Love of string instruments nurtured

May 21, 2024

ASHTABULA — Carol Linsenmeier has spent almost five decades spreading the love of string instruments and bringing people together.

Linsenmeier, of Mentor, realized at a very young age that teaching violin would be her lifelong calling and went about making it happen.

“I started playing violin in the public school when I was seven years old,” she said of her introduction to the instrument at her childhood home in Newtown Square, Pa.

Upon graduation from high school, Linsenmeier pursued a music degree from the The College of Wooster and headed south to Greenville, S.C., to teach children music.

The year was 1974 and the school district had just been integrated. She said a young Black boy came to her prior to a music class and said it might not be a good class.

She asked the boy why and he said a classmate’s father had burned a cross on his family’s lawn the night before.

Linsenmeier said she told the boy that they would all work together to make music that day, and they did.

At that moment she said she realized bringing people together was even more important than teaching stringed instruments to children.

Linsenmeier later went to the University of Georgia where she met her husband John and moved back to northeastern Ohio where he grew up.

“I started at the School of Fine Arts in Willoughby,” she said. Linsenmeier said she still teaches at the school and also has classes at the Ashtabula Arts Center and Rabbit Run in Madison Township.

Over the years Linsenmeier has also been involved in many projects that bring people together including a program in Northern Ireland where she taught three protestant students and three catholic students shortly after the peace treaties settling decades of unrest n Northern Ireland were signed in 1998.

The love of stringed instruments has also drawn together a diverse group of area people who have the common bond of playing violins, violas and cellos.

The HeArt String ensemble of the Ashtabula Ars Center gathers every week to practice their craft, prepare for concerts and nurture their friendships.

Linsenmeier, began teaching violin to children many years ago at the arts center and then spread her wings to add adults.

Linsenmeier decided to take on adult students and eventually created an adult string ensemble that meets regularly and has about 10 gigs to play in 2023.

“They all started as adults,” Linesenmeier said of the ensemble participants that play violin, cello andviola. “We have played together for a long time,” she said.

Emily Glink of Jefferson said her background was in piano but she missed playing music with other people. She decided to learn the cello and hasn’t looked back.

Glink said she still enjoys weekly practice at Lighthouse Baptist Church even when there is no upcoming specific performance.

Judy Jones of Conneaut said she also came from a piano background but when her children left the house she decided to try violin.

The ensemble is scheduled to play at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturday at the Northeast Ohio Steampunk Festival at the Burton Historic Village and 2 p.m. on Sunday at the same location.

The group tends to perform “light classics”, Broadway tunes and patriotic music. for the Steampunk event the group is focusing on music from 1860 to 1910 and will dress in period garb.

Linsenmeier said the group will be performing “Hail to the Chief” this weekend but doesn’t know which president will be serenaded.

She said the group plays for veterans’ groups, dinners, nursing homes and other groups hoping to hear some good music. Linsemeier said interest in the group performing continues to increase.

Brant Gebhart, of Windsor Township, has played stringed instruments for many years and plays the cello weekly with the group.

Linsenmeier has slowed her work load in “retirement” from six days a week with 60 students to four days a week and 40 students.

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