Fay S. Adams

Fay Swadley Adams is an Associate Professor of Piano Emerita at the University of Tennessee and is director of the Suzuki Piano School of Knoxville. She is a registered Suzuki piano teacher trainer and served on the Suzuki piano review committee. Her awards include: Tennessee Teacher of the Year awarded by the Tennessee Music Teachers Association, Outstanding Teacher Award from the Tennessee Governor’s School, former member of the SAA and MTNA board of directors, YWCA Outstanding Woman in the Arts, Chancellor’s Citation for Service to the University of Tennessee, the first annual Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award for the UT School of Music, the University of Tennessee Volunteer Spirit Award and, most recently, the MTNA National Teacher of the Year.

Judy W. Bossuat-Gallic

Judy W. Bossuat-Gallic has been teaching violin and training teachers for over 45 years. Her contact with Dr. Suzuki began in 1974 and continued throughout the years after her graduation from the Matsumoto Talent Education Institute in 1978. She is a registered Suzuki Method Teacher Trainer for SAA and the European Suzuki Association where she was named an honorary member. B-G has been national secretary of the American String Teachers Association, president of California ASTA, on the board of the National String Project Consortium among other positions.   B-G’s teaching experiences include over 375 International Conferences, Institutes and Workshops all over the world. She currently teaches at Bossuat-Gallic Music in Dallas, does bi-monthly Master Classes at the Fort Worth Suzuki School and has continued her position at California State University, Sacramento where she is the Master Teacher on the String Project.

Megan Carnevale

Megan Carnevale teaches middle school general music, ukulele, and songwriting at Memphis School Of Excellence in Memphis, TN. Megan has seven years of experience teaching aural skills, ukulele, songwriting, creative musicianship classes for Kindergarten-12th graders in both Tennessee and Michigan. Megan was featured as a ukulele specialist at the Memphis Suzuki Summer Institute in 2017, a co-presenter at the 2014 and 2015 Michigan Music Conferences, and the 2014 NAfME Collegiate Conference at Michigan State University. She is also a strong supporter of local classical music. Megan is a board member at the Memphis Beethoven Club, and can frequently be seen performing with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra Chorus. Megan is a certified Music Learning Theory practitioner, and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from Michigan State University.

David Dickens

David Graham Dickens, DMA is a originally from Pearl River, La (a small town right outside of New Orleans) where he started music at an early age. He attended Louisiana State University where he received his Bachelor of Music degree. He later went to graduate school at the University of Central Arkansas and the University of Memphis. His principal teachers include; Tina Whitworth, Jason Marsalis, Brett Dietz, Blake Tyson, and Frank Shaffer. David has had successful band programs in Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Tennessee. He currently resides in Conway, AR.

Colleen Fitzgerald

Ms. Colleen Fitzgerald is a teacher trainer for the Suzuki Association of the Americas and executive director of the Barcel Suzuki String Academy (BSSA).  She currently teaches private and group violin lessons and Suzuki Early Childhood Education classes at BSSA. Ms. Fitzgerald earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Violin Performance with Suzuki Pedagogy Emphasis under mentor, Professor Carol Dallinger at the University of Evansville and a Masters of Arts in Teaching degree from Cardinal Stritch University. She has also received supplemental Suzuki teacher training with Kay Collier-McLaughlin, Ed Kreitman, Tom Wermuth, and Alice Joy Lewis and acquired her Early Childhood Education training under Suzuki ECE founders, Dorothy & Sharon Jones. Ms. Fitzgerald started Suzuki violin lessons at age 6 and two years later began studies with Suzuki teacher trainer, Joan Rooney. 

Colleen was awarded the Certificate of Excellence in Studio Teaching from the Civic Music Association of Milwaukee (2006) and earned the Certificate of Achievement 1 from the Suzuki Association of the Americas (2017). She has been featured on local TV and radio programs as well the Beyond the Music Lesson podcast to discuss the Suzuki Method. Colleen travels throughout the United States to serve as a guest clinician at various Suzuki workshops and summer Suzuki institutes. Students of Ms. Fitzgerald have won MSO’s Bach Double Violin Competition, numerous MYSO Concerto Competitions, the UWM Concerto Competition, as well as many college scholarships and received Honorable Mentions is the Young Artist Auditions with the MSO. Besides teaching, Ms. Fitzgerald frequently performs as a violin soloist and is a member of her church’s handbell choir. 

