Taylor Cooksey
Taylor holds a Master’s Degree in Viola Performance at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she studies with Jonathan Vinocour.
Taylor Cooksey started studying violin at the age of fourteen with Dr. Georgette Popa and viola at age seventeen with the same professor. While under Dr. Popa’s instruction, Taylor participated in the Seraphim Symphony Youth Orchestra in Southern California, where she was a soloist, concertmaster, and principal viola throughout the four years she spent in the ensemble. With the symphony, Taylor got the chance to perform the Czardas violin solo with the orchestra at the 2012 London Olympic Games, and the Hoffmeister viola concerto at the Chambord Castle and La Madeleine Cathedral in France in 2014. Other notable performances that Taylor has been a part of include touring Germany and Prague with the BCCM Orchestra in 2017, and performing in concert halls such as Carnegie Hall, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Segerstrom Performing Arts Hall, and the Kennedy Center.
Taylor received her Bachelor’s Degree in Viola Performance with a minor in psychology in 2019 from California State University, Long Beach where she studied with Dr. Josephine Moerschel and Dr. Jason Bonham. During her time at Long Beach, Taylor joined the American Youth Symphony Orchestra, and had the privilege to perform in various studios to record viola tracks for the short film “Bruised” and for the band Tribal Seeds.
Taylor has been teaching violin, viola, cello, and piano for five years in various private music schools and public schools. For the 2018-2019 school year, Taylor had the opportunity to teach high school orchestra at Villa Park High School, where she led the ensemble in rehearsals and prepared them for their school concerts. Taylor also has experience teaching middle school orchestra, as she led a summer orchestra program in 2018 and 2019 at East Whittier Middle School. Taylor also has extensive experience teaching children under the age of five, as well as children that have special needs.