Annual Meeting 2009

A Suzuki violin teacher for almost 30 years, Lamar Blum was introduced to Suzuki Method in 1963. Since that time, she has established a Suzuki studio in Elgin, Illinois for violin, viola, cello, bass and flute hiring highly qualified teachers in each area. As director and teacher, Lamar organizes and administrates the activities of the Elgin program along with teaching her own students. Maintaining an organized program and communicating with parents are high priorities. In the broader Suzuki community, Lamar is presently serving a three-year term on the board of directors for Suzuki Association of the Americas. She has also served the SAA as a committee chair & co-chair for the National Conference, has been a speaker for the Leadership Conference and has contributed several articles to the American Suzuki Journal, the summer Minijournal and Suzuki World magazines. She has been an institute teacher at several institutes across the country (both summer & weekend) and is in the fourth year of directing the Montana Suzuki Strings Institute. In the Elgin community, Lamar helped found an arts organization and acted as treasurer for four years. She has also been active in Women in Management serving as various committee chairs. She was recognized by this group for her entrepreneurship in 1992. As a member of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra for three decades, Lamar served on the players’ council for ten years of those years. She was involved in contract negotiations on two occasions. She was the first person to recognize the need for children’s concerts in Elgin helping to organize the initial programs. Upon retiring, she was honored by the ESO League as a Musical Treasure of Elgin. Lamar and husband, John, have raised two daughters involved in Suzuki education. The philosophy has given them a guideline for parenting and setting priorities in life.

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Pam Brasch is Executive Director/CEO of the Suzuki Association of the Americas. Her involvement with the Suzuki method began in 1977 as a parent. She served on the Board of the Suzuki Association of Colorado in its early years and worked as Administrative Director of the Denver Suzuki Institute, Denver Talent Education and the Rocky Mountain Chamber Music prior to beginning her work with the SAA in 1991. She has also served on the Board of Directors of the International Suzuki Association for nine years and currently is the liaison to the International Piano Committee.

Teri Einfeldt—Chair, Suzuki Department, adjunct professor at the University of Hartford’s The Hartt School and Assistant Director of The Hartt School Suzuki Institute.

A Suzuki Association of the Americas registered Teacher Trainer, Teri is a frequent clinician at weekend string workshops and summer Suzuki Institutes throughout the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada. She has participated and presented at several National Suzuki Association Teacher’s Conventions as well as lecturing at CT ASTA conventions. In addition she has taught at the Pan Pacific Suzuki Conference in Sydney, Australia and the 14th Suzuki World Conference in Turin, Italy She is the former Assistant Concertmistress of the Northeast Pennsylvania Philharmonic and Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, and performs frequently with the Hartford Symphony. Teri is the most recent past Chair of the Suzuki Association of the Americas. She continues to be an active member in her roles of Chair of the Teacher Development Team and of the Suzuki Principles in Action (SPA) Committee She maintains a studio of 26 Suzuki students, ages 4-18 at the Hartt School Community Division.

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Christie Felsing, Assistant Director of the Preucil School of Music, received her Bachelor of Music from the University of Wisconsin-Madison studying violin with Vartan Manoogian and pedagogy with Marvin Rabin. After a year of graduate studies at Boston University, including long-term Suzuki teacher training, she pursued a nine-month Suzuki internship with Doris Preucil at the Preucil School. Her experience there led her to complete a Master of Music degree in Suzuki pedagogy at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville with John Kendall. Christie is a graduate of the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts’ administrative training program, AMICI. She served on the Suzuki Association of the Americas Board of Directors from 2004-2009, is a registered SAA Teacher Trainer, and was the 2010 SAA Conference Coordinator.

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Mark George, pianist and President of the Music Institute of Chicago, has enjoyed a unique career making music and connecting people of all kinds to the performing arts. As a musician, educator and administrator, he has created or participated in a series of exciting and significant endeavors.

Dr. George has held faculty positions at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Case Western Reserve University, Mount Union College and the Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music. He received a master of music degree from Indiana University in 1985 and a doctor of musical arts degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1989.

A highly regarded pianist, he has performed and recorded extensively throughout the United States. His chamber ensemble, North Coast Trio, was grand-prize winner of the 1992 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and first prize co-winner of the 1993 Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition. He has appeared frequently as a recitalist and soloist with the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Trinity Chamber Orchestra, Epicycle: An Ensemble for New Music, the University Circle Wind Ensemble and many others.

Dr. George previously served as director of the Hartt School Community Division where he developed a number of new programs, including the David Einfeldt Chamber Music Seminar and the International Summer Ballet Academy.

