Joseph Kaminsky has been teaching violin for 45 years and has been a registered Suzuki Teacher Trainer since 1984. He is a frequent workshop and institute clinician and has taught at national conferences and workshops in Japan, Puerto Rico, Canada and Singapore. Mr. Kaminsky received his training studying with John Kendall, Roland/Amita Vamos, and Shinichi Suzuki. Formerly adjunct professor of violin at both the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Webster University, he currently he currently runs his private studio of 55 violin students. Mr. Kaminsky also performs as Principal 2nd violin with the Metropolitan Orchestra of St. Louis. Joseph Kaminsky was named the 2014 MoASTA “Artist Teacher of the Year” and “Private Teacher of the Year” in 1999. He is a regular contributor to the American Suzuki Journal.

His studio ranges from beginners age 3 and older to high school students graduates who have been accepted as music majors into Julliard, Cleveland Institute of Music, Oberlin, Northwestern, and Vanderbilt, and other stellar music schools. But the vast majority of his graduates have just gone on to their chosen fields, enhanced by the discipline, cognitive skills, and love of music that a Suzuki education can bring.
Joseph happily lives in St. Louis and enjoys spending time with his wife Lynn, his two adult boys, his step daughter Erin, who is Assistant Concertmaster of the St. Louis Symphony, and his stepson Ben who is a nationally-known contradance fiddler.

Cathryn Lee (Violin) San Francisco based violin teacher Cathryn S. Lee has taught families and teachers around the world since 1976. She is respected for teaching all ages and levels using her detailed and practical “best of both worlds” approach inspired by her studies with Dr. Shinichi Suzuki and her “traditional” studies with concert artist Dame Camilla Wicks.

As a teacher trainer, Cathryn has taught and lectured at SAA National conferences, Leadership Summits, Suzuki Method World Conferences, the first International Suzuki Teacher Trainer Conference in 2009 and most recently at the 16th World Conference.  She has given master classes and pedagogy classes in Australia, Canada, England, Italy, Japan, New Zealand and throughout the United States.  Cathryn is a guest lecturer in String Pedagogy at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Cathryn is the author of Bow Exercises, Bow Strokes and the Bow Stroke Excerpts books.

In 1977, Cathryn founded the Suzuki Music Studio of San Francisco where she continues to teach students and train teachers.  Her students have held titled chairs in numerous youth and school orchestras and placed in numerous competitions.  Cathryn has a B.A. in Performance and Composition, M. A. in Performance from San Francisco College for Women and a teaching certificate from the Talent Education Institute in Japan.  She and her husband raised their sons, Whit, an actor/violinst in New York City and Corin, a violinist with the ETHEL Quartet.

Whitney Lee (Violin) was raised in the Suzuki Method and began his violin studies at the age of two with Cathryn S. Lee.  Pre-college, Mr. Lee studied privately with concert artist Dame Camilla Wicks.  After four years with Dame Wicks, Mr. Lee earned his Bachelors of Music from Northwestern University and his Master of Arts from New York University under the direction on esteemed violin pedagogue AlmitaVamos and Tokyo String Quartet’s first violinist, Martin Beaver.  Currently, Mr. Lee is on the faculty at Turtle Bay Music School in Manhattan and has served as the primary violin teacher and chamber orchestra director at Turtle Bay’s satellite public school strings program at P.S.#116 since 2009.  Mr. Lee has also taught extensively for Suzuki on the Island, the Suzuki Music Studio of San Francisco and privately in New York.  In addition to his violin degrees, Mr. Lee also holds a musical theatre certificate and a psychology minor from Northwestern University.  His education and career as an actor/singer continue to enrich his New York violin students.  

Corin Lee (Violin) is one of the most sought-after violinists of his generation. From classical to contemporary music, he has appeared as a soloist on the great American stages ranging from Carnegie Hall’s Stern and Zankel Auditoriums to Northern America’s largest dance festivals, EDC Las Vegas and Electric Zoo. Corin is currently a violinist in the string quartet ETHEL which is acclaimed as “unfailingly vital” (The New York Times), “brilliant,” “downtown’s reigning string quartet” (The New Yorker), and “one of the most exciting quartets around” (Strad Magazine). As a chamber musician, he tours internationally and has performed in a wide variety of venues including The Metropolitan Museum of Art (ETHEL in residence since 2015), Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Museum of Fine Arts, EG Conference, and New York Fashion Week. Corin’s collaborations include performances with Grammy Award-winning artists such as Native American flute player Robert Mirabal, jazz pianist Laurence Hobgood, Latin jazz pianist Pablo Ziegler, Pulitzer Prize winner David Lang, MacArthur Genius composer Julia Wolfe, and DJ Mako. Corin has performed on, FOX, NBC, From The Top, TED, TEDx, SiriusXM, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. In addition to concert work, he is the founder of Liberated Performer®, a program that guides and trains musicians to defeat performance anxiety, prepare for auditions and concerts, and achieve peak performance. He has taught at National YoungArts Foundation (New York and Miami), directs the audition preparation programs at the New York Youth Symphony, and has given lectures at conservatories like The Juilliard School and San Francisco Conservatory. Corin studied with Ani Kavafian, Hyo Kang, Naoko Tanaka, Wei He, Camilla Wicks, Robert Mealy, and Cathryn Lee. He received degrees from Juilliard (BM), Yale (MM), and an honorary doctorate from Denison University. He attended Suzuki Institutes every summer until he went to college.

