Rick Mooney (1953-2023)
Founder
Rick Mooney grew up in a musical family where he began studying piano at age 5 and cello at age 8. His principle cello teachers were Victor Sazer and Eleanore Schoenfeld. He studied Suzuki teaching methods with Phyllis Glass at USC and traveled to Japan in the spring of 1976. As a specialist in the Suzuki method of teaching, Mr. Mooney was a guest teacher at many institutes and workshops throughout the United States, Canada, Asia, England, Australia and New Zealand. He was active with the Suzuki Association of the Americas, serving on the Board of Directors, on the Cello Committee and writing for the American Suzuki Journal. He was also the founder and director of the National Cello Institute which sponsors a Summer Institute, a Winter Workshop and publishes music for cello ensembles.
Peter Kibbe
Managing Director
Peter Kibbe, son of Los Angeles and proud citizen of Baltimore, was raised in a family of musicians and composers, and in addition to studying and playing with some of the finest teachers, coaches, and performers on both coasts of the US, he currently enjoys a career as an orchestral and chamber musician in and around Baltimore. Owing to his start in the west, and the training given him by his teachers Rachael Lonergan, John Walz, and Andrew Cook, Mr. Kibbe has had the privilege of working with several of today’s respected performers and conductors, including Michael Tilson Thomas, Kent Nagano, Grant Gershon, Stevie Wonder, Patti LaBelle and John Legend, to name a few. He has performed orchestrally for capacity audiences across the United States and parts of Europe, including acclaimed concerts at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and Carnegie Hall in New York. Having completed his studies with premier cellist Alan Stepansky at The Peabody Institute, Peter is currently a member of several ensembles in Baltimore, including The Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, which performs a diverse range of classical and romantic era pieces, and he is a founding member of Pique Collective (www.piquecollective.org), an acclaimed chamber group dedicated to uncommon music in uncommon venues. In addition to preserving the American ragtime tradition by touring with the Peacherine Ragtime Society Orchestra, who present live showings of black and white films with a period theater orchestra, Peter also enjoys contributing to cutting edge new music, by performing with Mind on Fire, a large modular ensemble dedicated to performing premiers, commissions, and hot new music, as well as Naked Eye Ensemble, who commission new works for mixed ensemble from all over the US. Mr. Kibbe has enjoyed finding himself in many varied and eclectic performance settings during his career, including symphony halls, historic cathedrals, coffee houses, summer festivals, recording studios, night clubs, libraries, grassy fields, cruise ships, kindergartens and amphitheaters, and is always glad to play for open ears. He happily plays on a 2004 Cremonese instrument made by Roberto Collini.
Amy Barston
Praised as “passionate and elegant” by The New York Times, cellist Amy Sue Barston has performed as soloist and chamber musician on stages throughout the world, including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Ravinia, Caramoor, Haan Hall (Jerusalem), The Banff Centre (Canada), The Power House (Australia), and Prussia Cove (England). She has performed Osvaldo Golijovs Omaramor in twenty international cities, receiving twenty consecutive standing ovations. Of the world premiere of Ned Rorems Aftermath at Ravinia, The Chicago Sun-Times wrote: “the deep, rich tones of Barston’s cello haunted the vocal line like a sorrowing vision.” At seventeen she appeared as soloist with the Chicago Symphony on live television, and won Grand Prize in the Society of American Musicians Competition. She studied with Eleonore Schoenfeld at USC and Joel Krosnick at The Juilliard School, where she earned her Masters degree and is assistant faculty. Amy is also the cellist of the Corigliano Quartet, who S trad Magazine hailed as having “abundant commitment and mastery,” and who’s recent Naxos CD was ranked one of the top two CDs of the year by both the New Yorker and Gramophone Magazine. Above all, she is a devoted teacher; her students commute hundreds of miles for lessons and occasionally come from as far as Alaska, Brazil, and Japan. www.amybarston.com.
Lynn Burrows
Lynn Burrows (BM,MM) has taught at the California State University Suzuki String Program, the Hollywood Jewish Community Center, the Pasadena Conservatory of Music, and for decades in her private studio. She is the founder and former director of the Youngstown Suzuki Program, the Peterborough Suzuki Strings Program, and Inland Valley Music Together. She has been a regular clinician, teaching at the American Suzuki Institute, the Seattle/Japan Institute, the San Diego Suzuki Clinic, and the National Cello Institute since 1991. She has enjoyed performing orchestral repertoire with the Youngstown Symphony, the Pomona College Orchestra, and the Claremont Concert Orchestra; chamber music with the Kinnor Trio and the Yushiani Trio; and Celtic music with the Gold Ring and Drowsy Maggie.
