Faculty
We are pleased to welcome an experienced team of UK and international Suzuki teachers
Cello
Cellist, educator, and composer with a career spanning over 50 years, Carey Beth Hockett is celebrated for her creative group class techniques, teaching worldwide and training hundreds of educators. She has served on the faculties of Ithaca Talent Education, London Suzuki Group, and the Colburn School.
Recognized as a Teacher Trainer by both the SAA and ESA, she has held leadership roles on their boards and the International Suzuki Association. Her compositions, including Amusements for String Quartet and Diversions for Cello Ensemble, are widely performed and valued for developing ensemble skills in players of all levels.
Ellen Martin began her career in Birmingham where she taught cello for the Birmingham Music Service and at the Birmingham Conservatoire Junior Department. She also studied in London with the British Suzuki Music Association at this time.
She relocated to Scotland sixteen years ago and runs the Ayr Suzuki Cello Group. Ellen is the founding teacher of the award winning string project in East Ayrshire and has taken her groups to many conferences and events including a performance with James Macmillan in the House of Lords. She also teaches for the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and is a director of the internationally known Ayrshire Fiddle Orchestra.
Ellen regularly teaches and delivers training sessions at conferences and workshops in the UK and abroad.
Tessa Oakley began the cello aged 5 as a Suzuki student in London, studying with Alison McNaught and Carey Beth Hockett. In 2001, she returned to the Suzuki family as a teacher.
She has a thriving teaching studio in London and collaborates with many other teachers in the London Suzuki Group for concerts and events. She is director and co-founder of Cellofest, an international summer school for Suzuki cellists and their families which also offers professional development and enrichment opportunities for teachers.
Tessa is dedicated to lifelong learning and to sharing her passion for teaching. As an ESA teacher trainer, she spent 8 years as Director of Cello for the BSMA. She is also chair of the cello committee for the European Suzuki Association.
Piano
Caroline Fraser is from Scotland. She has a B. Mus from Edinburgh University and teaching diplomas LRAM (piano) and ARCM (violin) from the Royal Academy of Music, London. She has an MMus with Kodaly Emphasis from Holy Names University (HNU) in California.
Caroline is an ESA and SAA piano teacher trainer and has given training courses and workshops throughout the Americas, in Europe, Asia and Australia. She currently lives in California and Peru and is passionate about developing Suzuki programs in Latin America.
Originally from New Zealand, Michelle Post began her musical journey at the age of 4 as a Suzuki child, studying piano alongside violin, viola and flute.
After earning her Bachelor of Piano Performance (Hons) from the University of Auckland, prestigious international scholarships took her to the University of Washington in Seattle (USA) for her Master's degree, and to the Musikhochschule in Cologne (Germany) for an Artist Diploma. Michelle has achieved success in numerous competitions and enjoyed a vibrant career as a soloist, concerto performer, and chamber musician.
Teaching has always been an integral part of Michelle's life; she began teaching piano while still a student herself and has dedicated her teaching career to the Suzuki Method ever since. An ESA Teacher Trainer for piano and a certified teacher of Suzuki Early Childhood Education (SECE), Michelle also serves as the current Chair of the ESA Piano Committee. She is frequently invited to teach at major Suzuki workshops across Europe, where she delights in helping students and families discover greater joy at the instrument.
Michelle now teaches in Zürich, Switzerland, at her studio, The Piano Box. She lives with her husband, two children, and two very demanding—but musical—cats.
Anna Sibley is a graduate of the K. Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice/Poland and for over 20 years has lived in the UK with her husband Mat, son Alexander and three cats. Her musical journey with the Suzuki method began many years ago when her son Alex was a toddler and her search for musical activities for children led to a Suzuki workshop in London. Anna runs a large Suzuki method studio in Bristol and an independent Teacher Training course in Poland.
She has taught at Suzuki workshops in Europe and Middle East and led and co-organised CPD courses for Suzuki teachers.
