Claire Timmerman

Violin, Cello Teacher, Parent

Claire Timmerman

SAA Member

Contact

Cincinnati, OH
timmerman.claire@gmail.com

Claire Timmerman is known within her community for her diverse musical studies and the travels and lived experiences which have led her to have a dynamic and holistic approach as a music educator. Claire believes that music, being truly universal, is an integral part of the human experience and that everyone should have the opportunity to learn and love music. She strives to share her love of music with her students to nurture and cultivate their artists within.

Claire’s passion for music was nurtured from a very young age and woven into her personal genealogy. Her parents were Suzuki violin and piano teachers which studied under the direct tutelage of Dr. Shinichi Suzuki in Matsumoto, Japan. Her own musical study began at the age of 2 with Suzuki violin lessons and Suzuki cello shortly thereafter. She spent her summers as a child immersed in Suzuki institutes all over the country. She began her own Suzuki teacher training as a teenager, and was invited as a guest teacher at a Suzuki Institute in St. Petersburg, FL. By the age of 18, she was teaching Hip Hop, Jazz, and Suzuki violin classes at different workshops and institutes in the Midwest.

Claire studied at Cincinnati’s School for Creative and Performing Arts and graduated in violin performance at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. She has also studied Cello Performance and Music Therapy at the University of Dayton, as well as Jazz and vocal music at Paris VIII Université in Paris, France. She has toured internationally as an independent singer-songwriter, performing her original work at some of Europe’s festivals and venues.

Claire has been an active music educator since 2003. Passionate about teaching both children and adults, she lives and breathes the Suzuki philosophy that “every child can”. Her personal philosophy is that “every PERSON can”. Claire began teaching violin, cello and guitar at the Peaslee Neighborhood Center in Over the Rhine. There, she taught Suzuki, hip-hop, jazz and blues in a curriculum designed by herself and her colleagues and heavily influenced by Suzuki Method principles. This innovative community-centered teaching experience further inspired her to create and teach a music curriculum in a math tutoring program at Mr. K’s Enrichment College Consortium beginning in 2009. Since then, she has taught as a Suzuki violin and cello teacher at the Wyoming Fine Arts Center and served as the director of the Suzuki program at the Cincinnati Music Academy from 2014-2016.

Claire currently teaches as a Suzuki violin and cello teacher at the Wyoming Fine Arts Center. In addition to her work with Wyoming Fine Arts Center, she teaches at the Cincinnati Music Academy and her private home studio. She is a mother, and is an active studio recording artist and freelance musician.