REDBIRD
cello studio
Erin Flynn
Instructor, Cellist
Erin Flynn has been teaching in Charlottesville since 2011. She made her home at Redbird in 2021. Erin owes her love music to Mrs. Karsch, her elementary school music teacher. She owes her love of cello to Mrs. Kershner, her 5th grade orchestra teacher, and her dedication to it to Ms. Rogers, all from the Stroudsburg Area School District in Pennsylvania. Her first private teacher, Michelle Lyon, showed her how fun teaching could be. She owes her love of teaching the cello to her mentor at Kutztown University, Dr. Marie-Aline Cadieux, who herself has her D.M.A. in Cello Pedagogy. It would be remiss not to mention that her love of chamber music is due to her college chamber music coaches, Dr. Mary Ogletree, Kurt Nikannen and Dr. Maria Asteriadou. It is because of the tireless efforts of these teachers, even though she was not always a very good student, that Erin knows the impact individual teachers can have in our lives. After all, she only had Mrs. Kershner for one year.
After graduating with her music degree in cello performance from Kutztown University, she headed to Virginia, where she fell in love with the beauty of the mountains, valleys and beaches. Erin fell into a career as a program coordinator for a company that supports adults who have intellectual disabilities. It's there that she began volunteering to assist and play with the choir, where she was reminded each time that anyone can learn and love music. During this time, Erin was teaching private lessons at the Music Education Center and playing cello at private events. In 2017, Erin began teachingfull-time in her own studio located at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Fry's Spring in 2017 and working as a Teaching Assistant with the orchestras at Albemarle High School, Jack Jouett Middle School and Sutherland Middle School.
In 2020, we found ourselves in the middle of a pandemic and Erin suddenly started teaching online. Erin dove into learning, combing through YouTube videos and attending seminars and conferences. She created a student portal and re-vamped her website with the help of Sasha Kramer. She hosted a YouTube recital and a Zoom recital.
In March 2021, Erin opened Redbird at 301 E Market Street in Charlottesville. In 2022, Erin began to expand to Redbird RVA, teaching lessons at Orbital Music Park. She is currently working on her certification in Online Teaching through the Royal Conservatory of Music.
Erin is a member of Melodious Strings, a group of professional string musicians that specializes in providing elegant and professional string quartets, trios, duets, soloists, and other types of string ensemble music for events and venues. Erin also plays with various other ensembles and books private events for herself throughout the year. She is a member of the American String Teachers Association (ASTA), the Wednesday Music Club, The Richmond Music Teachers Association and is currently serving as secretary for Charlottesville Music Teacher's Association.
Erin is a bird watcher and a vegetarian. She plays D&D, takes voice lessons and Alexander Technique with Redbird's neighbor, Christina Fleming and is a member of St. Elizabeth's. She enjoys all forms of working out, audio books, obsessing over her cats Bongo and Gomez, coming up with ideas to decorate and restore the early 19th century house in which she lives, wading in rivers and lakes and camping in a Japanese kei truck named Yuto.