"In the Suzuki method, I am amazed every day by the incredible and unlimited potential of every child, the joy of discovering their strengths, the joy of overcoming their weaknesses. I am also inspired by the wonderful philosophy of Suzuki, who truly believed that through immersing a child in beauty, encouraging cooperation, respecting the skills of others and through making music we could save the world."
Suzuki Early Childhood Education
Keri Cassidy Taylor is a Suzuki Early Childhood Educator, Suzuki Violin Teacher and Director of Suzuki Method Northern Ireland. Suzuki trained from the age of 3, Keri feels very fortunate to have been in the first group of Suzuki children to be trained in Northern Ireland by Brigid Walton.
After graduating with BMus (Hons) from the University of Ulster, Keri starting travelling to London for the BSMA Violin Teacher Training course. After achieving Level Five, Keri was excited to learn of the introduction of Suzuki ECE Teacher Training in Europe. Currently a Level 4 ESA SECE Teacher, Keri has also travelled annually to Canada for training and has attained SAA SECE Stage 5. Keri thoroughly enjoys travelling to Suzuki courses worldwide - from Japan, Australia, Canada and extensively throughout Europe. Keri looks forward to meeting you all very soon!
Keri is teaching on the main violin course for the National Workshop this year too.
Elaine grew up in Cork, Ireland, learning violin through the Suzuki Method with Patricia Kelleher.
She now lives in Scotland, teaching privately in Glasgow and Ayr.
Whilst studying at the RCS, Elaine won the Orchestral Prize, and the Hilda Bailey Violin Prize, and took part in many masterclasses. As a freelance violinist, Elaine has played with many orchestras across the UK and Ireland. Elaine regularly teaches at Suzuki workshops across the UK and Ireland, and is director of the Glasgow Suzuki Workshop. Elaine is also qualified as a Suzuki Viola Teacher and Suzuki Early Childhood Education (SECE) teacher.
Violin/Viola
Jane Afia has been involved as a violin teacher with the London Suzuki Group (LSG) since 1980. Her 3 children were brought up through the LSG and they are all professionally involved with music.
Suzuki has been a great joy to have had in her life for nearly 50 years and she continues to work as a teacher trainer, private teacher in North West London, and with the Lauderdale Suzuki group.
Alex started the violin aged 4 with Suzuki method following his older brother's footsteps (now a concertmaster in Australia). Learning with Felicity Lipman, Alex attended Junior Guildhall and Dulwich College on music scholarships, led the LSSO and performed in many London venues, including solo concertos at Smith Square and the Royal Albert Hall.
He later studied violin and viola at RNCM and Guildhall with Jon Morton and Mark Knight) and has freelanced with various ensembles since. Alex has been teaching Suzuki method full time since 2017 based in Brixton, London. He teaches violin and viola groups at Dulwich Suzuki Group.
Heather studied Viola and French Horn at the Royal Academy of Music and following a year`s teaching qualification got a job in Birmingham where she taught Suzuki Method in city schools for many years.
Heather started studying to be a Suzuki teacher in London with British Suzuki shortly after starting her job in Birmingham with the music service and having completed the Suzuki teacher training course she was awarded a scholarship and travelled to Japan to study with Dr Suzuki for three months.
Back in Birmingham she taught Suzuki Method in city schools for many years -becoming an Advanced Skills Teacher and then Head of Ensembles. She managed staff and ran events for seventy orchestras, ensembles, bands and groups both non auditioned and auditioned. Latterly Heather was fortunate enough to become Deputy Head of the music service in Birmingham.
During this time as a Suzuki teacher, Heather was appointed a Teacher Trainer and has, for many years, directed the British Suzuki Violin Teacher Training course in the Midlands. She is also working at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire delivering a Suzuki pedagogy program for string students and is encouraged to see that a number of these young people are considering joining a training course in the future.
