Ms. Sharon M. Neufeld

SHARON NEUFELD has been a music educator since 1992, and has been playing the violin since the late-1970s, adding the viola in the early-1980’s. She is a trained violin & viola instructor registered with the Suzuki Association of the Americas (SAA), with a private studio located in Wichita Falls, TX. Additionally, she has recently joined the faculty of the Gail Key Academy of Music (GKAM) and the conducting staff of the Wichita Falls Youth Symphony Orchestra. She holds Music Performance degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, and has registered extensive teacher training courses through the Suzuki Association of the Americas.

Over the course of her career, Ms. Sharon has taught in various locations around the country, privately in formal Suzuki programs as well as in her own studio, and as an orchestra director for elementary through high school ages in Colorado, Minnesota, and Texas. She has developed leadership and artistic management skills as the Academic Director of the Durango Chamber Music Academy in Southwest Colorado, and as the Executive Artistic Director of the Indianapolis Suzuki Academy in Indiana.

Believing that each person has unlimited potential to achieve great things and develop themselves in a way which allows them to contribute significantly to their world, Ms. Sharon enjoys working in varied musical contexts with students to develop exceptional character and life skills which will enable them to sculpt their most promising future. She has developed a thorough understanding of how to assist each student in learning to play their instrument at their highest level, and helping them to thrive and flourish through the consistent development of strong character and life skills. She is also passionate about brain development, and the role that learning the violin or viola plays in developing a strong brain for life.

Ms. Sharon has enjoyed extensive ensemble performing experience in different contexts and locations around the country and the world, including orchestras and chamber music groups in Colorado, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and overseas in Southern Russia. She loves to garden, cook, make candles, tackle household DIY projects, and snuggle her beautiful Golden Retrievers & Great Pyrenees dogs. She is also looking forward to one day establishing an educational farmstead with goats, chickens, ducks, a large garden & orchard, and maybe even a milk cow!