PPSI 2024 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.

Matthew Dane enjoys a varied musical career as a performer and teacher. He is a founding member of ROCO in Houston and plays with both the Opera Colorado Orchestra and the Boulder Piano Quartet. Chamber music festival appearances include OK Mozart, Portland (Maine), Chamber Music Quad Cities (Iowa), Ruby Mountains (Nevada), Land’s End (Calgary), Snake River (CO), and Tanglewood. Matt has appeared as soloist with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, ROCO, and the St. Martin’s Chamber Choir among others; his chamber and solo performances have been featured on NPR’s Performance Today, BBC’s Channel 3, and the meditation website The Well. Dane co-founded the Brightmusic Ensemble in Oklahoma City with his wife, flutist Christina Jennings. Also an avid violist d’amore Matt has worked with many composers, including Reena Esmail and Michael Theodore, to create new works for the unusual instrument; he has presented & performed around the US, including residencies at the University of Michigan, Baylor University, and his alma mater Amherst College. For Matt, teaching is a passion. He actively maintains a private studio in Boulder, working with committed students from Middle School to adults, and serves on the faculty at the University of Northern Colorado. Past appointments include the University of Colorado and the University of Oklahoma, where he earned tenure. During the summer he teaches at Greenwood Music Camp in Massachusetts as well as his own Boulder Violist Session. Matt’s Doctoral Document, which examines the teaching influence of pedagogue Karen Tuttle, circulates among amateur and professional violists nationwide. He served the viola community as Editor of the Journal of the American Viola Society 2004-2008 and as a Viola Society Board member at both the local and national levels.

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.

Helen comes from a family with 3 generations of Japanese and Western music teachers, and was born and raised in Honolulu. Her Suzuki Teacher training includes study with Dr. Shinichi Suzuki for two and a half years at the Talent Education Institute in Matsumoto, Japan, where she received her Teacher Certification from him in 1973. She continued her Suzuki teacher training at the University of Tennessee with William Starr, and Louise Behrend at the School for Strings. In NYC, she also worked with Gerald Beal on violin performance skills. Helen is also most grateful to Felicity Lipman who traveled many years to give master classes for students in Hawaii. In 1983, Helen became a Certified Teacher of the Alexander Technique at the American Center for the Alexander Technique in New York City. She taught AT in the Center’s Teacher Training Program for 4 years, and violin for 5 years before returning to Hawaii in 1987. From 1990 -1998, she taught with the late Hiroko Primrose who founded the Suzuki Violin Program at Punahou Music School. Helen is currently the head of Punahou Music School’s Suzuki Violin Program, and privately teaches nearly 30 violin students. Other teaching positions have included the University of Tennessee’s Suzuki Program, New York’s School for Strings, and the Diller-Quaille School of Music. Helen enjoys exploring how Alexander Technique principles can complement Dr. Suzuki’s violin pedagogy and educational philosophy. In 2004, Helen was invited to give a presentation on this topic at the Suzuki Association of the Americas National Conference in Minneapolis. At the 2006, Conference, she and Hiroko Driver-Lippman, gave a Heritage Night Keynote Presentation, called Okagesamade (in your honorable shadow) Suzuki Sensei. During the SAA Conference in 2018, Helen was one of the panelists to give a presentation, “To Study is to Change”. Helen has been invited to teach at summer Institutes, including the Intermountain Suzuki String Institute, the Idaho Suzuki Summer Institute, the Northern California Suzuki Institute, the Peaks to Plains Suzuki Institute, and the Japan-Seattle Suzuki Institute. Helen serves as the President of Suzuki Talent Education of Hawaii, is a member of the Hawaii Symphony, and served as the part-time musicians’ representative on the Hawaii Symphony Musicians’ Orchestra Committee for over 20 years.

Kimberly Meier-Sims is the Head of Suzuki Pedagogy at the Cleveland Institute of Music and registered Violin Teacher Trainer through the Suzuki Association of the Americas. She was the past Director of the Sato Center for Suzuki Studies at CIM from 2004-2022. Ms. Meier-Sims conducts a graduate two-year Suzuki teacher training program at CIM which is part of the unique Master duo degree program in Violin Performance and Suzuki Pedagogy. She became one of the youngest registered Suzuki Teacher Trainers in the country in 1988. From 1996-2004, Ms. Meier-Sims was a full-time faculty member at the University of Memphis where she conducted long-term teacher training, was the Coordinator for the University of Memphis Suzuki String Program and Director of the University of Memphis Suzuki String Summer Institute. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in education and performance from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, where she studied with John Kendall, the first American Suzuki pioneer. At Western Illinois University she received her Master’s degree in performance, studying violin and pedagogy with Almita Vamos. The summer of 1986, Ms. Meier-Sims traveled to Japan for a six-week study with Dr. Suzuki. From 1984-1996 Ms. Meier-Sims was a violin instructor at the Preucil School of Music in Iowa City, where she also served as Suzuki Teacher Trainer, Faculty Program Assistant and Chamber Music Coordinator. She has published articles in the American Suzuki Journal, Strings Magazine and the Tennessee Musician. In 2001 she was recognized as one of Tennessee’s outstanding educators by the Tennessee Governor’s School of the Arts. She was the Violin Coordinator for the 2002 10th SAA National Conference in Minneapolis. In April 1999, she attended The Thirteenth World Suzuki Method Convention in Japan. Ms. Meier-Sims has taught Suzuki institutes and workshops in Cork, Ireland and throughout the U.S.

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.

Lucy Shaw is an active performer, Suzuki teacher and clinician currently based in the Seattle, WA area. A native of Nova Scotia, Canada, she received her Bachelor degree at the S.C. Eckhardt-Gramatte Conservatory of Music at Brandon University in Manitoba, Canada, and her Master of Music in Violin Performance at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. Important musical influences include Sergiu Luca, Francis Chaplin, Sydney Harth and Jean-Jacques Kantorow. For eighteen years Lucy was owner/director of the Village Violin School in Houston where she was an active member of the Houston Area Suzuki Strings Association coordinating annual teacher development seminars, Suzuki graduations and workshops. As a guest teacher and clinician Lucy has taught at Workshops and Institutes in Canada, Mexico and throughout the continental United States. An ardent supporter of the SAA, Lucy was violin coordinator for the Suzuki Association of the America’s 2008 National Conference and served on the SAA Board of Directors 2011-2014. Lucy currently maintains a private studio, directs the State Suzuki Festival and serves on the Board of the Suzuki Association of Washington State.

Stephen Sims teaches in the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Joint Music Program with Case Western Reserve University, and in CIM’s Sato Center for Suzuki Studies. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in performance and pedagogy from the University of Iowa, a Master’s Degree in performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and a Bachelor’s Degree in performance from the University of Illinois. His principal teachers include Leopold LaFosse, Linda Cerone, David Russell, Catherine Tait, Sergiu Luca, and Barbara Jackson. An orchestral musician for many years, Sims served as Assistant Principal Violin of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Concertmaster of the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra, and Assistant Concertmaster of the North Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. He has been a violin instructor at Denison University, El Sistema @ University Circle, the University of Memphis Community Music School, the Preucil School of Music in Iowa City, and the Cedar Rapids Symphony School of Music. Sims has been a registered Suzuki teacher for 30 years and is a frequent clinician at Suzuki workshops and institutes around the country.

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.