Heather has a thriving private teaching studio and loves every aspect of being a Suzuki teacher and teacher trainer and hopes she can pass on the happiness and pleasure that music and teaching gives her every day…
Mysie Ferguson graduated from the Royal Scottish academy of Music & Drama and embarked on her professional career as a violist with the Academy of the BBC. After gaining much valuable experience and working with many eminent conductors, she left to take up a position which she was to hold for 14 years with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. As violist with this orchestra she took part in numerous recordings for both radio and TV and undertook many foreign tours including concert tours to Hong Kong, Poland and the USA and Canada as well as regular appearances at the London Promenade series.
Since 2012 Mysie has been director of the Suzuki Viola Teacher Training programme in Madrid. She has also run viola conversion courses in Ireland, England; Iceland and Spain and is in demand as teacher; teacher trainer and examiner all across Europe. In 2013 she was very honoured to teach at the 14th Suzuki World Convention in Matsumoto, Japan.
Mysie continues to run her own private teaching practice in Edinburgh where she teaches both violin and viola players of all ages. She is also the mother of two Suzuki taught children and now grandmother of one.
Ruth studied Viola at Birmingham Conservatoire with Jonathan Barritt and then later, Historical Viola with Rachel Stott at the Royal Academy of Music. Her love for all things Suzuki began when she was teaching for Birmingham Music Service and was introduced to Heather Clemson. Ruth then began Suzuki teacher training and the rest is history!
Ruth spent several years teaching Suzuki Violin in Cambridge, for St Albans Suzuki Group and Barnet Suzuki Group with Hannah Biss. In 2019 she moved to Nottingham where she started Nottingham Suzuki Group from scratch. Ruth is enjoying building up a new network of musical contacts in the East Midlands and enjoys organising opportunities for her pupils to get out and play in the community. She is also the Suzuki Teacher Representative for the East Midlands area. In addition to her own teaching, Ruth is a regular member of the Temple Dinsley Suzuki Summer School faculty.
When she’s not teaching Ruth likes to get out amongst nature in the company of her pony, Charlie and dog, Klug. She also enjoys making and repairing string instruments when she has a spare minute!
Jenny Glester started to learn Suzuki violin at the age of 3 with Helen Brunner. By the age of 11 she was giving recitals in this country and abroad, touring Sweden once and the USA and Canada three times.
Having obtained a degree in music from the University of Manchester followed by a Performance Diploma with Distinction from The Royal Northern College of Music, Jenny embarked on a successful freelance career and worked with all the major orchestras in the North West including The Halle, BBC Philharmonic, Manchester Camerata, Northern Chamber Orchestra and Northern Sinfonia.
Jenny took the permanent position of Co-Principal Second Violin of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in 2004. During her 8 years there she became part of the music education team working in diverse settings within the community including delivering and evaluating music workshops for Sure Start and in mainstream schools. Jenny also worked at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital delivering music sessions across the hospital and worked for the Mersey Care NHS Trust delivering music sessions in a variety of mental health settings.
Jenny left her orchestral post to move to Bristol and to revisit her Suzuki roots. She leads the Brandon Hill Chamber Orchestra, freelances with the Bristol Ensemble, is a member of Ensemble Elan and has a flourishing Suzuki studio in Bristol with students from books 1-8. She loves teaching at Suzuki workshops and has been invited to teach in Poland, Bryanston Summer School and around the SouthWest region of the UK.
Laura Keuzenkamp completed her viola studies in 2015 at the Maastricht Conservatory in The Netherlands. It soon became clear that teaching violin and viola lessons to students of all ages is her great passion. After teaching in her own studio for a number of years, she ended up at the 'Strijkdomein' in The Hague. Together with other colleagues (Suzuki and Non-Suzuki) they form a collective of string teachers and organize different projects for the students of the school every year.
Since 2018, Laura enjoys teaching according to the Suzuki Method, for which she passed all violin levels at the Antwerp Conservatory in Belgium. Last summer Laura obtained Level 4 for Suzuki Viola in Italy and is currently in training for Level 5 in Edinburgh and London.
Sam Knops studied Viola and Chamber Music at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp, Belgium, with Leo De Neve.
