Ms. Margie Looney

Ms. Margie Looney is currently the director of MLStrings in Eagle Mountain, UT. MLStrings is a music school providing high-quality instruction on the violin, viola, cello, and ukulele to children and adults.

Margie previously held tenure as a Suzuki Strings Specialist in a Suzuki in the Schools Program within the renowned Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District in North Texas. She has also been the director of orchestras at John Hancock Charter School in Pleasant Grove, UT for 6 years, where she built a strong Suzuki-based orchestra program for all enrolled students grades K – 8. Advanced 4th – 6th grade students in that program recently performed pieces that were on the level of neighboring high schools’ programs. She has also enjoyed making a difference in the lives’ of inmates through teaching Suzuki group lessons in the Utah Prison System.

Prior to her success in Utah, Ms. Looney was the director of the Willcox Middle School and High School Orchestra Program which served over 160 students in grades 5 – 12 in Willcox, Arizona. In this very rural area, she built a high-achieving Suzuki-based orchestra program that surrounding communities aimed to emulate.

Ms. Looney grew up in Arlington, Texas, a city specifically known for its strong string programs and designated as a “Best Community for Music Education” by the National Association of Music Merchants. She began playing piano at age 5 and took to the viola through Suzuki lessons at age 10. By her junior year of high school, Ms. Looney had developed a large, accomplished private violin and viola studio with students winning countless honors. After graduating Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Music from the University of Texas at Arlington, she began teaching Suzuki-based orchestra in the public school setting.

Ms. Looney is a staunch advocate for music in the public schools and through this passion her students have been able to attend concerts by world-renowned artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Kathryn Stott, and Itzhak Perlman. Most recently, she has been named a Monsanto Fund National Rural Teacher of the Year Finalist, Arizona Rural Schools Association Rural Teacher of the Year, an Arizona Educational Foundation Ambassador for Excellence, Cochise County Teacher of the Year, and the Willcox Unified School District Teacher of the Year. Ms. Looney is also a violist in the Orchestra at Temple Square, performing for weekly TV broadcasts.

Outside of teaching and performing, Ms. Looney spends time with her two Yorkies, Laney and Ryan. She loves taking them everywhere and putting them in cute outfits. Ryan (the black one) is currently a dog model and she’s making sure it doesn’t go to his head.