SARAH CASH
Special Correspondent

Violet Pan tells her violin students to "use imagination, think like an actor, and tell your story with feeling."

From performing and teaching at the Central Opera House in Beijing at the age of 15, to time as a member of the Charlotte Philharmonic Orchestra, she has been a violinist demonstrating passion and expression.

Her students at her Tega Cay home learn to follow not just her technique, but her verve, transforming their innocence into sophistication, "not just a machine."

It seems as if she's everywhere -- the Tega Cay fall festival, Vintage Club, churches, weddings, charity events, teaching in Union County, Charlotte plus twice-yearly concerts in Rock Hill.

She recently finished teaching seventh- to ninth-graders in a STAR program at Winthrop University. The nine teenagers had never played strings before. When they finished the three-week course, all were doing well, she said.

People who heard the students play agreed.

"When the students performed at the end of the training at Winthrop, it brought tears to my eyes," said Allison Miller, whose daughter Jessica has been Pan's student for seven years. "Some of them had not only never played a string instrument, but most had never held a violin. I didn't realize they could accomplish so much in such a short time."

Leslie Cooper, whose daughter Liza is a four-year student, attributes Pan's success as a teacher to her compassion.

"She wants to share her gift," Cooper said. "She's very generous with her gift. I remember when (Liza) first came here. She said, `Mama, I like Mrs. Pan because she tells me when I'm wrong.' She didn't want to waste (Liza's) time. She not only praised her when she did well, but corrected her with positive criticism."

Miller said Jessica had grown as a musician because of the lessons.

"Violet pays attention to the technical part (of the training), but in the development of the interpretative part, from an emotional standpoint," Miller said.

For Pan, a former concertmistress with the Charlotte Philharmonic, it has been an enduring journey from a child of 5 learning piano and violin in China, to her popularity here as a performer and teacher.

As children, Pan and her sister, Rebecca Shen, were left alone and "locked up" for security in their apartment in Beijing for 10 to 12 hours daily when the government forced her parents to work on farms, she said. When she was 11, she said, her grandmother came from Manchuria to take care of them.

"That's when I learned to cook," she said.

At 15, she was the youngest and one of three women to win a national competition to study and play with the Central China Opera House in Beijing, touring the country with its prestigious two companies. She also taught students from all over China there.

Her father, He-Xao Shen, was a children's choir director, and her mother, Sua Fen Yin, was a professional opera singer. Wanting more freedom and opportunity, they moved to America.

Two years later, when she was 21, Pan followed them. She arrived in New York with only $20 (the monthly salary as violinist with the opera house) and "some medicine and my violin. I couldn't speak a word of English, couldn't even order food," she said.

At the International Center in New York, where she was learning English, she met George, her future husband. He had come there from Taiwan, recruited by an American company, and spoke English well.

"He had inner strength. He saved me," she said.

Pan soon left the conservatory, she said, because "they said they couldn't help me, that I was the best." Through the international center, she got a position as a companion to a wealthy woman in Manhattan who introduced her to American culture. Pan's knowledge of Chinese and French cuisine that she learned from her grandmother came in handy as she cooked for the woman on weekends. They became lasting friends.

In 1989, Violet followed George to Charlotte, where he transferred as a computer specialist with the Royal Insurance Co. They were married in 1990.

Her career blossomed when she got a call from Albert Moehring, conductor of the Charlotte Philharmonic, to audition. After a year performing with the orchestra, she was named first violinist, and in another promotion, concertmistress. She was named most outstanding member for the 1993-94 season.

In the meantime the family moved to Tega Cay, and Pan resigned from the orchestra to have a family. First came a daughter, Victoria, now 9, and next a son, Gregory, 6.

George encouraged her to teach at home so that she could be there for the family. With her expertise and outgoing personality, the number of students grew from a handful to a total this year of 43, ages 3 1/2 to 71.

Requests for instruction come in almost daily. Kendra Academy of Dance in Fort Mill recently asked her to come to their studio and teach. This fall she will resume instruction on weekends in the Charlotte Chinese Academy, where her daughter is enrolled as well.

Violet's proudest accomplishment this summer was the naming of four students (and an alternate) to the Charlotte Youth Symphony. They include her daughter Victoria, Jessica Miller, Liza Cooper, Kotone Deguchi and Victor Li.

What does she see as the next level in her career?

"My goal is to open a music school," she said.

Friends, parents and students are confident that if she does, they will come.