(Faculty roster is subject to change and we can’t guarantee that you will have a certain faculty member as your teacher.)

Andrea Glass: Cello

Andrea Glass received her Masters degree from the University of Northern Colorado and her Bachelors degree from Bowling Green State University, both in cello performance. She received her long-term Suzuki training in cello with Carol Tarr and violin with James Maurer at the Lamont School of Music, University of Denver, and has taught Suzuki group cello and violin classes with Longmont Suzuki Strings and Denver Talent Education. She has been a judge for Solo and Ensemble Contest of Northern Colorado, and chamber music coach for CelloFest at the University of Denver. She has been an active recitalist and teacher in the music community of Colorado, and has played with the Fort Collins, Greeley, and Cheyenne Symphonies.

Ms. Glass has performed in master classes with David Ying, Janos Starker, and Yo-Yo Ma. She was also a studio musician at the Blasting Room in Fort Collins, Colorado, and has played with over twenty bands such as Rise Against, Drive By, Melissa Ivey, and Tickle Me Pink. She has recorded for Wind Up Records and Warner Bros. In 2009, Ms. Glass accepted the Suzuki cello faculty position at Macphail Center for Music in Minneapolis, MN. She is a former president of the Suzuki Association of Minnesota and committee chair for the annual S.A.M. Statewide Graduation Recitals. She is the founder and instructor for Cello Rock at MacPhail, a cello ensemble that performs rock and pop music, and also performs with Minneapolis-based Nirvana tribute band, NIVRANA. Ms. Glass enjoys coaching chamber music, and teaching her students non-classical music genres. She is also a Suzuki parent.

 

Shu-Yi Scott: Cello

Shu-Yi Scott, originally from Taipei, Taiwan, has given master classes, seminars and performances in the States, Taipei, Shanghai, Mexico, and Europe. Dr. Shu-Yi Scott was awarded the Certificate of Achievement through the Suzuki Association of the Americas in 2015 and Suzuki cello teacher trainer in 2019.

Dr. Scott holds a MM in cello performance from Penn State under Dr. Kim Cook and DMA in cello performance from the University of Texas at Austin under renowned pedagogue Ms. Phyllis Young .

Teaching beginning students from the age of 3 to advanced high school cellists, her expertise and patience excels students from all musical backgrounds.  She uses her knowledge of child development to creatively target the needs of her students, keeping them motivated and growing.  Her private lessons, group class offerings, and parent education nights help to foster a community of  lifelong musicians.

Besides teaching her students, Dr. Scott is an active teacher trainer and coach. She has given workshops for teachers and parents on topics such as Suzuki triangle, group lesson teaching, and business management for music studios. During the pandemic, she and Dr. Merlin Thompson, a long term Suzuki piano teacher trainer based in Canada, co-created a series of video podcasts to support music teachers called: Shu-Yi & Merlin- Let’s Talk about Music Teaching- Conversations that Inform & Inspire

Her hobbies include gardening, sourdough baking , learning Japanese and French, and world travel. She lives in Austin, Texas with her bass player husband and two daughters, both studied Suzuki cello method.

Rosa Thompson-Vieira: Cello

Rosa Thompson-Vieira, a native of Minneapolis, enjoys a dynamic and ever evolving career as a professional cellist and teacher in the Twin Cities. She serves as cellist of the Lux String Quartet, Roma Duo, Quartet Du Nord, and the Delphia Cello Quartet, participating as a Class Notes Artist for Minnesota Public Radio. Thompson-Vieira also appears with the Minnesota Opera and South Dakota Symphony, and was formerly the Assistant Principal cellist, often filling in as principal, of the Rochester Symphony.

Thompson-Vieira has spent the last decade working as an educator with the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies, has taught at the University of Minnesota-Morris, and is currently on faculty at MacPhail as well as managing a private home studio. Thompson-Vieira studied with Allison Wells at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, and Tanya Remenikova at the University of Minnesota, completing both her undergraduate and masters degree in cello performance.

 

Christopher Becknell : Guitar

Christopher is a Twin Cities musician who freelances in many musical styles. An accomplished Classical and Fingerstyle Guitarist, he also performs on Fiddle in a wide range of styles from Classical, Celtic, Bluegrass and Old-Time to Rock and Hot Club Jazz Violin. Currently he performs with Guitarist David Crittenden in the duo SlipJig.

