PPSI 2025 Faculty

Blake Brasch is a Suzuki cello specialist and Suzuki cello program coordinator at the Hartt Community Division of the University of Hartford. Director of the Chicago Suzuki Institute. Studied with Alan Harris at The Cleveland Institute of Music and Mark Schroeder at Ohio University. Pre-college teachers: Carol Tarr and Gilda Barston.

Reagan Brasch grew up in the Suzuki method studying with Paula Woyton in Texas. She graduated with a bachelors of music in violin performance and received her masters in music with an emphasis in Suzuki Pedagogy from the University of Denver. After teaching with Denver Talent Education for five years with James Maurer, she moved to Chicago to teach violin and Early Childhood at the Music Institute of Chicago under the direction of Gilda Barston. She was the Suzuki Events Coordinator and directed the Early Childhood program. She was awarded Outstanding Teacher by the Winnetka Alliance for Early Childhood. She has additional Suzuki training from Linda Fiore, Joanne Bath, Ann Smelser, Pat D’Ercole, Michele George, Lynn McCall, and Doris Preucil. Mrs. Brasch currently teaches at the University of Hartford Community Division in CT giving both private and group instruction in Suzuki. She also is program coordinator of the Youth to Community program (Y2C), a teen volunteer program at Hartt . Mrs. Brasch has taught extensively at Suzuki institutes and workshops around the country.

As a young cellist, Katie studied with pedagogue Sally Gross at the Western Springs School for Talent Education, who served as a major influence for her to pursue Suzuki training. Katie received her Master of Music in Suzuki Cello Pedagogy at the University of Denver under the tutelage of Carol Tarr, president of the Suzuki Association of Colorado and former board member for the Suzuki Association of the Americas. Katie currently runs an active private cello studio in Denver, CO, and also has the pleasure of serving as String Pedagogy Specialist and Teaching Artist for El Sistema Colorado, and a group class teacher for Lamont Suzuki Pedagogy Program. Through these organizations, Katie aspires to bring quality cello instruction and music education to as many young people as possible, regardless of socioeconomic status. As a soloist, chamber musician, teacher, and activist, Katie Burns aims to use the cello to engage people in unique and meaningful musical experiences. She enjoys bringing cello music to a wide range of settings and venues, performing at churches, yoga studios, art galleries, Syntax Physic Opera (CO), The Preservery (CO), The Bluebird (CO), and Red Rocks Amphitheatre (CO). Under the direction of William Grubb at Butler University and Matthew Zalkind and the Lamont School of Music, Katie has presented five full-length recitals including repertoire from the Baroque through the Modern era. As an accomplished orchestral cellist, Katie has served as Principal Cellist of the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra and has played for various musicals, ballets, operas, film recordings, and season concerts since 2003. Katie’s true passion as a cellist lies in performing chamber music. She currently collaborates with guitarist Russ Callison in their duo Solazur, formed in 2016 out of a shared desire to offer captivating and intimate performances of cello and guitar music. She also plays with Plain Faraday, Denver indie-rock band, and Avourneen, Denver Celtic band.