Rita Hauck

Rita Hauck has been a Piano teacher since 1959, and a Suzuki Piano teacher since 1974. She and her husband, Dr. Robert Hauck, were privileged to have met Dr. Suzuki in 1966, an event that changed their lives forever. Mrs. Hauck has a Bachelor of Music Degree with a major in performance, a Bachelor of Music Education Degree in both Vocal and Instrumental music K-12, a Master of Music Degree in performance, and two years of Doctoral work in keyboard studies, (Piano, harpsichord, organ , and accompanying). She has been a church organist for 55 years. From 1976-1981, she founded and directed a Suzuki School of 350 students, trained 24 Suzuki teachers, and taught Suzuki piano students at Oklahoma Wesleyan University where she was on the Piano, Organ, and Music Theory faculty. From 1981—2011, Mrs. Hauck maintained a Suzuki Piano Studio of 40+ students in her home in Cincinnati, Ohio where she lived with her husband, Robert. She has been training Suzuki piano teachers in the United States and around the world since 1976. Since 2011, Mrs. Hauck has been teaching Suzuki Piano and Organ in her home Studio in Fort Worth, Texas.

Robert Hauck

Dr. Robert Hauck has 21 years of experience as a music specialist with Cincinnati Public Schools. He has served as a consulting teacher, mentor, and team leader. He has a Bachelor of Music in Voice, A Bachelor of Music in Music Education K-12, a Master of Music in Voice and Voice Pedagogy, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Voice, Conducting, Opera, and Church Music. He has served as a full-time minister of music, a university professor and head of the Music Department, as well as a public school music specialist. He has Orff certification at all three levels. He has taught at Suzuki children’s Music Institutes and Workshops all across the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, as well as in Bermuda, New Zealand and Australia.
Dr. and Mrs. Hauck were invited as International Guest clinicians to the 2009 World Suzuki Convention in Melbourne, Australia.

Dr. Hauck’s enrichment classes have included the teaching of Music Theory, Orff, Family Chorus, Voice Lessons, Handbells, Music and Movement, Conducting, Madrigal Singers, Broadway Musical presentations, and lectures for parents. He also possesses excellent keyboard skills. He is a Dad of four children who took Suzuki piano and string lessons from age 3 through high school. He partnered with his wife, Rita Hauck, in daily practicing with their four children, going to lessons with each of them, and participating as a dad at dozens of Suzuki Institutes and Workshops. Dr. Hauck’s classes offer the unique opportunity for a lot of fun for all ages combined with a great experience in learning, all with complete commitment to the philosophy of nurturing children and parents in a wonderful environment.

Mary Ann Mears

Mary Ann Mears is originally from the Memphis, TN area. She studied violin with William Starr at the University of Tennessee and graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree in Suzuki String Techniques. She studied with Dr. Shinichi Suzuki in Matsumoto during the summers of 1976, 1978, 1982 and 1983. She taught in the Denver, Colorado area from 1980 until 2005. While there, she was a founding member of the Suzuki Association of Colorado. Other training includes certification as a Montessori Infant and Toddler directress. She currently maintains a private violin studio in Germantown, TN.

Ali Michael

Ali Michael has grown up immersed in the Suzuki method through violin, flute and piano. She now works with children in art studies through various outlets including homeschool classes and an art studio in Hernando, MS.

Tom Morley

Tom Morley’s career spans over thirty years and a host of genres. He’s made his living playing Celtic, Bluegrass, classical/symphonic, swing, Americana, and Country Honky-Tonk, earning an RIAA Certified Gold Record award for his work with “new traditionalist” country artist John
Anderson.

Classically trained with a degree in music education, Tom has taught classical students at every undergraduate level. As a long-time member of ASTA, he’s been a presenter at numerous conferences and a member of the ASTA Eclectic Styles Committee. In the symphonic world, he spent decades playing with numerous symphonies and opera companies, including Nashville Symphony, Mobile Symphon Orchestra, Mobile Opera, Pensacola Symphony and Gulf Coast Symphony, and as a symphony violinist, he has played for top artists including Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, Midori, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Andrea Bocelli, and Pavarotti.

Tom has followed his passion for Irish Traditional Music for the past two decades as an educator, solo performer and with various groups. This includes Mithril, an Alabama-based Celtic/World music quartet that released seven albums and performed concerts, including as guest artists with symphonies, across the US, and the Irish Folk trio Stringer’s Ridge, his newest project since moving to Chattanooga, TN in 2017. He has made multiple trips to Ireland, learning from and playing alongside master musicians of the genre.

Tom has been on the faculty of fiddle workshops and string camps around the US, including the original O’Connor Method Camps, American Music Camp Maine, Strings Without Boundaries, Fiddle Hell Gathering Massachusetts, SCOR Adult String Camp Atlanta, Allegheny Mountain Virginia String Project, and for the world renown John C. Campbell Folk School. He is the first International affiliate for the Online Irish Fiddle Certification Program for the Leinster School of Music and Drama at Griffith College in Dublin, Ireland. He created a series of video lessons for iFiddle e-magazine (2014-2019), and those lessons are now being shared on his YouTube channel. He has an active online presence leading workshops and teaching. His weekly “Play Along Irish Trad Session” presented live on his personal Facebook page (since March 2020) regularly attracts players from across the U.S., Canada, and beyond.

