Member Directory

Lillian Wells Manis

Violin, Viola Teacher, Administrator SAA Member

Lillie Wells Manis serves as Assistant Director of the University of Oregon Community Music Institute and serves on the UO string faculty, teaching courses in Suzuki violin and viola pedagogy. In addition, Lillie serves as teaching faculty and Artistic Director of the Northwest Suzuki Institute. She is a regular guest on the UO Faculty Artist Series, performing alongside the Oregon String Quartet, and received an appointment to join the first violin section of the Eugene Symphony for its 2009-2010 season.

The Community Music Institute is proud to offer students a faculty made up of experienced staff with extensive Suzuki training teaching alongside student assistants, all working continuously to self-evaluate, collaborate, and improve teaching skills and standards. All students in the program receive individual lessons and group classes from teachers with registered SAA training. In addition to its offerings of Suzuki group classes and chamber music and orchestral ensembles for intermediate and advanced students, Lillie helped to develop and implement an extensive series of musicianship classes for CMI Suzuki Strings students, including multiple years of Music Mind Games classes with trained teachers to develop solid pre-reading skills.

Before returning to her home state of Oregon, Lillie was most recently a freelance performer and teacher on violin and viola in the Boston area. She received her M.M. and completed her long-term Suzuki teacher training with Teri Einfeldt at the Hartt School: she particularly values her experience teaching in grant-funded programs in some of Hartford and Boston’s lowest-income, inner-city neighborhoods.

Lillie’s major performance teachers were Fritz Gearhart, Katie Lansdale, and Leslie Straka; her Suzuki teaching has been strongly influenced by the additional mentorship of Shelley Rich and Karin Hallberg.