Violinist Isaac Stern once declared, “I have a responsibility to pass on to the next generation what I learned from my teachers. Teaching young artists is like giving water to a flower.”
That’s some Nina Wilkinson energy right there.
“If you love something, you want to share it, and you want to give it to the next generation,” she told us. “You want to give your knowledge to somebody else. That’s what teaching is. And then when you see the spark of a student that gets it, it’s like, AH! And then it’s also fun.”
Nina Wilkinson – known as “Ms. Nina” by thousands of PIMF students and staffers over the 15-plus years she’s worked with us – is an award-winning educator and musician who has shared her skills and illuminated musical pathways for young musicians well beyond the PIMF summer campus. She’s retired from a 38-year career as an instrumental string teacher in the Philadelphia School District but is now an adjunct viola professor at Eastern University, and an in-demand performer as a freelance violist in many musical ensembles in the Philadelphia area.
She is herself a product of the Philly school system, where her musical gifts were recognized early and supported by scholarships to Settlement Music School and Temple University.
“Viola is my main instrument,” Ms. Nina stated, having discovered it at age 8. “I do dabble in piano a little bit, but not as much. I don’t have time to practice as much as I should on the piano, but I can get around when I need to.”
That “dabbling” is clearly understated, as her piano skills were the key to activating her new degree in Music Education.
“I was on scholarship but then I graduated, and I needed to get an instrument, so that meant I needed to work,” she recalled. “So, (classical pianist and director of the Philadelphia School District’s music program) Dr. Wendell Pritchett, who was an excellent musician and wonderful, wonderful mentor, saw me on the street, and he said, ‘What are you doing?’ And before I could finish the sentence, he said, ‘Come down to the board, you’re going to play; you’re not playing viola, but you’re playing piano.’ Because he was a pianist. So that opened a door where I worked. I was able to save money to get a viola, and then it transitioned to an instrumental string position.”
Ms. Nina sees teaching as a calling that “checks a lot of boxes” in both her head and her heart. It combines her devotion to her art and training with the ongoing adventure of music exploration through resourceful creativity.
“You have to know your instrument in order to teach it,” she explained, “and if you’re able to know your instrument and love it, then you’re able to teach it really well. Sharing that is another way to express yourself.
“You sit down and you’re in an orchestra, and I love playing Brahms, oh, I love doing all that. But then there’s another creative side you tap into when you teach, and it’s different for every student or group of students. Trying them on new pieces, or then, you know, arranging different pieces for them, and you can get on the piano, and you can make music with them. It could be jazz, it could be pop, and it’s just another form of expression, another form for me, of having fun.”
When she’s not teaching, playing or practicing herself, Ms. Nina is a quilter: she sees the potential in available materials, creates or selects a pattern to apply, makes changes and adjustments along the way to create unique and meaningful art that literally comes together one stitch at a time.
So it is with her teaching at PIMF. She works across age groups but relishes taking in the youngest musicians and sorting through each perky human package of skills, dreams, goals, and styles to piece together a much more polished player who leaves camp enthused to continue their musical growth. Ms. Nina and the rest of the faculty at the Philadelphia International Music Festival understand that the group setting for a young musician – as structured at PIMF – can be a major early turning point in their training.
“No matter how they’ve been working privately,” Ms. Nina said, “at PIMF they have to literally learn how to read and count and think on the spot, because that’s what being in an ensemble is. I call it the ultimate multi tasking. You have to think, and you have to look at the conductor, you have to count. You have to know what the note is. You have to know where to put it on the fingerboard. You have to know what your right hand is doing, your bowing, you have to make sure it’s in tune. So, you’re doing all these things simultaneously, and it takes a lot to think and to compartmentalize all this.”
This can be pretty head-spinning stuff. We’re lucky to have an experienced and nimble pedagogue in Ms. Nina to introduce our youngest musicians to this necessary new mindset, as well as to these necessary new skills.
“You guide them through,” she told us. “You show them that they can do this. You don’t throw everything at them all at once. You take things apart. Say, for instance, if it’s something that’s rhythmic. Put the violin down; let’s go over the rhythm. If they don’t understand what the rhythmic notation is, I go on the board, and we work through it; how to count your rest, even though you’re resting, doesn’t mean you stop. You still have to count. You know when to come back in. What has to happen in your brain.
“And then, some students are physical learners, some are visual,” she continued. “You’ll have a mix of that. So, I go into my little bag of tricks, and figure out a way to get student ‘b’ to understand what student ‘a’ has already understood. I can go into a lesson with some bullet points but not a checklist because it’s eclectic, because you’ve got all these kids, and each student learns differently, and you have to be aware of that and to reinforce it, and then also to encourage them, not to discourage them.”
That was noted by student Weija Yang when he nominated Ms. Nina for the prestigious Philadelphia Youth Orchestra Music Institute Ovation Award, which honored her this past year. Sponsored by J.W. Pepper, Jacobs Music Company, and WRTI 90.1 FM, it recognizes outstanding music educators who have significantly impacted their students’ lives and their communities.
Her lessons are never a source of detriment; they are always filled with encouragement and joy. She instills a deep appreciation for music and fosters a love for (it) that goes beyond the notes on the page. Even during challenging moments, Teacher Nina has a remarkable knack for uplifting spirits and inspiring perseverance.
Ms. Nina maintains that over her years in teaching, students have not changed. But distractions certainly have, as they have for all of us. Case in point: the cellphone.
“At the Philadelphia Orchestra rehearsals, when somebody’s phone goes off, they’ve got to go buy donuts,” she recounted. “So, I was working with a chamber group of teens at PIMF and I said, ‘Look, if your phone goes off, you will have to buy donuts.’ Guess whose phone went off? Mine. (Laughs) Instantly, one of the kids said, ‘I’d like chocolate for tomorrow.’ I asked, ‘Sprinkles or no?’ Next day, I went to Dunkin Donuts, and I had a dozen of donuts for them.”
PIMF is enrolling musicians ages 8 through 19 for sessions in June and July, 2025 and Ms. Nina and the rest of our distinguished, dedicated – and occasionally, donut-distributing — faculty await!