Tom is the author of several popular fiddle instructional books (distributed through Shar Music), including Learn to Play Irish Trad Fiddle and the Fiddle Club Favorites for Strings series, a collection of folk and fiddle tunes for beginning players, available for violin, viola, cello, and mandolin. These books are used by string educators in private studios and string ensemble classes around the U.S.

Elizabeth O’Connell

Elizabeth O’Connell received her training at the Princeton Ballet School and in summer study at North Carolina School of the Arts and Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. She has also studied with Risa Gary Kaplowitz, Elisabeth Carroll, and in NYC with Nancy Bielski. Ms. O’Connell has performed in New York City and the NY metropolitan area with Classics Dance Theater, Metropolitan Repertory Ballet, Princeton Ballet II, and as a guest artist.  She has also been a company member of The Metropolitan Ballet of Minneapolis and Continental Ballet (Bloomington).  Ms. O’Connell has danced in the Nutcracker, La Traviata, A Christmas Carol, Paquita, Coppelia, Swan Lake and many other repertory works. She has performed the title roles in Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.  Ms. O’Connell has taught at several schools in New York, New Jersey, and Minnesota where joined the staff of Betty Jo’s Dance Center in 2006 and served as the school’s artistic director. In addition to ballet instruction, she has studied and been certified in Pilates. Ms. O’Connell currently teaches ballet and fitness at several dance schools in the Memphis area.

Jane Kutscher Reed

Jane Kutscher Reed is an internationally recognized Suzuki Piano Teacher Trainer, Suzuki Piano Educator, Parent and Teacher Coach and Motivational Speaker from Greenville, SC. After earning a degree in Piano Performance from the University of Findlay, she found her calling in Suzuki Pedagogy. As she teaches throughout the US and other countries, she dedicates herself to promoting finer education for students, teachers and parents through deeper thinking, validated learning skills and building meaningful relationships between the child, parent and teacher.

Mrs. Reed is also an Independent Facilitator for Parenting the Love and Logic Way, a Certified Elite Life Coach, and Motivational Speaker. She premiered her course for educators, Teaching with Purpose, at Lenoir-Rhyne University in 2013.

She and her husband 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. Watch for their upcoming book, “Nurturing Thinking Minds: The Making of Thought Leaders.”™

Visit their website: www.solutionaryinsights.com

Amanda Schubert

Amanda Schubert studied Suzuki violin with her father, Lacy McLarry, from age three through college, receiving a Bachelor of Music degree in violin performance from Oklahoma City University. She received a Master of Music degree in violin performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studied with Norman Paulu and was coached extensively by the Pro Arte String Quartet. Mrs. Schubert holds a Teaching Certificate from the Talent Education Research Institute in Matsumoto, Japan, where she studied with Shinichi Suzuki. She is also registered through the SAA in Suzuki violin books one through ten, and is a Teacher Trainer. From 1992 to 2009, Mrs. Schubert was a member of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra. She served on the violin faculty of the Brevard Music Festival in North Carolina from 1996 to 2011. Currently she performs with Waco Symphony and Temple Symphony, plays viola in the Temple Symphony String Quartet, free lances, and is the owner and contractor of Waco Strings. She has served on the violin faculty of the Central Texas String Academy since 2009. She resides in Waco, Texas with her husband, Mark Schubert (a trumpet player), and their two daughters, both of whom are violin students of their mother.

Mary Halverson Waldo

Mary Halverson Waldo received a BA in Music from the College of St Scholastica, and a Master of Music from the New England Conservatory, in Performance of Early Music (Recorder and Traverso). A member of Waldo Baroque and Friends, she has made guest appearances with North Carolina Baroque Orchestra, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral Choirs (Columbia, SC), Broad River Renaissance Band, the Bach Society of Minnesota, Chatham Baroque, Pittsburgh Opera, Fayerwether Friends, and Piccolo Spoleto, Charleston.

Ms. Waldo was a faculty member at MacPhail Center for Music (Minneapolis), and the Saint Paul Conservatory (MN), where she introduced recorder and flute into the Suzuki programs. She is a regular faculty member at music institutes and festivals throughout the United States, Canada, Latin America, and England. Her teenage recorder students have won honors and awards in competitions sponsored by Presidential Scholars in the Arts, and Piffaro! She is a registered Recorder Teacher Trainer for the Suzuki Association of the Americas, and the European Suzuki Association.

Formerly a Music Director for the Twin Cities Recorder Guild (the MN chapter of the American Recorder Society), Ms. Waldo has been a writer for the American Recorder magazine and the American Suzuki Journal, and has served on the boards of the American Recorder Society (ARS) and the American Recorder Teachers’ Association.