Allen Lieb (Violin) received his M.M. in Performance from SIU/Edwardsville, studying Suzuki pedagogy with John Kendall. He holds a Teacher Training Certificate from the Talent Education Research Institute in Japan following several years' instruction with Dr. Shinichi Suzuki. A registered Teacher-Trainer with the Suzuki Association of the Americas since 1981, Allen has taught at institutes, workshops and conferences across the US, Canada, Central America, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. In July 2017, Allen became CEO of the International Suzuki Association. He is Chair of the ISA and SAA Violin Committees, a member of the SAA Heritage Committee and a frequent contributor to the SAA Journal. Residing in New York City, Allen is Head of the Violin Department and Instructor for the Teacher-Training Seminar at The School for Strings. He is also a violin instructor at The Diller-Quaile School of Music where he was a recipient of the 2012 Clifford/Levy Creativity Grant. For 13 years Allen served as Curriculum Coordinator for the Newark Early Strings Program, a Suzuki-based violin program jointly sponsored by the Newark Public Schools and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, for which he was recognized with the 2008 Samuel Antek Award for Music Education. Currently he is a consultant for the VH1/SavetheMusic Foundation.

Donna Lim (Violin) received her Suzuki teaching certificate from Dr. Shinichi Suzuki at the Talent Education Institute in Matsumoto, Japan.  She is presently teaching at the Suzuki Music Studio of San Francisco and is the conductor of the Cadet and Senior Orchestras for the Golden Gate Philharmonic.  Donna founded the Round Valley Strings and was its director for 17 years.  She has been honored to be in the Who's Who Among America's Teachers in 1991 and 1994.  She is also included in the Who's Who Among American Women for 2010-2011.  Other accomplishments include president of the Suzuki Music Association of California, editor of the International Suzuki Journal, teacher at the Dominican University Suzuki program, co-founder and director of a concert series - Music in Round Valley.  She has been a registered teacher trainer for the Suzuki Association of the Americas since 1985.  She is currently playing viola with the Symphony Parnassus and has played violin for the Mendocino Music Festival, Cal Performances and has sung in the soprano section of the San Francisco Bach Choir.  

Marisa McLeod (Violin) a native of Newark, New Jersey,  began her studies of the violin at the age of three.  She received her Bachelor of Music degree at Montclair State  University and her Master of Music degree from the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music.  She studied the Suzuki method and received her Suzuki certification from the Eastman School under Anastasia Jempelis.  She has continued her Suzuki studies with Cathryn Lee, Edmund Sprunger, Sherry Cadow, Martha Shackford, and Mark Bjork. She was a member of the Anderson String Quartet for ten years.  She has studied the art of string quartet playing with the Cleveland Quartet with Peter Salaff as her private teacher,  Juilliard String Quartet,  American String Quartet,  and  William Fitzpatrick of Le Quatuor de Deux Monde, in Fontainebleau, France. The Andersons were artists in residence and members of the music faculty at California State University, Los Angeles.  Their travels took them all over the country where they performed numerous recitals and children’s concerts. As a freelance violinist, she has also performed and recorded for artists like Snoop Dog, Smokey Robinson, En Vogue, Moesha,  Stevie Wonder, Earth  Wind and Fire, and many others. She presently performs with California Philharmonic and various orchestras in Southern California.  She has taught strings for the Arts Council of Conejo Valley and as an adjunct violin professor at Westmont College in Montecito. She has taught Suzuki Strings at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music. She is presently a Suzuki and Strings instructor at the Viewpoint School in Calabasas. She also conducts the Camerata and Philharmonia Orchestras for the Education Division of the Santa Barbara Symphony.  She also maintains a private violin and viola studio in her home and on Zoom. For Marisa, performance is sustenance.  She relishes the interdependence between art, the artist, and the audience.  And as a teacher and coach, she finds herself in the enviable position of being able to pass on to others the how-to of creating this loving relationship.