After his Masters Degree, he played in the major orchestras of Belgium, including La Monnaie, Antwerp Symhonic Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonics, Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen, and Royal Flemish Opera.
Sam took his Suzuki training with Ilona Telmanyi in Denmark, gaining level 5 for viola in 2013. He teaches the viola group ‘Con Calore’, based in Zottegem, Belgium, who hosted the recent European Suzuki Viola Gathering in Ostende in October 2022.
Karina MacAlpine studied violin at Trinity College of Music with Hu Kun and Eszter Boda Katona. She became a Suzuki Teacher in 2000 and has a studio of pupils from Twinklers to diploma level in South-East London.
In 2020 Karina became an ESA Teacher Trainer and so far is thoroughly enjoying the new dimension that training the future teachers has brought to her experience of the Suzuki Method.
Since 1998 Karina has been a member of the Blond String quartet. The quartet have performed on cruise ships as well as palaces, castles and prestigious hotels. They have played to Royalty and Presidents in both the UK and abroad and still very much enjoy working together.
photo © Richard Watts
Canada native Margaret Parkin began her musical studies as a Suzuki violin student with Richard Lawrence at the age of 4. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Violin Performance from Queen's University (ON) and a Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting from McGill University where she studied under the direction of Iwan Edwards and John Baboukis. She is an ESA graduate teacher for both violin and viola, chair of the BSMA Events Committee, an ESA Violin Teacher Trainer, Director of BSMA Violin Teacher Training in London, and a member of the ESA Violin Committee.
Margaret is the director of the Oxford Suzuki String Group where she maintains a private studio of violin and viola students. She has previously served as director of the Exeter Suzuki String Group, as a member of faculty at the Suzuki String School of Guelph (ON), and director of the Guelph Youth Music Centre String Orchestras. She is a regular guest clinician, conductor, and speaker at workshops and institutes in Canada, the UK, and Europe. Her most rewarding role is that of Suzuki parent to her teenage son.
Clare studied violin at the Royal Academy of Music and later continued her studies with Joey Corpus. She has been teaching violin and viola for over 25 years, previously at Thomas’ London Day Schools where she was Head of Strings, and Hill House International Junior School. She now has a private teaching studio and is a member of the Junior Trinity Laban faculty. After being introduced to the Suzuki method in 2007 she began training, completing Level 5 in 2012. She also has undertaken extensive additional pedagogical training, including with Mimi Zweig at Jacobs School of Music, and with the Rolland String Pedagogy Society. In 2024 Clare achieved a MSc Distinction from Goldsmiths, University of London in ‘Music Mind and Brain’ (the psychology and neuroscience of music) developing research interests in musical memory, and performance health & wellbeing.
As a freelance violinist, Clare has performed with numerous orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia and Royal Northern Sinfonia, and tutored on education and outreach projects with RPO Resound. She has also worked with chamber ensembles and on pop, film and TV sessions.
Accompanists
Australian-born musician Clare Clements has been fascinated with music from her earliest memories and could sing before she could talk . Formal piano and theory lessons led her to study Music, as well as History and English Literature, at Melbourne University. An interest in piano accompaniment grew naturally from feeling music as a deeply connecting human experience and, eager to explore this further, she came to Britain to study at the Royal Northern College of Music. After completing her Master of Music in Performance, she joined the staff of the RNCM as Lecturer and Accompanist whilst maintaining a busy chamber music career, accompanying instrumentalists and singers in recitals and broadcasts throughout the UK, Ireland, Austria, France, Holland, and her native Australia.
Now living in London, Clare continues to enjoy a varied performing schedule, as well as being the accompanist for the London Suzuki Violin Teacher Training Course,coaching chamber music groups and teaching piano and theory privately. She has also worked as Lecturer at Morley College and run Workshops for singers in London and the Shetland Islands. She expanded her music-making to include engaging with larger groups making her conducting debut in 2005 with Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and has since conducted the Verdi Requiem, Haydn’s Creation, Carmina Burana and Judas Maccabeus.