He served on the music faculty of Minneapolis Community and Technical College for 7 years and is a current faculty member at MacPhail Center for Music in Minneapolis. In 2015, Christopher released an album of Fingerstyle Gospel and Folk song arrangements for solo Guitar called Just Beyond the River; it has received playtime on Minnesota, Michigan and National Public Radio, The Current, and KBEM’s Bluegrass Saturday Morning and is available on all major platforms.

 

 

Jacob Jonker: Guitar

Jacob Jonker has a Master’s Degree in Classical Guitar and has taught both privately and at the University Level since 2008. His students have had the opportunity to play in masterclasses with world-class guitarists including William Kanengiser, Ana Vidovic, Jason Vieaux, Berta Rojas, and the Brasil Guitar Duo. They also attend Suzuki Institutes and the International Conference in Minneapolis.

To name a few, he has performed with the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra, Twin Ports Choral Project, Lyric Opera of the North, as well as in numerous Rock, Pop and Jazz groups. Jake is always looking to expand his musical skillset and try new things.

 

David Madsen : Guitar and Teacher Trainer for Guitar Book 2

David Madsen founded the Suzuki Guitar program in 1990 at the Hartt School of Music in West Hartford, Connecticut, USA. He graduated with a BM in guitar performance from the University of Connecticut and has since studied with David Leisner and Pepe Romero. His Suzuki guitar training has been with Bill Kossler and Frank Longay, and he became the 3rd registered Teacher Trainer with the SAA in 2000 and has conducted courses throughout North America and in Italy, Singapore, Peru, Puerto Rico and Argentina.

In 2008 he was invited to direct the Advanced Ensemble at the 1st International Suzuki Guitar Festival in Santa Cruz, CA, and directed the Guitar Ensembles at the SAA conferences in 2014, 2016 and 2018.

David received a “Creating Learning Community” award in 2014 for his work in producing “The Sound of Success” video for the SAA, an informative video about the Suzuki guitar method.

 

Fay Adams: Piano and Teacher Trainer for Piano Book 7

Fay Swadley Adams, Professor Emeritus, has retired after forty-four years of service to the University of Tennessee School of Music. While at the university she served as the Coordinator of the Keyboard Area and taught piano, piano pedagogy and Suzuki pedagogy. Her awards include: YWCA Outstanding Woman in the Arts; Chancellor’s Citation for Service to the University of Tennessee; first recipient of the Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award in the UT School of Music; Volunteer Spirit Award; Music Teachers National Association Foundation Fellow; TMTA Distinguished Service Award; Past Director of MTNA Southern Division; MTNA Board of Directors; MTNA Senior Performance Competitions Coordinator and the 2016 MTNA National Teacher of the Year. She is a registered Suzuki Piano Teacher Trainer, former member of the SAA Board of Directors and former member of the SAA Piano Review Committee. She has served as a Suzuki piano clinician at workshops across the United States, Mexico, Bermuda, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

 

Peter Friesen: Piano – Improvisation and Technique

Peter Friesen is an active performer and teacher near Denver, Colorado. He has been an affiliate member of the piano faculty at the Metropolitan State University of Denver since 2007, and maintains a large private studio. With degrees from the University of Colorado at Boulder and Point Loma Nazarene University, he has performed and given master classes across the United States.

As a teacher, his holistic pedagogical approach aims to provide each student with the tools of healthy playing and musical creativity, from traditional Western music and notation to blues, improv, composition, and rock/pop learned by ear. Mr. Friesen is heavily involved in the local community of music teachers as an executive board member for the Colorado State Music Teachers Association. He regularly presents for teachers’ associations around the state on topics such as extended piano techniques and incorporating technology into teaching.

 

Gail Gebhart : Piano and Teacher Trainer for Piano Book 6

Gail Gebhart is a private Suzuki piano teacher in Farmington Hills, Michigan. In addition to maintaining an active studio, she is on the faculty of Wayne State University where she teaches private and class piano. She received a B.M. With Distinction from the University of Michigan and a M.M. in Piano Performance from Wayne State University. She received Suzuki training from Mary Craig Powell, Yasuko Joichi and Renee Robbins.

A coordinator in the piano area for the Suzuki Association of the Americas’ Biennial Conference in 2014, she has taught at the Peaks to Plains Suzuki Institute, Colorado Suzuki Institute, Oregon Suzuki Institute, Calgary Suzuki Institute, and the Chicago Suzuki Institute. In August 2016, Gail became a piano Teacher Trainer for the Suzuki Association of the Americas.

