Helen Kwalwasser

Helen Kwalwasser, born in October, 1927? is a Professor Emeritus of violin at the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University. Helen Kwalwasser was a world-renowned violin soloist and violin teacher. In addition to spending nearly 40 years as a faculty member at the Boyer College, she has performed as a soloist and chamber musician with the New York Chamber Soloists and her music has been recorded for Odyssey Records, Vanguard, Westminster Records, Delos Records and Columbia Records. Her own accomplishments have already been recognized at Temple with the Creative Achievement Award (1984) and the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching (1998), as well as the Inspiration Award from Temple Music Prep (2006).

In 2006, she was honored with a prestigious National Artist-Teacher Award from the American String Teachers Association.

Her husband, Harvey Wedeen, chair of Boyer’s Keyboard Department, won the Great Teacher Award in 1996.

From the beginning, Kwalwasser's career was influenced by her teachers, the first of whom were her parents, who handed her a violin at age 4. Natural talent earned Kwalwasser a full scholarship to the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with the legendary Efram Zimbalist, Sr.. She later went on to study at Juilliard School with renowned pedagogue Ivan Galamian.