More recently, in 2015, Clare conducted her first opera, as the Musical Director of Insieme for their Off West End Award-winning production of Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona at Wilton’s Music Hall.
Clare’s interests are wide-ranging and she is passionate about sharing her love of music with audiences, students, amateur and professional musicians, as well as through her work in the UK and abroad as an Examiner for Trinity College London.
Helen Mills has performed internationally as a chamber musician and accompanist. She graduated with distinction from the Performance Masters in piano accompaniment at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2008 and then performed as a Live Music Now artist for five years. Her studies also included Udo Reinemann’s International Lied Masterclasses at the Royal Conservatoire of Brussels and a music degree at Birmingham University combined with solo piano studies at Birmingham Conservatoire.
Helen has worked as an accompanist at Wells Cathedral School, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Badminton School and Bristol Cathedral Choir school. She also works as a freelance collaborative pianist and teaches piano in Bristol.
Enrichment
Alexander Technique (additional charge; see below)
Henry George is a recognised, accredited expert in the field of posture and the Alexander Technique, and has presented at conferences and workshops in the UK and abroad.
He has worked with young musicians in schools, on Suzuki courses and at the London conservatoires. He currently teaches Alexander Technique at Junior Trinity conservatoire in Greenwich, London.
As well as teaching the Alexander Technique, he has a special interest in helping people address performance anxiety. He is based in Bristol and you can learn more about his work at www.alexandertechniquebristol.co.uk
The Alexander Technique is an essential skill for young musicians. It reduces muscle tension, improves posture and performance, and restores emotional balance. In short, it focuses on young people's wellbeing for their music-making and beyond.
To arrange a session at the NSW, please call/ Whatsapp/ text Henry on 07970 549 868 before or during the workshop. The fee is £40 for a 45 minute session and payment can be made by cash or by card at the session. Parents are welcome to attend or not as they prefer.
Choir
I (Helen Styles) started violin as a Suzuki student aged 4 in Adelaide, South Australia leaning with Maxine Komlos. We moved back to the UK (to South Wales) when I was 5 but there were no Suzuki teachers near us so I was traditionally taught from then onwards. In addition to violin I studied piano, organ, recorder & singing whilst at school and at the junior department of RCM. I was awarded a choral scholarship to Christ’s College Cambridge (where I studied veterinary medicine). I qualified and worked as a vet (with a particular interest in cats), but the music called me back and I have been making a living as a musician only since 2010. Coming back to Suzuki and doing the teacher training has transformed my playing and made me really listen and analyse things in a way I had never really been taught to before. I have done Suzuki viola exams to level 3. I have a busy private teaching studio (violin & viola) and teach in local schools. I started my annual weekend Suzuki workshop, Singing Strings in 2017. This year we had 58 students from twinkle to Mozart with violins, violas & cellos. I regularly teach at Suzuki courses around the UK and am the BSMA regional convenor for my area.
My real passion is community music making and trying to make music (whether that is string playing or singing) as accessible as possible to all ages and stages. I am a choral conductor, specialising in working with community choirs - I come across too many adults who have, at some point in their life, been told music is not for them so I am trying (in a small way) to make them part of the musical community again. I run & arrange music for the string group in a local state secondary school which as well as those taught in Western Classical style has several Carnatic violin players who asked to join us (as they thought it looked fun!), so they are currently borrowing school instruments to be able to play with us.
The final important part of my musical life is as a Suzuki parent to two teenage string players!
Introduction to Film Music
Emma Butterworth grew up in the Suzuki Method, beginning the cello at the age of 4 and learning with Christine Livingstone. She studied at Cambridge University, and later trained as a Suzuki teacher.
As well as playing and teaching, Emma is a prolific composer and arranger of music for a wide variety of ensembles and genres. She has a Master's in Composition for Film and TV from the University of Bristol and is a member of BAFTA Connect.
Emma has scored over a dozen films and has also recently completed 'Orchard Street', her first opera, funded by Arts Council England.
