March 23, 2026

Challenges and Rewards of Life as a Violinist
RoseAnn Lester

This presentation will discuss the various challenges violinists deal with as they grow from beginner students to highly polished professional performers, as well as the rewards reaped from years of dedicated work. It will cover topics such as physical challenges and injuries, the enormous investments of time and money, technical challenges of the instrument, performance difficulties, balancing family life, and why, in spite of all of this, violinists subject themselves to all of this willingly.

Presenter

RoseAnn taught violin and viola at Hood College for 45 years before retiring in 2020. While there, she established the Hood College String Ensemble and for 30 years was Director of Hood's Preparatory Music program. She and her husband Noel Lester co-founded the Hood College Summer Music Festival, which has run for 35 seasons. 

RoseAnn also performed extensively as a solo violinist, chamber musician, and orchestral player and recorded several CDs. Before coming to Hood, she served as concertmaster of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Leon Fleisher, as substitute violinist for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and on the faculty of the Peabody Preparatory Music School and the Baltimore School for the Arts.

Roseann took her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in violin performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore where she studied under world-renowned violinist Berl Senofsky on a full four-year scholarship.

RoseAnn is the mother of two and an avid reader and says that she enjoys walking, hiking, psychology, thanatology, and, of course, Torch Club.