 

 

Annette Lee : Piano and Teacher Trainer for Piano Book 4

Annette Lee has been a member of the MacPhail Center for Music since 1995. Ms. Lee is a frequent performer in the Twin Cities as an active collaborator with colleagues and students. As a Teacher Trainer, she has taught workshops in IL, WI, Washington D.C., TN, MA, Canada and was invited to teach at the International Teacher Trainers Convention in Matsumoto, Japan in October. In addition to her teaching students at MacPhail, she has created a Fellowship Program at MacPhail, training new Suzuki teachers in Minneapolis.

Ms. Lee began her teaching career in the Chicago area at DePaul University Community Music Program and the Music Institute of Chicago. She holds a Bachelor of Music from Wheaton Conservatory of Music and was a fellowship student at the University of Michigan for her Master’s Degree. Additional training includes the Aspen Music Festival, Blossom Music Festival and the Chicago Suzuki Institute.

 

 

Jane Reed: Piano and Teacher Trainer for Every Child Can! and Piano Book 2

Jane Reed is an internationally recognized Teacher Trainer for the Suzuki Association of the Americas, and a Suzuki Piano Educator. In addition, she serves as a facilitator for Parenting and Teaching the Love and Logic Way and the Right Question Institute. She dedicates herself to promoting finer education for students, teachers and parents by advocating deeper thinking, validated learning skills and building meaningful relationships between the child, parent and teacher.

Jane and her husband, Bob, founded Solutionary Insights, an educational business, which is dedicated to Nurturing Thinking Minds™. The unique signature of Solutionary Insights is the intertwining of the respect for the value of individuals, the belief that all are capable of excellence, and the resolve that fine and purposeful teaching and parenting develops outstanding abilities.
Making a difference is her purpose!

 

Heidi Brymer : Violin

Heidi grew up in the Denver area studying Suzuki piano & violin since the age of 4. She received a degree in piano performance from the University of Denver and also completed her Suzuki Violin teacher training.

She has been accompanying recitals from Suzuki book 1 to Master’s recitals since the age of 16. She currently resides in the Raleigh area with her husband & 4 children. She continues to teach & accompany.

 

Lauren Cless : Violin

Lauren Cless teaches violin and chamber music at the Rivers School Conservatory. In 2017, she received the Certificate of Achievement from the Suzuki Association of the Americas, an award that recognizes teachers for their commitment to excellence, life-long learning, and self-improvement. Previously, Ms. Cless was a member of the faculty at the Western Springs School of Talent Education. She earned a Masters of Music in Violin Performance and Suzuki Pedagogy from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and a Bachelors of Music in Violin Performance from Northwestern University. In addition to being an enthusiastic pedagogue, Ms. Cless is a freelance performer in the greater Boston area. Together with her husband, a violinist/composer, Lauren owns a business that performs live string music for weddings throughout New England. She has three young children and enjoys being a Suzuki parent in a very musical household!

 

Elizabeth Cunha: Violin   

Elizabeth Cunha started her violin journey at age 3 in NY, New York. She leads the Middle and Upper School Orchestras at Stone Ridge School in Bethesda MD and is the founder and director of Silver Strings Music Academy (Suzuki, Fiddle School & music theory). Elizabeth also serves as the Orchestra Education Liaison for Young Artists of America (YAA), and Coordinator of Certification Programs for the Foundation for the Advancement of String Education (FASE). Elizabeth has served as music director for Washington Preludio Strings tours in Germany, Italy and England and is past president of the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) Maryland/D.C. Chapter.

While attending the Catholic University of America Elizabeth studied violin performance, music education, and musical theater. She later received her Masters in Music Education from The University of Maryland with a focus in Suzuki string pedagogy under the tutelage of Ronda Cole. Elizabeth has extensive training in various pedagogy including Fiddle School, Bornoff, Orff-Schulwerk (Level 2), Dalcroze Eurythmics (Level 2A), Music Mind Games (Teacher-Trainer Certification), World Music Drumming (Level 3), Ultimate Music Theory, Creative Strings Academy, and Strings Pop! Elizabeth also enjoys theater, texas-style fiddle jams, spending time with her family, tap dance and headstands.

