Member Directory

Wendy Tangen-Foster

Violin Teacher SAA Member

WENDY TANGEN-FOSTER :: Violin

Dedicated to the Suzuki Approach, Wendy Tangen-Foster has been teaching Suzuki private and group lessons since 1998. Wendy teaches at HeartStrings Suzuki Studio in River Falls, WI and the St. Paul Conservatory of Music, where she also serves as the Director of their Suzuki Department. She is also on the strings faculty at McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul where she teaches classical and “alternative” violin. Wendy served on the Board of Directors for the Suzuki Association of Minnesota (SAA Chapter Affiliate) from 2006-2012, serving as President from 2009-2011.

Beginning on a “box-violin” at age five, Wendy studied Suzuki Violin with Professor Emeritus of Strings LeRoy Bauer through high school and went on to study music at the Lionel Hampton School of Music in Moscow, Idaho and at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls where she completed a B.S. in Music.

Wendy has studied Suzuki Pedagogy with Joanne Bath, Ronda Cole, Alice Joy Lewis, Nancy Lokken, Edmund Sprunger, and Craig Timmerman. She has completed Suzuki Violin Teacher Development Units 1 through 6, Violin Practicum, Books 1-4 Overview, Books 1-6 Overview, and Every Child Can. In Idaho, Wendy taught violin for the Moscow Public Schools, Giant Steps Preschool, and was a faculty member of the Palouse Suzuki Strings. From 2004-2006, she ran an after-school violin program for Academia Cesar Chavez, a charter school in St. Paul.

An avid performer, Wendy has studied chamber music with the Philadelphia String Quartet, the Lafayette String Quartet, and the Apple Hill Chamber Players and has performed as a first violinist with the Washington-Idaho Symphony, the Eau Claire Chamber Orchestra, and the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra in the Twin Cities. Wendy’s interest and expertise expands beyond classical, having studied jazz violin and improvisation with Randy Sabien and toured nationally with a rock/blues band.

Wendy lives in St. Paul with her accordionist-husband, John and her cat, Lionel. When not teaching, Wendy can be found performing, arranging, and recording as a freelance musician with various rock, hip-hop, tango, and jazz groups in the Twin Cities. Wendy’s passion for teaching stems from her love of children and from her love of live music in many genres.