Islip Music
Welcome to Islip Music! We provide violin and trombone lessons in Sammamish, WA for students in the Greater Seattle area. We are also founders of Sammamish Youth Music providing performance opportunities for young musicians.
Violin Lessons
Karin Islip, an accomplished performer as well as skilled teacher, has a broad range of study and performance experiences both locally and abroad. During high school, she studied in London with David Takeno at the Guildhall School of Music. She received undergraduate training in violin performance from Isadore Tinkelman at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Theodore McMillan at the University of Arizona. She was then awarded a chamber music scholarship to San Francisco State University where she completed her masters under Daniel Kolbialka. Doctoral studies followed at the University of Minnesota with Sally O’Reilly.
Her professional development includes numerous chamber music concerts, solo performances (engagements) with Symphony of the Lakes and Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra , a season in Idaho with The Festival at Sandpoint, and many years with the Orquestra Sinfonia de Tenerife in Spain where she met her husband, Gavin.
She is currently principal second violinist with Lake Washington Symphony Orchestra, formerly known as the Bellevue Philharmonic Orchestra. Her passions are chamber music and teaching. Throughout her career as a performer, Karin has maintained an active violin studio, sharing her joy of music and expertise with students of all ages.
For further details regarding rates and availability please contact Karin at KarinIslip@comcast.net
trombone Lessons
Gavin is originally from the south coast of England where he started playing the trombone in local brass bands. He attended the London College of Music obtaining Associate and Licentiate diplomas in trombone performance.
Gavin was Assistant Principal Trombone with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Tenerife performing regular orchestral concerts with soloists that included Placido Domingo, Midori, Kyung Wha Chung and Krystian Zimerman. He toured throughout Spain playing in the Madrid National Auditorium of Music and festivals in Alicante, San Sebastian, Bilbao and the Seville Expo in 1992 as well as the 1993 Schleswig-Holstein Musik festival in Germany. He has since had a long career in technology moving to Sammamish in 2000 with his wife Karin, who is a professional violinist, and kids Emma and Nate. He is now teaching trombone lessons in Sammamish while also performing with a number of groups in the Greater Seattle area including Puget Sound Brass and the Northwest Symphony Orchestra.
Gavin has a simple teaching philosophy of striving for each student to meet their full potential as a trombonist. Lessons are made up of working with the student to build a solid technique, working towards one or more solo pieces in preparation for a specific goal e.g. audition, exam, performance etc.and covering any particularly difficult school band or orchestra music. He also encourages students to participate in the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) Performance Grades as a way to gauge student progress. Of course, the most important part is that the student has fun playing music!
Gavin is back teaching in person lessons but is also happy to teach students remotely via Zoom, FaceTime and other video conferencing applications.
For further details regarding rates and availability please contact Gavin at GavinIslip@comcast.net