<p>There are many wonderful viola teachers at a variety of music schools. The key is finding one that will work well with you, a teacher that can inspire you and that meshes with your individual personality and musical and technical strengths and weaknesses.</p>
<p>All of the major string schools have one or more excellent viola instructors: Colburn, Curtis, CIM, Juilliard, Rice, NEC, Peabody, Oberlin . . …</p>
<p>Here’s a starting list: Jeffrey Irvine at CIM; Robert Vernon at Juilliard (formerly CIM); Andre Roy at McGill; Steven Dann at Glenn Gould; Kim Kashkashian at NEC; Paul Coletti at Colburn; Roberto Diaz, de Pasquale, Michael Tree at Curtis; James Dunham at Rice; Peter Slowik at Oberlin; . . … This list is not exhaustive and some of these teachers might be bad fits for some individuals. No doubt, many other equally great viola teachers are not on the list. </p>
<p>Most of the aforementioned teachers have very selective studios–some of them probably have only one or two openings each year for freshman (as many of them teach many grad and post-grad students). If you are not quite advanced on your instrument, you probably won’t get admitted and could probably find teachers at less expensive institutions that will be very good for you.</p>
<p>Arrange trial lessons with some viola teachers to get a sense of their possible teaching styles. Ask them what they believe you need to be doing to improve. </p>
<p>There is no definitive list of the best viola teachers: the list would be different for each student.</p>