Suzanna Lambert (Violin) is Co-founder and Director of Mariachi Santa Cecilia in existence since 1995.  The group has toured and recorded extensively seeking to uphold the authentic folk tradition of the earliest Mariachi groups of Mexico.  She holds a BA and MS in Latin American Studies and in Education from the University of California at Santa Cruz.  She has been an instructor at San Jose State University’s Mariachi program as well as at the San Jose International Mariachi Conference.  Suzanna maintains a Suzuki violin studio in Gilroy where she lives with her husband Albert and their two children Sylvia and Rene. 

Beth Goldstein-McKee (Cello) brings her extensive performing and teaching experience to her work with students and teachers at institutes and workshops across the United States and in her studio. A registered Suzuki Association of the Americas Cello Teacher Trainer, she has had the honor of teaching students from around the world at the 16th World Convention in Matsumoto, Japan and training teachers from South and Central America at the 24th International Suzuki Festival in Lima, Peru. She has served on the Board of Directors of the SAA, as Cello Coordinator for the 2016 SAA Conference, and she has been a presenter at the American String Teachers Association and the SAA conferences. Beth has recently moved to Western PA where she is starting a new generation of students. Beth maintained thriving studios on the west coast for over thirty years, first in Berkeley, CA and then in Ashland, OR. In addition, in Ashland, OR, she was the cello sectional and chamber music coach for the Youth Symphony of Southern Oregon, and played with the Rogue Valley Symphony, Rogue Opera, and in chamber orchestras. In California, she was also on the faculty of Holy Names College’s Suzuki Program and the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts. She was the cellist in several new music ensembles in Boston, NYC, and London, England, and she received the National Endowment for the Humanities Youth Grant to bring contemporary classical music to new audiences. Beth, a native of NYC, graduated from Brandeis University and trained as a teacher of the Suzuki Method at the School for Strings, NYC.

Connie Hadlock (Violin) of Caldwell, Idaho is officially collecting her well-deserved social security and persi benefits! She began her studies at age 8 after seeing a group play in the Karcher Mall.   Begged her mother and so trading milk and eggs for lesson started with Sensei June Itami, Nampa, ID.  Later on she studied with Walter Cerveny of Caldwell, ID and Lamar Barrus of Rexburg, ID. Her teaching began in 1977 under the founder of the Idaho Suzuki Institute, June Itami.  She has served with the faculty at Suzuki Institutes in Utah, California, Montana, Idaho and Louisiana. For the past 30 + years and at present, she has served as co-director and director of the Idaho Suzuki Institute, now in its 49th year. In 2005, she was able to start the first Orchestra at her high school alma mater, Vallivue High School, Caldwell, ID.  Three years were spent teaching in the  Caldwell school district, 5-8 Grade Orchestras. For the past 30 years, she has been advisor/coach for Vallivue High School Auxiliary/Dance. She continues teaching  violin/viola lessons in her private studio, performing in various ensembles as well as playing with the Idaho Millennial Choirs & Orchestra. Connie loves spending time traveling with her husband, swimming and traveling so she can keep up with her 6 children, 22 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren. As I reflect on the many years of music in my life, some of the highlights that have deep meaning are  my parents love of music and finding a way to pay for music lessons when times were tough,  meeting Dr. Suzuki for the first time, spending many hours helping students earn money so they can be a part of a musical experience, instilling the love of music into the hearts of many and then watching it continue for another generation, learning from so many seasoned teachers, watching the light turn on in a student when they finally get it, having a student remember you when you were their teacher 30 years ago.  Music is truly the universal language! 

Jefferson Packer (accompanist) received his Master's degree in piano performance from San Francisco State University, where he was a student of William Corbett-Jones.  Previously, Jefferson had earned his undergraduate degree in  Music and Romance Languages and Literatures.  Also an active singer, Jefferson is the bass soloist at Calvary Presbyterian Church in San Francisco and sings frequently with the American Bach Choir, Volti, and Marin Baroque, as well as singing and playing in recitals throughout the Bay Area.

Carla Mary von Weber Hadlock (Conductor) was born into this world along with her identical twin Connie. They separated at an early age as Carla spoke German and Connie English. Very difficult to communicate. Sign language became their way to communicate. Both parents and grandparents were very musical. Her great grandfather was a violin maker in the old country and she felt she should return to her roots. Her uncle von Weber became known for his famous “Hunter’s Chorus.” Carla loves children, and because her sister had all the children, she never married. Because of this tragic uneventful life, she decided to put her heart, soul, and mind into writing children’s music, thus forming Orchestras all over the world. Carla is also an animal lover, becoming attached to many family pets. She claims it is in her genes. She is however, the only survivor in her household. Music has always been running through her veins. Getting up there in years with her eyesight fading and hearing loss, Carla still loves composing. Carla teaches at many institutes throughout the United States and Germany.