Valentine holds a Master’s degree in Musical Pedagogy from the Haute Ecole de Musique in Lausanne and has been teaching saxophone at music schools and on an individual basis for several years. She is a tenured teacher at the Conservatoire Populaire de Musique of Geneva and in Echallens (Ecole de Musique Multisite). Since September 2017, she also works as tutor assistant of Prof. Lars Mlekusch at the Zürich University of the Arts.

Valentine has also had the opportunity to work as a substitute on several occasions at the conservatoires in Broye and Morges and at the music schools in Rolle and Lausanne. In 2015, she also taught at the Chamber Music Days (Journées de Musique de Chambre) at the conservatoire in Lausanne.

Listening, having fun and encouraging students to reach their full potential are three of the values through which Valentine passes on her passion for music.

Sax up

In 2015, she helped launch the development course SaxUp with Quatuor Parallèle. This intensive week-long course offers young saxophonists the opportunity to study chamber music and attend individual and ensemble lessons and multidisciplinary workshops on topics such as stage presence, electronic music, expressivity, tai chi and jazz. In 2016, the course was held in Blonay, in the villa of composer Paul Hindemith, with full board.

Research and pedagogy

During her Master’s in Pedagogy, Valentine produced a thesis entitled “Emotions in Motion: l’expressivité au coeur de l’apprentissage musical” (Expressiveness at the heart of musical learning), which resulted in the creation of a didactic collection of graphic scores on emotion. This research work received several awards, including the Prix Paléo HES-SO in 2015.