Reserve your spot NOW:
September 12-14, 2025
1-2pm ET
Streamed LIVE from the Carriage House in Boston
with special guests
Guy Fishman, cello
Emily Marvosh, contralto
Reserve your spot NOW:
Become the hero in your unique violin adventure
“Violin hero...you mean Jascha Heifetz? Itzhak Perlman? Hilary Hahn?"
Of course, we look up to the great violinists of yesterday and today. But before any of them could become heroes to you and me, they had to embark on their own violin adventures.
They first had to be their own heroes, and so can you...no matter where you are today.
Now you may be thinking: I'm not a violin hero, and I'm not going on any adventures. I'm fine right here!
This marks the third chapter in our Violin Hero saga. In previous adventures, violinists have explored the passionate, unpredictable Hero's Companion in Strauss's Ein Heldenleben, and embodied the masterful storyteller Scheherazade in Rimsky-Korsakov's timeless tale.
Each piece revealed different aspects of what it means to be a violin hero: the grand gestures and intimate moments, the technical mastery and emotional vulnerability that define great music-making.
This time, our guide is not a swashbuckling hero or a cunning storyteller, but a figure at his most human moment: Peter, after the denial.
The Hero at Rock Bottom
Here's something the movies don't always show you:
Sometimes the most powerful moments in a hero's journey aren't the triumphant victories. They're the moments when everything falls apart.
Picture this: You've just boasted that you'd never abandon your closest friend, no matter what. But when the moment of crisis arrives, you don't just fail to help – you actively deny even knowing them. Three times. And as the cock crows, you realize what you've done.
That's where we find Peter in Bach's St Matthew Passion, just before we encounter one of the most gorgeous – and challenging – concertmaster solos in all the literature: Erbarme dich.
"Have mercy."
But the violin doesn't just accompany those words – it becomes the voice of Peter's tears, raw and utterly human.
Why this Changes Everything
A lot of violinists I work with feel like they're at their own version of rock bottom.
Maybe you…
Consider your knowledge of harmony and structure to be weak?
Worry that your understanding of historical performance practice is lacking?
Feel like you can't hold your own with singers or in chamber music?
That's exactly what we're going to work with.
Instead of pretending those weaknesses don't exist, we're diving straight into them. Because that's what heroes do: they ask for help, they find guides, and they discover allies.
In Erbarme dich, the violin doesn't play the hero. Instead, it becomes something far more vulnerable and powerful: the voice of human emotion at its rawest.
Through its twists and turns, this solo demands more than technical mastery. It requires complete transformation. In just a few phrases, you must embody grief, regret, desperate pleading, and profound sorrow.
But here's Bach's genius: even in this moment of bitter sadness, he gives us a dance to play with. That lilting Siciliano rhythm reminds us that structure and beauty can emerge from our darkest moments.
If you can master that level of musical storytelling, every piece you play will take on new depth and meaning.
You Won't Go It Alone
You Won't Go It Alone
Unlike our previous solo adventures, this baroque masterpiece calls for a complete ensemble:
Guy Fishman, a world-class cellist providing the continuo foundation
Emily Marvosh, a professional contralto to guide us through the vocal line
A skilled keyboardist completing our authentic baroque setup
Live from Boston's historic Carriage House, you'll experience the intimacy of chamber music as we work through this masterpiece together.
Using Erbarme dich, I'll walk you through my signature Practice Makes Performance method – showing you how to shape your sound, refine your expression, and make any piece truly your own.
But first…
Live from Boston's historic Carriage House, you'll experience the intimacy of chamber music as we work through this masterpiece together.
Using Erbarme dich, I'll walk you through my signature Practice Makes Performance method – showing you how to shape your sound, refine your expression, and make any piece truly your own.
But first…
Why this Changes Everything
A lot of violinists I work with feel like they're at their own version of rock bottom.
Maybe you…
Consider your knowledge of harmony and structure to be weak?
Worry that your understanding of historical performance practice is lacking?
Feel like you can't hold your own with singers or in chamber music?
That's exactly what we're going to work with.
Instead of pretending those weaknesses don't exist, we're diving straight into them. Because that's what heroes do: they ask for help, they find guides, and they discover allies.
In Erbarme dich, the violin doesn't play the hero. Instead, it becomes something far more vulnerable and powerful: the voice of human emotion at its rawest.
Through its twists and turns, this solo demands more than technical mastery. It requires complete transformation. In just a few phrases, you must embody grief, regret, desperate pleading, and profound sorrow.
But here's Bach's genius: even in this moment of bitter sadness, he gives us a dance to play with. That lilting Siciliano rhythm reminds us that structure and beauty can emerge from our darkest moments.
If you can master that level of musical storytelling, every piece you play will take on new depth and meaning.
You Won't Go It Alone
You Won't Go It Alone
Unlike our previous solo adventures, this baroque masterpiece calls for a complete ensemble:
Guy Fishman, a world-class cellist providing the continuo foundation
Emily Marvosh, a professional contralto to guide us through the vocal line
A skilled keyboardist completing our authentic baroque setup
Live from Boston's historic Carriage House, you'll experience the intimacy of chamber music as we work through this masterpiece together.
