Member Directory

Ms. Susan R. Kempter

Violin, Suzuki Early Childhood Education Teacher · Teacher Trainer SAA Member

Susan Kempter, specialist in interdisciplinary applications to music teaching and learning, Lecturer in Music, Founder/Director of String Pedagogy and the UNM Lab School at the University of New Mexico. UNM offers the only Bachelor of Music degree in String Pedagogy. She is a registered Teacher Trainer with the Suzuki Association of the Americas, where she also has served on their Teacher Trainer Development Committee and on their national Nominating Committee. Susan also has been President of the New Mexico Chapter of The American String Teachers Association and served as Private Teacher’s Forum Editor, Consulting Editor, and Chair of the National Certificate Committee, for The American String Teacher. In 1998, she was awarded the Citation for Exceptional Leadership and Merit by the American String Teachers Association and was awarded Private Studio Teacher of the Year by the New Mexico Chapter of ASTA in 2006. She also served on the board of the New Mexico Chapter of ASTA for over 17 years, and was editor of the state newsletter for two terms.

In addition to her work at the University of New Mexico, Susan founded the Albuquerque Suzuki School, as well as the Suzuki violin program at the College of Santa Fe. She ran student retreats at Hummingbird Music Camp for many years, began a series of student performances at the Rio Grande Zoo and created, and currently directs the student touring group—Mad About Music, which has performed in Mexico, Hawaii, Alaska, California, Florida, Washington DC, Arizona and Utah. Many of her students have soloed with the Albuquerque Youth Symphony and with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra.

In 2009, Susan was awarded the prestigious “Bravos Award for Excellence in Music” by the Albuquerque Arts Alliance. She has two published books: Between Parent and Teacher: A Teacher’s Guide to Parent Education published by SHAR, Inc., and How Muscles Learn: Teaching the Violin with the Body in Mind, published by Alfred. A third book, Folk Melodies of New Mexico and the Southwest will be published in the near future, and she is beginning a fourth book about human cognition and music teaching and learning. Susan has presented sessions at many national conferences, including The American String Teachers Association, the Suzuki Association of the Americas, The Music Teachers National Association, National Conference of Physical Therapists in 2003, and the Research Symposium at Northern Arizona University in 1998.

Susan’s education has been eclectic, and has included fields as diverse as nursing, zoology, 17th century literature, cognition, kinesthetics, as well as violin performance and pedagogy. Her violin teachers have included Harold Wolf, Victor Aitay, Sally Peck [violin and viola], and Leonard Felberg. She studied pedagogy with John Kendall. Susan’s Suzuki trainers included: Alice Joy Lewis, Doris Preucil, Ted Brunson, Carol Smith and Louise Scott. Over many years, she studied 10 volumes of the Suzuki Violin School, as well as many other works with John Kendall, who was her mentor and friend.