Kesem Ninio
About
My name is Kesem Ninio and I am a professional trombone player, composer and music teacher. I have a master's degree from Manhattan School of Music.
I graduated with honors when he was 16, and moved to the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv for a major in trombone performance. In my second year there, I won third place in the school's wind instruments competition. Since 2015, I have received support every year from the America-Israel Cultural foundation for classical trombone. Later I received a scholarship to study in the Freiburg Hochschule in Germany. A year later, I moved to Germany and received my Bachelor's degree from the University of Debrecen.
I played as a soloist with the Israel Philharmonic and the Haifa Symphony Orchestra. I played for two years with the Israel young philharmonic Orchestra. I was a substitute player in Israel top orchestras including the Israel Philharmonic. I had the opportunity to play in master classes with the world's top trombone players including Joe Alessi, Christian Lindberg, Stefan Schultz and the trumpeter Reinhold Friedrich. I have also played in numerous music festivals including the Tsinandali Festival in Georgia, YMSA Festival in Hungary, Alessi Seminar in Italy and Summer Seminar Masterclass by Michael Mulcahy in Chicago.
Since 2023, I have been the bass trombone player in the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.
I have been teaching brass instruments, music theory and composition for the past 10 years in public schools in Israel, conservatories and privately.
Teaching Style
My goal is to make you better and to improve as fast as possible. I am confident that together we can achieve that. With that said, rest assured, it's going to be a lot of fun!
I believe that a teacher is morally obligated to begin without any preconceived negative expectations about any student and to have the highest expectations for each student. This will encourage students to discard their internalized limitations and strive to achieve their very best. I seek to instill in each student a sense of responsibility for their own education so that they will be active participants in their own learning.
I aim to create a supportive and inclusive environment in which students can both hone their skills and enjoy the creative process. I believe that there is value both in learning from the masters of the past and in discovering and creating new musical ideas. It is my highest goal to help each student discover their own artistic voice.
Curriculum
Trombone Performance + All brass Instruments - I studied with the best trombone and brass teachers in the world. I took masterclasses with the best of the best, top of the field brass legends. There is so much knowledge that I have acquired over the years and I am eager to share it with more students. I have a lot of experience teaching all brass instruments and can help you improve rapidly. I will teach you how to get better on any brass instrument.
Music Theory and Harmony, Analysis - The mathematics and symmetry of Mozart’s piano sonatas, the mysterious beauty of Stravinsky’s Petrushka chord...how can twelve simple notes produce such varied and opposing musical outcomes? This question has engrossed my imagination since I began playing trombone at the age of 10. I began composing at age 12 by improvising on the trombone and the piano. Later, I would record my improvisations, transcribe and edit them, and publish short pieces. This curiosity and creativity still excites me today and I want to share it with you! I have a passion for music theory, and I think theory is very important for all musicians, especially performers, to better understand their craft. I love to teach theory, having taught more than 50 music theory students over the past few years. I will teach you anything you want to know about chords, harmonic functions and progressions, voice leading, musical forms, analysis and many more subtopics of this fascinating field.
Ear training - Having developed over the years exceptional hearing abilities, I have devised a special method that helps my students identify intervals and chords by associations. I will teach you how to remember an interval/ chord by its quality/timbre.
Composition - Whether you want to be a professional composer or you are a performer that wants to broaden horizons, learning how to express yourself is a crucial ability for a musician. Exploring your ideas and making them into music is a creative process that requires a lot of patience and skill. I will teach you how to find your voice.
Improvisation - I believe that every musician should incorporate improvisation techniques in their practice room. Often, we get bored practicing the same things again and again. Improvisation helps us increase creativity, explore our musiciality, evade boredom and have more fun. I will teach you the main principles I use and show you how to include improvisation in daily practice.
Musicianship, telling a story - Very often I see students so focused on technique that they completely forget the main thing. If you want to be a good musician, you do not need to play the fastest, the loudest or the highest. While these things can impress some people, I believe the main thing would be the message we convey to the audience when we perform. The story behind the notes. I will teach you how to make that a priority in your playing.
Sight Reading - If you want to get better fast, practicing sight reading is a must. Knowing how to read music quickly and with minimum mistakes is important to every musician. There are some basic tips and principles that are often not taught. However, I believe knowing those will help you improve drastically. I will teach you exactly how to do that.