Meet the Team: Elaine Bastos
May 2026 | by Alyssa Sonnier
There are musicians who grew up with classical music from the start with the daily practice, the lessons, and the parents who pushed, but Elaine Bastos was not one of them. She grew up in Brazil surrounded by poetry and art until she was 13. She was sitting in a workshop on 1920s Brazilian poetry one day when a recording of Villa-Lobos came on. She turned to the person next to her and said, what's that? The answer was: the violin and she walked out of that workshop, straight to a music store. Everyone around her assumed it wouldn't last because she had tried everything and had yet to find her thing. But this was different and she knew it. This one lasted.
What followed was years of “catching up” since most serious musicians begin at a very young age. But not only did she “catch-up” but surpassed many, eventually landing at Texas Christian University, where she completed a three-year Artist Diploma under Dr. Elizabeth Adkins, associate concertmaster of the National Symphony in Washington for over thirty years. Elaine had rigorous ninety-minute violin lessons, chamber music and orchestra rehearsals, and sundry performances. But what she remembers most isn't the rigor, it’s what Dr. Adkins said when she arrived when she still didn’t believe that she belonged. "You might not believe in you, but do you believe in me? So believe me that you can do it."
Teaching was always in Elaine, long before the violin. Central to her philosophy is a reframe she keeps coming back to: perfectionism versus excellence. Perfectionism is a ceiling you never reach, but excellence makes room for mistakes and growth. Her standard for students is high, but never crushing, teaching students they can be happy with where they are and know they can still improve. From day one she normalizes mistakes rather than dramatizing them. When a student is struggling, she doesn't talk them out of their feelings and instead prioritizes meeting them there first. Her favorite thing to say is that it’s a wood box and a stick so it can’t be that serious.
When you ask Elaine what kind of musical culture she hopes to create here, her answer is immediate: excellence and happiness. Not one or the other. She is clear this is the harder path because it is easier by far to run a studio on fear and pressure and get short-term results. But she has seen what that costs students, and she has felt it herself. The goal is a place where the work is real, the standards are high, and the student never dreads walking through the door.
She believes the community itself is part of the instrument. When students hear each other grow, when families are invested, when everyone is pulling toward the same thing, it raises the collective standard without anyone having to force it. That energy is not incidental, it’s the entire point. And her deepest hope for every student is simple: that the violin becomes a lifelong friend and never a source of dread. Something that gives back to them for the rest of their lives, whatever path they take.
Elaine Bastos came to the violin late, through a poem, in a workshop, on a random afternoon in Brazil. She was not supposed to be a violinist. And yet here she is, and here, it turns out, is exactly where she was always meant to be.
A note for families, from Elaine:
Serious violin study is a team effort. The students Elaine has seen grow the most are the ones whose families approached practice as teamwork instead of pressure or policing. Younger children need more hands-on support at home; older students need someone checking in. All of them need a cheerleader who believes in them even on the days they don't believe in themselves. Consistent, short practice sessions matter far more than a long session the night before the lesson. And whenever you can, take your child to a live performance. It doesn't need to be often. Even once or twice a year, hearing live music made plants something in a young musician that no recording can.