Using Erbarme dich, I'll walk you through my signature Practice Makes Performance method – showing you how to shape your sound, refine your expression, and make any piece truly your own.
But first…
Live from Boston's historic Carriage House, you'll experience the intimacy of chamber music as we work through this masterpiece together.
Using Erbarme dich, I'll walk you through my signature Practice Makes Performance method – showing you how to shape your sound, refine your expression, and make any piece truly your own.
But first…
I'm Nathan, and I'll be your guide
Nathan Cole, Concertmaster
Boston Symphony Orchestra
I’ve played the violin nearly all my life, and for the last 25 years I've been a member of some of the world's great orchestras. From my earliest days on the job, I knew that teaching would always be as important to me as performing.
I still can’t stand the thought of violinists struggling with technical or musical challenges simply because they haven’t been given the tools or guidance to get the exact sounds they want from the instrument. That’s the purpose that drives me every day as I teach students of all levels and ages from around the world, both on and off-line.
As a performer, I recognize that each of the positions I’ve held over the last quarter century (from the violin section of the Chicago Symphony to Concertmaster of the Boston Symphony) sounds like it could have served as the final chapter in my story.
But I've been through enough cycles in my life to know that I can't escape them...which means that my next adventure has already begun.
Will you invite me to join yours?
I'm Nathan, and I'll be your guide
I’ve played the violin nearly all my life, and for the last 25 years I've been a member of some of the world's great orchestras. From my earliest days on the job, I knew that teaching would always be as important to me as performing.
I still can’t stand the thought of violinists struggling with technical or musical challenges simply because they haven’t been given the tools or guidance to get the exact sounds they want from the instrument. That’s the purpose that drives me every day as I teach students of all levels and ages from around the world, both on and off-line.
As a performer, I recognize that each of the positions I’ve held over the last quarter century (from the violin section of the Chicago Symphony to Concertmaster of the Boston Symphony) sounds like it could have served as the final chapter in my story.
But I've been through enough cycles in my life to know that I can't escape them...which means that my next adventure has already begun.
Will you invite me to join yours?
Nathan Cole, Concertmaster
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Here's what people had to say about Violin Hero
If you answer the call for your own hero’s journey, you will discover your own treasures and be forever transformed…just in time to take on the next, greater challenge!
SEPTEMBER 12-14, 2025
Reserve your place now:
More impact...
"We often make sports analogies in our field, but one cue that we musicians seem to have missed is that sports professionals have coaches for the entirety of their careers. Studying with Nathan was my opportunity, at my age and stage, to try that on. It turns out that the athletes are on to something. A season spent in the midst of such a brilliant violinist and pedagogue yielded countless fresh ideas for both my teaching and playing that have added up into something radically — and transformationally — better. What a gift!”
Rebecca McFaul, violin, Fry Street Quartet
“I feel like I'm playing more in tune than ever, and I feel success at that rather than the shame and the frustration that I was feeling when I didn't know how to solve a problem. This is only one example of all of the different solutions that Nathan has available. There isn't a problem that Nathan doesn't have a solution for.
I highly recommend Nathan and his programs. I can tell you that you will love the kinds of help and teaching that you get from Nathan Cole. Thanks, Nathan. We really appreciate you.”
Louise Rains, violin, retired engineer
More impact...
"We often make sports analogies in our field, but one cue that we musicians seem to have missed is that sports professionals have coaches for the entirety of their careers. Studying with Nathan was my opportunity, at my age and stage, to try that on. It turns out that the athletes are on to something. A season spent in the midst of such a brilliant violinist and pedagogue yielded countless fresh ideas for both my teaching and playing that have added up into something radically — and transformationally — better. What a gift!”
Rebecca McFaul, violin, Fry Street Quartet
“I feel like I'm playing more in tune than ever, and I feel success at that rather than the shame and the frustration that I was feeling when I didn't know how to solve a problem. This is only one example of all of the different solutions that Nathan has available. There isn't a problem that Nathan doesn't have a solution for.
I highly recommend Nathan and his programs. I can tell you that you will love the kinds of help and teaching that you get from Nathan Cole. Thanks, Nathan. We really appreciate you.”
Louise Rains, violin, retired engineer
What You'll Discover
My markings for the Erbarme dich solo (bowings, fingerings, and suggested shaping)
Baroque ornamentation techniques that feel spontaneous and emotionally charged
How to work with continuo and breathe with a singer
Why knowing the story transforms everything about how you play
The fundamental skills that will transform not only this Bach solo, but every piece you play
The chance to win prizes, including a 1:1 session with me
Your Adventure Begins Here
Join Violin Hero: Bach
and discover what emerges when you're willing to risk everything for the music.
What You'll Discover
My markings for the Erbarme dich solo (bowings, fingerings, and suggested shaping)
Baroque ornamentation techniques that feel spontaneous and emotionally charged
How to work with continuo and breathe with a singer
Why knowing the story transforms everything about how you play
The fundamental skills that will transform not only this Bach solo, but every piece you play
The chance to win prizes, including a 1:1 session with me