Erika Eckert joined the University of Colorado Boulder College of Music faculty in 1994. She has also served on the faculties of the Madeline Island Chamber Music, Brevard Music Center, the Cleveland Institute of Music, Baldwin Wallace University, Perlman Music Program, Quartet Program, Takács String Quartet Seminar, the North American Viola Institute at the Orford Center for the Arts in Quebec, Canada, Chigiana Music Festival in Siena, Italy, and the Chautauqua Institution in New York—where she coordinated the chamber music program for the Music School Festival Orchestra for three summers. As a member of the Eckert-McDonald Duo, formed in 2004, she has performed several recitals throughout the United States and Europe. The Duo can be heard on the Meridian Label performing Luis Jorge González‘s Sonata Elegiaca. They also recorded the viola and piano sonatas of Libby Larsen, Jennifer Higdon, and Margaret Brouwer with Azica Records, to be released. As co-founder of the Cavani Quartet, she performed on major concert series worldwide and garnered an impressive list of awards and prizes, including first prize at the Naumburg Chamber Music Competition. In recent seasons, Ms. Eckert has performed as guest-violist with the Takács Quartet. She has also soloed with the Music in the Mountains Purgatory Festival Orchestra, Four Seasons Chamber Orchestra, the University of Colorado Symphony Orchestra, the Boulder Bach Festival, and the Boulder Chamber Orchestra. Other performing engagements include the 400thGalileo Anniversary at the American Academy in Rome, El Paso Pro Musica International Chamber Music Festival, Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Sitka Summer Music Festival, and Niagara International Chamber Music Festival. Additional teaching engagements have included presenting viola and chamber music pedagogy sessions, and coordinating the chamber music program at the American String Teachers Association International Workshops in Brisbane, Australia and Stavanger, Norway; presenting viola master classes at Juilliard, Cleveland Institute of Music, Eastman School of Music, Arizona State University, University of Minnesota, Governors School of South Carolina, Interlochen Arts Academy, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, University of Memphis, University of Tennessee, Bowling Green State University, University of South Carolina, University of Georgia, and University of North Carolina; and coaching chamber music at the Suzuki Association of the Americas, Inc. Ninth Conference, the International School for Musical Arts, Chamber Music Connection, Interlochen Arts Academy, Chamber Music Wyoming Young Artist Program, Britt Institute Chamber Strings, and the Madeline Island Music Camp Adult Chamber Music Program. Ms. Eckert also served as adjudicator for the NFAA Arts Recognition and Talent Search, the exclusive nominating agency for the Presidential Scholars in the Arts, and appeared in their Academy Nominated Documentary, Rehearsing a Dream.

Teri Einfeldt teaches at The Hartt School Community School, University of Hartford where she maintains a studio of 21 students from ages 8 to 18. In her role as adjunct professor at The Hartt School, she instructs Master of Music candidates in the Suzuki philosophy and pedagogy. Formerly the chair of strings for the past thirty five years, Einfeldt has been shaping these components into a program which is now considered a national model for teaching the Suzuki method within a university setting. In an effort to provide year-round opportunities in the greater Hartford area, in 1988 Einfeldt, along with her late husband, David Einfeldt, founded the Hartt Suzuki Institute, a weeklong summer workshop for children as well as teachers. Born and raised in Kingston, New York, Einfeldt began her study of violin at the age of 7 in the public schools. As a child and growing musician, she enjoyed playing chamber music and participating in orchestra. While at Ithaca College, she studied violin with Thomas Michalak, and began Suzuki training with Sanford Reuning, one of a small group of educators who pioneered the Suzuki method in the United States. A Suzuki Association of the Americas registered teacher trainer, Einfeldt is a frequent clinician at weekend string workshops and summer Suzuki Institutes throughout the United States and Canada. She has participated and presented at several international conferences of the Suzuki Association of the Americas, at the Pan Pacific Suzuki Conference in Sydney, Australia, and at the Suzuki World Conferences in Turin, Italy, and Matsumoto, Japan. She has also lectured before the Connecticut chapter of American String Teachers Association. In addition she has presented at both International Suzuki Teacher Trainer Conferences in Boston and Madrid. She has appeared as a guest lecturer at the Juilliard School for the Starling DeLay Symposium in June 2011. In addition to her busy teaching, training, and lecturing schedule, Einfeldt continues to be an active performer. A devoted chamber musician, she also plays frequently with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. She is the former Assistant Concertmistress of both the Northeast Pennsylvania Philharmonic and the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra. Not surprisingly, Einfeldt has designed the Hartt Suzuki program to offer ample opportunities for students to participate in the orchestra and chamber music activities that she has always loved. She delights in beginning young quartets and developing them through high school. In Jan 2014 at the Hartt Suzuki String 25th Anniversary Celebration Concert in Lincoln Theater, long time Hartt Community Division faculty member Teri Einfeldt was presented the Alfred C. Fuller Award. The award celebrates the memory of The Hartt School’s first principal benefactor by honoring an individual who exemplifies the Fuller spirit through sustained commitment, outstanding service, and valuable contributions to the School and its learning environment. The Fuller Award represents the highest accomplishment in citizenship.

