I started playing violin at age 4 receiving daily lessons. I took formal lessons until age 20, when I started teaching. At age 16, I was the youngest member of the Berkeley Symphony under maestro Kent Nagano. I now specialize in Cuban music as leader, musical director, and violinist of Orq. la Moderna Tradicion. I make a living playing professionally and teaching. I have performed in ensembles and as a soloist in venues including Lincoln Center's Mid-Summer's night Swing Festival, The Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. and countless festivals across the United States and Europe.
In addition to continually taking violin (and a few years of piano) lessons from a very young age, I studied music at S.F. State and Berkeley. I have studied with Daniel Kobialka from the San Francisco Symphony, and Andrea Beyers, from Julliard, among many others. I have been teaching at the Community Music Center in San Francisco for the past 8 years, and have been head of the violin program at Los Cenzontles Mexican Arts center for the past 10 years. I have also been teaching from 15 to 20 students a week continually for the past 15 years - some of my students have been with me for over 10 years.
Violin technique has been perfected by classical musicians and there is a wealth of resources from which to draw. These resources should be utilized by a conscientious teacher. Each student is different and needs a program specifically tailored for him or her. For beginning students I make up specific exercises for that student to solve problems. Most importantly, a good teacher will make learning the violin fun and something to look forward to - even the practice sessions!
Performance Bio: Born in the Marshall Islands and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas and Laguna Beach, CA. Tregar has played the violin since age four and received training in classical music performance, teaching, and theory at San Francisco State University and U.C. Berkeley. He was a member of the Oakland Youth symphony under Maestro Kent Nagano, who encouraged him to compose a symphonic suite which was performed by the Oakland Youth symphony when Tregar was 16. That same year, he became the youngest member of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, also under his mentor, Kent Nagano.
Tregar has worked in California and New York playing Cuban music with Chocolate Armenteros, Patato Valdez, Richard Egues of Orquesta Aragon, Orquesta Broadway, and La Tipica Novel, among others. He is musical director, violinist, composer and arranger of Orquesta La Moderna Tradicion and has performed with them in the ensemble and as a soloist in venues including Lincoln Center’s Midsummer’s night Swing Festival, The Smithsonian Center in Washington D.C., the Ford Theater in Los Angeles, and the Yerba Buena Center For the Arts in San Francisco, among countless other festivals and Theaters across the United States and Spain. Tregar has been running the violin program at Los Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center since 1996 and has played in the touring group since 1997. He also is of the staff arrangers for Los Cenzontles. Tregar works closely with many of the master folk musicians and plays an important role in documentation and teaching of various folkloric styles.
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