As Director of Distance Learning at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Dr. George established his program as a national leader in adapting interactive videoconference technologies for music performance and teaching. He has produced thousands of music related videoconferences for a diverse array of schools, from primary levels to international conservatories of music.

Dr. George developed a number of innovative arts outreach programs, including ICARE (the Initiative for Cultural Arts in Education), a program that created long term partnerships between public schools and arts organizations, and one that has had a profound impact on arts education in Cleveland, Ohio. His work as an interdisciplinary curriculum developer and consultant has rendered the arts and humanities more accessible to diverse communities hungry for knowledge.

Mark George also led the resurgence of the 2006 Grammy award winning Cleveland Chamber Symphony, an orchestral ensemble completely dedicated to the music of our time. His board level leadership, striking performances as a pianist, and inventive programming ideas have re-established the ensemble as a major force in contemporary music.

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Marilyn Kesler has recently retired after forty-two years as a teacher in the Okemos, Michigan Public Schools teaching 7th and 8th Grade strings and three high school orchestras. She is continues to be the director of the Community Education Suzuki program where she teaches Suzuki cello lessons.

Ms. Kesler began her teaching career as a general music teacher in Alton, Illinois; while there, she earned a Masters Degree in Music Education at Southern Illinois University where she specialized in the adaptation of the Suzuki Violin Method for the cello with then professor, John Kendall. Her undergraduate degree in Music Education was from Indiana University where she studied cello with Janos Starker and Leopold Terraspulsky.

She is presently on the Suzuki Association of the Americas Board of Directors. Past offices in clued President of Michigan Chapter of the American String Teachers Association, Secretary of the Suzuki Association of the Americas, Chairman of the SAA Cello Committee, Public School Committee, and Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association vice-President of Orchestra Activities. In 1990, she was the first recipient of the ASTA National School Educator Award which is presented to the outstanding public school music teacher in the US. In 1998, she received the “Distinguished Service Award” from SAA. Other honors include, MSBOA, MASTA, and Indiana University Alumni “Teacher of the Year”.

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Ruth Engle Larner has been a part of the Suzuki world since 1968: as a Suzuki violin student growing up in Iowa, as a Suzuki violin teacher in Iowa, Illinois, Arizona and Colorado, and as a Suzuki parent to her son. Ruth earned her MM degree and completed her SAA long-term teacher training with John Kendall at Southern Illinois University and was also fortunate to spend a summer observing and studying with Dr. Suzuki in Matsumoto. She maintains a private studio in Fort Collins, Colorado, has been a free-lance violinist with numerous orchestras in the area, and has taught at workshops and institutes in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado. Ruth and her 12 year old son play marimba, performing in an African marimba ensemble, exploring the music of the Shona people of Zimbabwe and other African cultures.

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Carol Ourada has been teaching in the Wheaton College Suzuki program for more than thirty years and early childhood music for fifteen years. She teaches primarily cello, but also violin, viola, music reading, cello choir, early childhood music and coordinates. In addition, Carol teaches in Wheaton College’s outreach program, CODA, an initiative offering early childhood and Suzuki violin classes to refugee and at-risk children. Currently most of these classes are taught in a bilingual setting. Carol was the coordinator for the 12th Suzuki Association of the Americas Biennial Conference and served on the SAA Board of Directors. In 2007 she was awarded ASTA Outstanding Studio Teacher of Illinois. Carol is a clinician at workshops and institutes around the country. She studied violin with Dr. Shinichi Suzuki in Matsumoto in 1985 and returned 1989 for summer school. Her experiences also include being a Suzuki parent of two teenagers who are string players as well.

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Diane Schroeder, Past Board Chair, has been a violist with the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra for 19 years and is Past President of the EPO Board and Chair of the Advisory Council, which started the Evansville Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. Diane has an extensive history in volunteer service and leadership. In addition to her work with the SAA, she is a trustee at the Methodist Temple, a member of the Board of Friends of Music at the University of Evansville and member of the Board of the YWCA.

Diane is an organist and member of the American Guild of Organists. She is mother of three and grandmother of one and is an accompanist for the University of Evansville Suzuki program.

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Beth Titterington has been involved in the Suzuki Method since 1972, when she first heard Dr. Suzuki’s Talent Education Tour Group. She is a Teacher Trainer (violin) for the SAA and she served on the SAA Board of Directors from 2006-2009. She founded an SAA regional affiliate, the Heart of America Suzuki Association, in 1979. Ms. Titterington teaches Suzuki pedagogy at the University of Missouri ( at Kansas City) Conservatory of Music and maintains her private studio, Kansas City Talent Education. She is also a baroque violinist and gambist and helped to direct the Early Music Consort of Kansas City for 20 years.

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