Dr. Carey Alain Cheney
Dr. Carey Alain Cheney, a native of Canada, has been teaching and performing for 38 years. She is a Registered Teacher Trainer of Cello for the Suzuki Association of the Americas, and author/recording artist of the series of books and audio recordings (eight volumes), Solos For Young Cellists published by Summy-Birchard (Alfred Music Inc.).
She holds the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in Cello Performance from University of Utah. For her Bachelor and Master of Music, she studied cello and pedagogy at the university of Texas, Austin with Phyllis Young. She also studied in Germany for 2 years with Andre Navarra. She has had much international teaching and playing experience, in Europe, Canada, Costa Rica, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. She currently resides in Salt Lake City, Utah where she maintains a large cello studio with her cellist-husband Elliott Cheney. She teaches all over the US and Canada at weekend and summer workshops and is in high demand for her work in teacher seminars such as Nurturing Artistry in Young Cellists.
She was a guest teacher at the 1999 World Suzuki Conference in Matsumoto, Japan the 2006 World Suzuki Conference in Turin, Italy, taught at the 2008, 2012, 2013 Hamilton Summer Suzuki String Institute in Rotorua, New Zealand, and at the 2012, and 2013 STEAA Professional Development Conference in Sydney, Australia, 2012 and 2013 Sydney Summer School, and was Guest Presenter at the 2018 National Suzuki Conference of the Suzuki Association of Australia (STEAA). She was a regular teacher at the Festival International Universidad Panamericana, and Festival Viva Musica in 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018 in Mexico City, Mexico. She was a guest presenter at the Second Mexican National Suzuki Conference in Morelia City, Mexico in 2015 and was a guest teacher at the First Suzuki Convention of the Americas in Cancun, Mexico in 2019. She most recently presented her books/recordings in her Nurturing Artistry in Young Cellists seminar in Malmö, Sweden at the ESTA Conference in 2019. Most recently she was a guest lecturer/teacher at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, CA.
A frequent adjudicator at the Kiwanis Music Festivals throughout Canada, Carey also enjoys coaching and mentoring young musicians in competitive settings, as well as in workshops and clinics. She has served as a Royal Conservatory of Music/Toronto, Canada, consultant in the revisions of the cello syllabi in the RCM’s Music Development Series.
Pamela Devenport
Internationally recognized lecturer and master teacher Pamela Devenport teaches Long Term Cello Suzuki Pedagogy at the School for Strings, New York, NY, and at Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA. Ms. Devenport has shared her unique blend of expertise and experience with hundreds of people in the Suzuki Community throughout the world. She has recently published her first book, Cellostart available through United Writers Press.
Well known and respected as a Suzuki workshop and institute teacher, Ms. Devenport has toured extensively in the United States and Canada, and has been a guest speaker on many occasions, including the National Cello Institute, the American String Teachers Association, several Suzuki Association National Conferences, the World Cello Congress, and guest faculty/lecturer at International Conferences in Australia, Italy, New Zealand and Great Britain.
Ms. Devenport is a Suzuki Association of the Americas Registered Cello Teacher Trainer, and is collegiate faculty at Georgia State University. Ms. Devenport holds a Masters Degree in Cello Performance from the Hartt School, where she later became Chair of Strings of the Hartt Community Division, cello faculty of the Hartt School Collegiate Division, and developed the curriculum of Suzuki Cello Pedagogy in the graduate school. In addition, she holds Diploma from the Professional Studies Program at the Barbara Brennan School of Energy Healing, and is currently pursuing a diploma from the Center for Intentional Living, Danbury, CT., and a diploma in Advanced Studies in Brennan Integration Work in Miami.