Christie Felsing is Director of Teaching and Learning at the University of Hartford’s Hartt Community Division where she teaches violin in the Hartt Suzuki Program and leads the Suzuki graduate pedagogy courses. She has been active in the Suzuki Association of the Americas as a registered teacher trainer for many years, served on the SAA Board of Directors from 2004 to 2009, coordinated the 2010 SAA conference, worked as a staff member from 2014 to 2016, and serves as a consultant for teacher development. Christie was assistant director at the Preucil School of Music in Iowa City, Iowa, for 17 years, and taught on its violin faculty from 1996 to 2014. In 2013, the Iowa String Teachers Association named her the Leopold LaFosse Studio Teacher of the Year. Christie received her Master of Music degree in Suzuki pedagogy with John Kendall at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, and her Bachelor of Music degree with Vartan Manoogian and Marvin Rabin at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition, she completed a nine-month Suzuki internship with Doris Preucil in Iowa, and her arts administration training (AMICI) with the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts.

Amy Gesmer-Packman holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Tennessee and a Master of Music in performance and pedagogy from the University of Colorado. She is registered by the Suzuki Association of the Americas and is a former board member of the Suzuki Association of Colorado. She is former board member of the Boulder Youth Symphony, a member of American String Teachers Association, Boulder Area Music Teachers Association, Federated Music Teachers, and a member of Boulder Valley Suzuki Teachers. She is a founding board member of the High Plains Youth Symphony. She has taught at the Denver Suzuki Institute, the Intermountain Suzuki Institute in Utah, the Hawaii Suzuki Institute in Honolulu, and institutes in Fort Collins and Illinois. Amy founded Boulder Suzuki Strings (BSS) in 1982. As director of BSS, the program has grown to include a ten-member faculty teaching violin, viola, and cello to over 220 children. During the summer of 1982, Amy studied with Shinichi Suzuki in Matsumoto, Japan. She has studied extensively since 1976 with Professor William Starr of the University of Colorado. She has also done training with numerous other teachers including John Kendall, Mary Cay Neal, Joanne Bath and Jim Maurer. With over 30 years of teaching experience, she continues to take classes to further her training and education in teaching students. In the summer of 1990, Amy organized and ran the highly successful Columbine Suzuki String Camp. Her students have gone on to study at leading music schools including Julliard, Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, Oberlin and the University of Colorado. Her students play in local orchestras including the High Plains Youth Symphony, Boulder Youth Symphony, Denver Young Artists Orchestra, and the Suzuki Youth Orchestra of the Americas. In addition to teaching, Amy enjoys spending time with her husband and her son, a musical theatre graduate in Los Angeles and her daughter, a graduate of Vanderbilt in violin.

Heather Hadley maintains a thriving studio of young cellists of all levels and has been a member of the faculty of Boulder Suzuki Strings since 2003. As a SAA registered Teacher Trainer, she conducts the cello long-term training program at the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music. She has contributed to the SAA’s Parents as Partners video series and the American Suzuki Journal, and has served on the board of the Suzuki Association of Colorado. Her degrees include a BM from Lawrence University in Performance, a MM from the University of Colorado in Performance and Pedagogy, and a Suzuki Certificate from the University of Denver. Heather is passionate about helping all students and families experience the full benefits of a Suzuki education. When not teaching or performing she enjoys spending time in the Colorado sunshine with her husband and two daughters.

Laura Anderson Schleiger began studying Suzuki violin at the age of three in Longmont, Colorado. Growing up, she also tried her hand at the harp and piano, via the Suzuki Method, as well as clarinet and saxophone through school music programs. She earned her Bachelor and Master’s of Music Performance as well as her Suzuki Violin training through the University of Denver. Laura has returned to DU as the Professor of Suzuki Violin Pedagogy, teaching in the same program where she earned her Suzuki training. She is also the co-founder and co-director of Lamont Suzuki Strings, where she teaches private students, group classes, workshops, and more. In addition to teaching, Laura tries to perform in the community as much as she is able. To round out the Suzuki Triangle, Laura has her own quartet of string playing sons.