 

Kirby Dennis : Viola and Violin

Kirby Dennis has been teaching violin and viola for over 15 years and it is her passion to help young people grow and learn. Kirby has taught at the St. Louis School of Music, co-founded West County Strings and a Suzuki in the Schools program at The Fulton school. Kirby is also a lower elementary Montessori violin teacher as of 2023. One of Kirby’s favorite teaching opportunities is summer music institute and festival teaching not limited to Colorado, Chicago and American Suzuki Institutes, Midwest Chamber Music Workshop, Sprunger Violin Camp and various workshops throughout the country.

Upon graduation from the University of Illinois, Kirby pursued long-term and many short-term Suzuki training and completed the Child Development Program at the St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute.
Kirby’s students have held leadership positions in the STL Youth Orchestra, Missouri All-State Orchestra, and were featured soloists with local orchestras. Kirby has been a recurring featured soloist with the Town and Country, Kankakee Valley and the St. Charles Symphony. She remains an avid chamber and orchestral musician. Some of Kirby’s favorite moments as a child were in Suzuki group classes and her longest friendships have been formed through a love and commitment to music!

 

Brad Kay : Viola and Violin

Brad was born in Edwardsville, IL and grew up as a member of the SIUE Suzuki Strings Program, founded by renound pedagogue John Kendall. He studied Violin Performance at the University of Illinois with Stefan Milenkovich, with chamber studies with the internationally acclaimed Pacifica Quartet and string pedagogy with Louis Bergonzi. He completed his Suzuki training at the Chicago Suzuki Institute, American Suzuki Institute, and Ithaca Suzui Institute with Ann Montzka-Smelser, Winifred Crock, and Kirstin Marshall.

Brad has been teaching violin and viola in St. Louis, MO since 2013 as part of his own program, West County Strings, where he strives to bring the highest level of Suzuki education and experience to students ranging from 3-years-old to college and their families. Music has played an immeasurable role as a guiding and enriching force in Brad’s life, and he is passionate to pass on the knowledge and skills that it takes to be successful and the love for music and all the opportunities it brings in life to students.

In his free time, Brad loves exploring St. Louis and nature in the surrounding area with his two kids, Calder & Adelaide, working out and hiking, reading, and playing chamber music and in various ensembles around the St. Louis area.

 

Stacy Smith : Violin and Teacher Trainer for Violin Book 1

Stacy Smith is a Violin Teacher Trainer and a Suzuki Strings Specialist in the Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD in North Texas. Stacy served as the Director of the Intermountain Suzuki String Institute from 2017-2021, as the Suzuki Program Director at the Gifted Music School, and as President of the Suzuki Association of Utah. Ms. Smith has taught at institutes and workshops across the North and Central America, presented at state, national, and international conventions, and is a frequent contributor to the Journal of the Suzuki Association of the Americas.

In 2018, Stacy was awarded the SAA’s Certificate of Achievement, and she became an SAA Registered Violin Teacher Trainer in 2023. She is raising five musical children, all of whom have provided her most in-depth teacher training.

 

Crystal Plohman Wiegman : Violin

Crystal Plohman Wiegman has spent over 30 years sharing her fiddling expertise at numerous Suzuki Institutes, state educators’ conferences, and string clinics across the continent and Europe.  Growing up as one of the first Suzuki students in the Brandon University program, Crystal went on to win national fiddling titles in both Canada and the US. A graduate of the University of Waterloo, she serves on the Suzuki strings faculty at Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN and is coordinator of the Folk Instrument Department. Crystal has appeared on the Grand Ole Opry and shared the stage with the Chieftains and country greats like Chet Atkins and Vince Gill. She has toured internationally throughout Europe, China, and Japan.

Since her move to Music City in 1994, Crystal has been dedicated to bridging the gap between the classical and folk music world, developing a holistic violin program which embraces Suzuki philosophies and repertoire as the foundation, incorporating fiddle music of various styles and improvisation to develop creativity.  Crystal’s fiddle tune arrangements have been performed by string groups worldwide. She directs “Fiddle Frenzy”, a performing string group of Vanderbilt pre-collegiate students who perform regularly in middle Tennessee and recently returned from a well-received performance tour of Scotland. Her sequenced fiddle method book, “Fiddle and Song”, (designed to supplement and support Suzuki pedagogy) has recently been released through Alfred publishing.

Crystal lives in Nashville, TN with her husband and 2 children, Kelsie and Joshua, who study Suzuki violin and cello, respectively.