Nora G. Friedman

A native New Yorker, Nora has over 20 years of experience teaching the violin. She is the Suzuki Program Director at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music and was the founder of the Bed-Stuy Suzuki Violin Studio.

In addition to starting Suzuki-inspired in-school violin programs at the High School for Violin and Dance in the South Bronx and the Excellence Boys Charter School in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, Nora has been on faculty at the Thurnauer School of Music at the Kaplan JCC on the Palisades, at the Elisabeth Morrow School, at the Preparatory Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College, and at Opus 118 Harlem School of Music.

Despite being deeply invested in playing music, Nora earned her B.A. in Latin American Studies at Wesleyan University. She went on to earn her Masters in Performance (jointly) from Montclair State and Brooklyn College. She has studied with Roberta Guaspari, Anna Pelekh, Perry Elliot, Masao Kawasaki and Weigang Li.

Deeply invested in the ethos of life-long learning, she has completed Suzuki training with Edward Kreitman, Edmund Sprunger, Allen Lieb, Tom Wermuth, Linda Fiore, Nancy Jackson, Terry Durbin, Catheryn Lee, Charles Krigbaum, Teri Einfeldt, Linda Case and Jennifer Johnson, and continues to seek out learning opportunities to expand and improve her teaching.

As Director of the Suzuki Program at Brooklyn Conservatory, she finds time to educate herself through podcasts and books on leadership (a current favorite: “A World Without Email,” by Cal Newport, and “Dare to Lead. Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts,” by Brene Brown.

Nora’s interests lie in old-time fiddling, discovering music by historically marginalized composers and musicians and finding ways to introduce music outside the canon to her students. She is committed to animal welfare and has taken in over a dozen stray dogs.