
Kailey is extremely passionate about education and outreach. She began teaching in Ottawa through OrKidstra - an El Sistema-inspired program that is dedicated to empowering children and building community through music. She has combined what she has learned working in the string academy with the teaching philosophies of the Suzuki Institute and the El Sistema programs into her own teaching approach. Following her work at OrKidstra and during her studies at Indiana University, she studied with Dr. Brenda Brenner and Mimi Zweig within the Indiana University String Academy (where Joshua Bell began his studies). It was there that she fell in love with the study of violin pedagogy. When she moved to Toronto in 2016 for her graduate studies, she began teaching at the Kingsway Conservatory of Music where she taught private lessons as well as group classes and larger orchestral ensembles.
Kailey currently runs her own private violin studio and hopes to see it grow further in the future.