Background, professional training and performance history
Bruce Haines has been teaching choir, band and strings, conducting, singing, and playing in musicals and opera for 51 years. He has taught music in public schools in four different states and has worked in television and film; credits include music for the television show “Murder She Wrote” and the film “Stand By Me” directed by Rob Reiner. He worked for Eugene Opera for eight years while he completed his M.Ed. at U. of Oregon.
Bruce has been working in San Francisco Bay Area theaters since 1990. For the last five years, he taught strings and served as an accompanist at the Conservatory of Vocal/Instrumental Arts (COVA), a K-8 Music Conservatory Charter School, in Oakland CA. He has been accompanying the Chabot College, Hayward CA flute and oboe majors in their bi-annual qualifying recitals for the last 6 years. He is newly returned to Eugene and delighted to be back in beautiful Oregon.
Artist statement and teaching philosophy
“My greatest joy is infecting my students with my own love and enthusiasm for playing music. I love seeing the “lights going on” when the student learns new skills and gets excited about playing. The most effective teaching comes from helping people to find the musician in themselves, joining them in their voyage of discovery, and on their own terms, as opposed to trying to impose my version of what they should become. Each of us has our own reasons for learning music and we each have our own learning style. My job is to recognize learning styles and guide the student toward the discovery of what that becomes.”
Instruments taught
Bruce teaches students of all ages piano, collaborative piano, voice, violin, viola, cello and bass.