Ann Montzka Smelser began playing violin at the age of 3 with the help of her mother and father, Marilyn and Arthur Montzka. Later she studied under Kazuko Numanami and Sarah Hersh at the Oberlin College Suzuki Program and later with Rebecca Sandrok and Pierre Menard. In between receiving her Bachelors of Music Education and Masters in Performance and Pedagogue at Northern Illinois University, Ann studied with Dr. Shinichi Suzuki at the Talent Education Institute in Matsumoto, Japan. After college, Ann toured extensively with the Ruggieri String Quartet to all four corners of the United States through Columbia Artists Management. Ann has performed in many orchestras and chamber ensembles and is currently principal 2nd violinist with Camerata Chicago and concertmaster of the Kishwaukee Symphony Orchestra. In 2003 Ann received the Hester Byron Excellence in Teaching Award and in 2013 was inducted into the Sycamore Music Booster’s Hall of Fame receiving the Legacy Award and in 2019 was inducted into the DeKalb Music Booster’s Hall of Fame receiving the MUSE award. Ann is a lifetime member of the Suzuki Association of the Americas and has been invited to present at several SAA Conferences. Ann has served as coordinator of the Suzuki Youth Orchestras of the Americas in 2006 and 2008 and coordinator for Violin at the 2014 and 2016 National Suzuki Conferences held in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Ann became a Registered Suzuki Teacher Trainer in 2005 and currently teaches Suzuki Pedagogy at both Northwestern University and Northern Illinois University. Ann teaches about 40 private students and is director of the NIU, CSA Suzuki Strings Program at NIU and a teacher at the Music Institute of Chicago in Winnetka. Ann enjoys working with Suzuki families and teachers at Suzuki Institutes and workshops throughout the United States. Ann was a guest teacher at the 2010 International String Conference in Singapore and has given Teacher Training courses in Lima, Peru, Costa Rica and Mexico City. Ann lives in DeKalb, IL with her husband, Linc, and her Golden Retriever, Chloe. Linc and Ann are proud Suzuki parents of their daughter, Genevieve, and son, Benjamin, who are currently pursuing music in college.

Mary Walters teaches a thriving cello studio in Seattle, Washington, and directs the Alaska Cello Intensive cello choir in Fairbanks, Alaska. Mary has been a clinician at institutes and workshops around the country, including the Chicago Suzuki Institute, Fairbanks Suzuki Institute, Hawaii Suzuki Institute, Hartt Suzuki workshop, Intermountain Suzuki String Institute, Alaska Cello Intensive, as a teaching assistant at the Bowdoin International Music Festival, and more. In 2018, she directed the first cello choir ever held at the Suzuki Association of the Americas conference. Prior to moving to Seattle, Mary was a member of the cello faculty of the Music Institute of Chicago.   Mary has performed with the Seattle Symphony and as a studio recording musician can be heard on dozens of Hollywood film, television, and video game soundtracks. She earned her master’s degree in cello performance and pedagogy from Northern Illinois University and her bachelor’s degree in cello performance from the University of Oregon Clark Honors College. During graduate school Mary held a graduate fellowship position in the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. Since 2008 she has served on the board of the Suzuki Education and Research Association, which oversees the Japan-Seattle Suzuki Institute International.

Crystal Plohman Wiegman has spent over 25 years sharing her fiddling expertise at numerous Suzuki Institutes, state educators’ conferences, and string clinics across the continent and Europe. Growing up as one of the first Suzuki students in the Brandon University program, Crystal went on to win national fiddling titles in both Canada and the US. A graduate of the University of Waterloo, she serves on the Suzuki strings faculty at Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN and is coordinator of the Folk Instrument Department. Crystal has appeared on the Grand Ole Opry and shared the stage with the Chieftains and country greats like Chet Atkins and Vince Gill. She has toured internationally throughout Europe, China, and Japan. Since her move to Music City in 1994, Crystal has been dedicated to bridging the gap between the classical and folk music world, developing a holistic violin program which embraces Suzuki philosophies and repertoire as the foundation, incorporating fiddle music of various styles and improvisation to develop creativity. Crystal’s fiddle tune arrangements have been performed by string groups worldwide. She directs “Fiddle Frenzy”, a performing string group of Vanderbilt pre-collegiate students who perform regularly in middle Tennessee and recently returned from a well-received performance tour of Scotland. Her sequenced fiddle method book, “Fiddle and Song”, (designed to supplement and support Suzuki pedagogy) has recently been released through Alfred publishing. Crystal lives in Nashville, TN with her husband and 2 children, Kelsie and Joshua, who study Suzuki violin and cello and she enjoys having the experience of all sides of the Suzuki triangle.