After a long career as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral musician, conductor, music adjudicator and teacher, Lygia Topolovec is currently teaching students at the Montessori School of Waukesha.

The Montessori Violin Program (MVP) is an innovative program of using the violin to reinforce Children’s House skills that began in the fall of 2015. Designed by Ms. Lygia with the invaluable input and advice of the Montessori staff and administration, the violin is used to support: listening skills, refinement of fine & gross motor skills, cross-hemisphere brain development, learning to work as a part of a group, and beginning rhythm and pitch concepts; through short, twice weekly classes.

In 2016, string instruction was expanded into the Elementary and grades with 45 students choosing to play the violin, viola or cello in the very first year it was offered. Instrumental music instruction, particularly on a stringed instrument, is a great partner to the academic, emotional, self-discipline, and motor skills that the student of a Montessori curriculum develops.