Baroque violin & historically informed performance
Baroque Violin Lessons Online, for Modern Players
Historically informed playing on the violin you already own. You keep your instrument, your setup and the technique you have built. What changes is how you hear the music.
Baroque violin lessons online usually assume one of two things: that you will buy a period instrument, or that you are already part of the early-music world. Most of the players who come to me are neither. They play on a modern violin, they love Bach or Corelli or Telemann, and they have started to suspect there is more in this music than the way they were taught to play it.
They are right. Historical sources from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries describe a way of shaping sound, articulation and phrasing that differs from the evenly sustained ideal of later training. Much of it can be explored on the instrument you already have.
Historically informed awareness is a lens, not a conversion.
What players usually worry about first
“Will I have to unlearn my technique?”
No. We add choices rather than erase habits. A lighter, more speaking bow stroke becomes one option among several, and players often find it makes their modern playing more flexible rather than less.
“Do I need a baroque violin, gut strings or a new bow?”
Not to begin. Your modern violin is enough. If you later become curious about a baroque bow or gut strings, we can talk it through, but nothing is required before you start.
“Is this going to be dogmatic?”
No. The sources disagree with one another, and historical evidence is a set of informed possibilities, not a rulebook. We test ideas in sound and keep what serves the music.
What actually changes in your playing
The work is practical. We look at how the bow can speak rather than only sustain, how a phrase is shaped by the hierarchy of strong and weak beats, how ornaments grow out of the harmony, and how a smaller vibrato can let the colour of the sound come forward.
These ideas come from players who wrote down how they worked: Geminiani, Leopold Mozart, Tartini, Quantz. Their treatises are testimony rather than instructions, and part of what we do is read what they describe and then hear what it means on the instrument in front of you. The aim is not to sound old-fashioned. It is to sound more alive.
If you already play in the early-music world
If you play on gut, without a chin rest, or are working through repertoire, setup and rhetoric on your own, the lessons can work as a peer exchange rather than an introduction. We can work on a specific passage, an ornamentation question, or the gap between what you hear in your head and what the bow is doing.
This is shared inquiry at your level, not a course you have to start at the beginning.
I learn an incredible amount in our practice sessions together.
Sophia M., 25Violinist, Royal Academy of Music, London
What really helped me was noticing how my sound changes with the body-awareness exercises. Having someone actually listen and correct me right there in the moment has made a huge difference. I never got that from books or videos.
Georg G., 49Amateur violinist, Freiburg
Who you are learning with
I am Léna Ruisz, a violinist and teacher based in Basel with a Master's in Music Pedagogy from the University of Music Basel / FHNW. I trained in baroque violin at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, perform with period ensembles including il pomo d'oro, and with my ensemble Zuléia I won 1st Prize at the International Telemann Competition in 2025.
That performing life is why the historical material stays practical in my lessons: these are questions I work on every week, in rehearsal and on stage, not only in books. The pedagogy training is why I can explain them to a player who comes from a completely different tradition.
Bring the music you are working on.
The first lesson starts from your sound and one question that matters to you. You keep your violin, your setup and your technique.
Book Your First Lesson · €12050 minutes · online · English or German · no commitment beyond the first lesson
Before you book
I am classically trained. Where do I actually start with historically informed playing?
With the repertoire you already play. We take a Bach movement or a sonata you know and look at what the historical sources suggest about its articulation, bow stroke and phrasing. Starting from familiar music makes the differences audible straight away.
Do I need a baroque violin or a special setup?
No. Most players work on a modern setup and the lessons offer the same depth either way. If you later want to explore a baroque bow or gut strings, we can discuss what is worth trying, but it is never a requirement.
Will this make my modern playing worse?
Players usually find the opposite. Working with a lighter, more articulated bow stroke and a more varied use of vibrato tends to make modern playing more flexible. You gain options rather than lose them.