Natalie Frakes | TEDx WayneStateU

A violinist and music educator, Natalie Frakes encaptures her audience with her beautiful violin performances, but then uses it to tell us a story about Music education. She opens us up to a new way of viewing music as a vehicle for social change. She relates to us the stories of her own students, and teaches us a lesson in how to truly teach music. The right way. Violinist and music educator, Natalie Frakes, is Director of Orchestras for Oxford Community Schools and believes passionately that music can be used as a vehicle for social change. She has been involved as a teaching artist for Wayne State’s String Project@Wayne, Detroit Symphony’s Civic Youth Ensembles, MSU’s Community Music School, and more. She completed a teaching residency with the Baltimore Symphony’s El Sistema-inspired Orchkids program and lived and worked in Costa Rica with their El Sistema program.

Natalie graduated from Wayne State and was named a 2014 Michigan Teacher of Promise. Natalie is also an experienced performer and has worked with the likes of 2Cellos and Trans-Siberian Orchestra. She performs with electro-pop violin band, NUCLASSICA, and is violinist in Midtown Strings, a string ensemble with her closest friends, and aims to make music accessible to a wider audience.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx