Annette Lee has been on the faculty 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 many workshops in the U.S. and Canada. Most recently, Ms. Lee  was invited to teach at the International Teacher Trainers Convention in Matsumoto, Japan as the only representative from North America. In addition to her teaching students at MacPhail, she has created a Fellowship Program at MacPhail, training new Suzuki Piano 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 was a Fellowship student at the University of Michigan and holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Piano Performance.  Additional training includes the Aspen Music Festival, Blossom Music Festival and the Chicago Suzuki Institute.

As a teacher trainer and private studio director, Nancy Modell enhances classic Suzuki piano pedagogy with a curriculum that nurtures original musical composition. She also promotes the Taubman Approach, which gives pianists transformative tools for physical health and musical expressivity.
 
Nancy Modell’s Suzuki Piano Studio embraces Dr. Suzuki’s philosophy that ‘Every Child Can!’, Nancy and her studio community strive to foster an anti-racist and equitable music studio culture. Her students are exposed to diverse genres and composers, expanding their musical horizons beyond the Suzuki repertoire. She encourages musicians to explore composers from underrepresented backgrounds and music from their cultural heritage. In addition, students of all levels compose original music.  Through these practices, the studio becomes a safe space for young musicians and their families to practice creativity, curiosity, compassion, and community-building in a musical setting—values that they can apply in their lives beyond the studio.
 
Nancy has been honored to serve as a clinician at various international, national, and local teacher forums and workshops. She has trained Suzuki piano teachers privately, at institutes, and universities.

She currently serves on the SAA Board of Directors.

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 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, as a member of the graduate string quartet, 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, and is an SAA Teacher Trainer.  Mrs. Schubert was a member of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra for eighteen seasons and served on the violin faculty of the Brevard Music Festival in North Carolina from 1996 to 2011.  Currently, she is principal second violin of the Temple Symphony Orchestra, violist of the Temple Symphony String Quartet, free lances extensively in the Central Texas area, and is the director of the Suzuki Academy of Waco.  She and her husband are the Suzuki parents of two daughters who are aspiring violinists.

Samuel Sidhom is a dedicated and enthusiastic teacher with an M.M. in Sacred Music from the Cincinnati Christian Seminary. He is a Suzuki piano and Suzuki Recorder trained with the Suzuki Association of the Americas.

Mr. Sidhom is an active member of the Suzuki Association of the Americas, the American Recorder Society, and Early Music America.

Holly Smardo has taught Suzuki violin for over 40 years and is a registered Teacher Trainer with the Suzuki Association of the Americas. She holds a degree in music from the University of Missouri-Kansas City where she studied violin with Tiberius Klausner, performed with the Kansas City Symphony, and served as the director of the UMKC Suzuki program. Ms. Smardo also earned a master’s degree in Suzuki pedagogy and performance from Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville where she studied with John Kendall and Kent Perry.

 
Ms. Smardo has received extensive training from esteemed master teachers, including Carol Smith, John Kendall, Alice Joy Lewis, Ronda Cole, Mark Mutter, Stevie Sandven, Kathy Wood, James Mauer, Cathy Lee, Joan Rooney, and Carol Tarr.
 
A strong advocate for accessible music education, Holly runs a private studio and previously served as the Director of Orchestras at Washington Junior High School in the Bentonville School District. Under her guidance, her orchestra received the Honorable Sweepstakes Award at the Worlds of Fun Music Festival, achieving first place out of over 80 participating junior high and high school bands and orchestras. Additionally, she was honored with the “Extra Mile Award,” recognizing outstanding contributions to the Bentonville School District.
 
Holly has performed with various orchestras, including the Kansas City Symphony, and was a founding member of the Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra, and Youth Orchestra. She also served as concertmaster of the North Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.
 
Currently living in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Holly and her husband, Buzz, have created a picturesque teaching studio nestled in the Ozark Mountains. Their studio was designed to offer a nurturing environment for families who appreciate the profound impact of music on a child’s development.

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.