The children who form the Gypsy Academy in The Hague come from many different cultures and countries and are a truly international musical community from their very first lesson on. Their parents chose to have their child taught the violin by the international and worldwide spread and available Suzuki Method, as  successfully taught during the last 40 years by Stieneke Poot.

These sometimes very young children learn to play the violin also in a group, with parental involvement, and participated already in a lot of concerts, before Stieneke met grey-haired Herr Martin Schaefer, a very experienced musician, who is called the Gypsy Violinist by children and parents alike.
He was born in Germany, worked with his Children Gypsy Orchestra’s in Paris, southern France, Austria, Switzerland and Italy, and even in a circus school! He has a longtime experience as a teacher for children. Using folk and gypsy repertoire, he really gives to children the feeling and love and passion for music and a very “natural” violin technique (like the gypsies have).