• Private Schools
• Advice Guide

"All solo musicians are entrepreneurs."

Since completing his doctor of musical arts in 2006, Conrad Chow has been pursuing a career as a professional violinist that has led him to play at Carnegie Hall in the Weill Recital Hall this past March.

Chow began his musical path at the Toronto Montessori Schools when he was introduced to the violin at the age of three.

"That’s where I started learning violin," says Chow. "The school had a big studio, with concerts all the time. We went to competitions and festivals.”

Montessori is a system that really cultivates and allows many young minds to blossom.

His first violin instructor, Janet Wilchfort, still teaches violin at the school. When Chow was 18 and back in Toronto, Ontario, for the summer - after a year studying at the Indiana University School of Music - Wilchfort invited him to help her teach students and then take over for a month.

Today, Chow also teaches the violin in addition to performing, and has gained a greater appreciation for the teaching philosophy behind Montessori schools.

“You choose what you want to learn at your own pace, and the teachers are there more as a guide,” explains Chow. “It is this customized learning experience that I think was the main ingredient leading to my life as an artist. Montessori is a system that really cultivates and allows many young minds to blossom.”