Lessons

The Wilson fine violins lesson studio is located on the lower level of the South Adams Square office building (get directions). We have a range of wonderful professional teachers that teach hour or half-hour private lessons, and offer a wide variety of methods and affordable rates. 

Scheduling is done between you and the teacher, and payment for them can be deposited in the drop box in the lesson studio lobby, or given to us right in the shop!

Marilyn Hotaling – Violin

Marilyn Hotaling’s love of teaching began at the age of 14, when she taught ballet in her basement to several children in her subdivision. After graduating from Michigan State University in stringed music education, she taught for 3 years in Grand Blanc and Traverse City Public Schools, earning her permanent certificate. Ms. Hotaling has been teaching violin privately for 35 years, recently adding viola to her schedule. Drawing on her love of Celtic music, Ms. Hotaling plays with 2 local Celtic groups– Tara and JamRocks, in addition to her private teaching.

Sasha Sullivan – Violin

Sasha graduated from Wayne State University with a Bachelor’s in Performance, during which she studied with Hai Xin Wu of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. She has played in several local orchestras such as the Dearborn Symphony, the Michigan Philharmonic, Lake St Clair Symphony, and the Livonia Symphony.

Her passion for teaching developed during her time working with groups of students in an extracurricular fashion. That experience brought the realization that teaching, just as much as performing, is how music should be passed on.

Mauricio Betanzo – Cello

Mauricio Betanzo has appeared widely throughout the greater Washington area as a member of the orchestra, chamber music performer, and as a solo artist including performances at the Kennedy Center, Organization of American States, Chilean Embassy, Maryland Symphony Orchestra Recital Series, and as soloist with the Catholic University of America Orchestra.  He has performed extensively with the chamber music group String Poets, and played with the rock cello group Primitivity during its residency at Strathmore in Bethesda, Maryland.
 
Mr. Betanzo received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Catholic University of Chile where he studied with Roberto Gonzalez, and his master’s degree in cello performance with Robert Newkirk at the Catholic University of America. Mr. Betanzo spent two years in a performance residency program at Carnegie Mellon University where he studied with David Premo.

Greg Staples – Violin

Thirty-year-old violinist Greg Staples joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in December 1999. A native Detroiter, Staples returned to the Motor City from Atlanta, where he served in the First Violin section of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra since 1994. In the fall of 1998, Staples was appointed Acting Assistant Concertmaster of the Atlanta Symphony.
 
The son of former DSO Concertmaster Gordon Staples and longtime first violin section member Beatriz Budinsky, Gregory Staples will now share the Orchestra Hall stage with both his mother and his former teacher, Principal Second violin Geoffrey Applegate. As winner of the Detroit Symphony Civic Orchestra’s concerto competition, Staples soloed with the DSO in 1987 and again in 1993. In 1988, Staples was one of seven American violinists chosen to participate in the first American-Soviet Youth Symphony, which toured the United States and the former Soviet Union.
 
A 1993 graduate of the Indiana University School of Music, where he earned an Artists’ Diploma, Staples is also an avid chamber music enthusiast and performs on a 1775 Ferdinand Gagliano violin. Staples has appeared with the Grosse Pointe Symphony Orchestra and the Birmingham Bloomfield Symphony, as well as at the Grand Teton Music Festival and the Holland Music Festival.