Rodney Farrar
Cellist Rodney Farrar, a native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. He later studied at the Eastman School of Music and Indiana University with noted cellists Ronald Leonard and Janos Starker. It was at Oberlin, however, that Rodney was impelled toward a music career by the passionate teaching of a young Peter Howard, long time Twin Cities cellist, to whom he is deeply grateful. After a year with the Rochester(NY) Philharmonic Orchestra Rodney enjoyed the first nine years of a teaching career as cello instructor at the University of Kentucky where he performed frequently in recital and as cellist with that school’s resident chamber ensembles. He was also able to solo on several occasions with the university orchestra and the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra of which he was principal cellist. Rodney later taught at the Crane School of Music in Potsdam, New York, summer sessions at the University of Illinois and the Brevard Music Festival in North Carolina. Rodney has long had a special love for teaching children and has been privileged to be involved in the development of Suzuki cello teaching from its beginning in this country. With a teaching style which attempts to minimize judgment and bring the pure joy of musical expression, he has brought excitement to young cellists at hundreds of workshops and institutes throughout the U.S. and Canada. In March of 2008 he was honored to be a guest of the Talent Education Research Institute in Tokyo where he held master classes and group lessons and directed the cello portion of their 52nd annual Grand Concert. Rodney has published a number of mixed level cello choir arrangements which have become popular with teachers around the country. Many are available on the CD Fat Notes Cellobration and can be heard at Fatnotes.com. Rodney now lives in Littleton, Colorado with his wife, two children and two grandchildren. He enjoys working with a class of wonderful private students and still pursues an active schedule of teaching workshops.
Avi Friedlander
Well known as a Suzuki cello workshop and institute clinician, Avi Friedlander teaches a variety of methods from classical to jazz and rock. Mr. Friedlander is the director of the Barston Suzuki Center at the Music Institute of Chicago, a Suzuki teacher trainer and teaches string pedagogy at the University of North Florida and Northwestern University. He holds Masters and Bachelors degrees in cello performance from The University of Michigan and pursued his professional studies degree from The Cleveland Institute of Music. Mr. Friedlander is the former Assistant Principal cellist of the Atlanta Opera, former member of The New World Symphony and former professor of Cello at Emory University in Atlanta. His primary teachers have included Anthony Elliott, Stephen Geber, Irene Sharp, Tanya Carey and David Premo and he has also worked with Richard Aaron, Hans Jensen, Janos Starker and Bernard Greenhouse. Mr. Friedlander has studied improvisation methods with Eugene Friesen from the Berkley College, Stephan Braun from Berlin and Tim Kliphuis from Amsterdam. In addition to his own compositions, Mr. Friedlander writes his own arrangements for solo cello of rock tunes from Jimi Hendrix to Pearl Jam and is the author of his method books, “chopping around” and “pizzing around”, which introduce alternative styles to cellist. In his free time, Mr. Friedlander loves to read, play hockey and spend time with his family. On top of his cello teaching career, Mr. Friedlander is also an USA Hockey certified coach and coaches youth travel hockey.
Abbey Hansen
Cellist, artist-teacher and Suzuki Association of the Americas (SAA) registered Cello Teacher Trainer, Abbey Hansen, maintains an active teaching and performing schedule in the Cleveland area where she has lived and taught since 2016. As founder and director of Cleveland Cello School, Ms. Hansen maintains a full and active studio of cello students ages 3 and up and their families. In addition to her work with Suzuki students, she conducts a two-year graduate Suzuki teacher-training program, part of a unique dual Master’s degree in Cello Performance and Suzuki Pedagogy at the Cleveland Institute of Music.
Prior to her appointment at CIM, Ms. Hansen served on faculty at the Music Institute of Chicago, Rockford College Music Academy, Community School of the Arts at Northern Illinois University and Music Academy at Lawrence University. An in-demand guest clinician, Ms. Hansen has taught and lectured at workshops and institutes from coast to coast. Ms. Hansen has also performed in several chamber music ensembles in the Chicagoland area and has been featured on faculty and alumni recitals throughout the Midwest. In 2006, she had the privilege of performing in a friendship concert at the Suzuki Talent Education Institute in Matsumoto, Japan. In 2016 Ms. Hansen became the youngest ever registered Suzuki Cello Teacher Trainer. She is also the recipient of the Suzuki Association of the Americas’ Certificate of Achievement for excellence in Suzuki education.
Patty Hicks
Patty Hicks lives in Orange, California. Patty holds a Bachelor of Music degree from CSU Fullerton. She taught for six years in the public schools before turning her attention full time to private studio teaching. She works with students at many levels and ages. Patty has a passion for chamber music and loves coaching cello ensembles. She is the cellist of the Santiago String Quartet. Her other interests include photography, hiking, gardening, reading and having fun with her two cats.
Matthew Keating
Matthew Keating has 26 years of experience in solo cello performance, chamber music, orchestral performance, arranging, private teaching, and conducting.
Mr. Keating started his music studies at the age of 8 at the Claremont Community School of Music, where he studied with Ana Maria Maldonado. Over his ten years of study there, he developed a lifelong love of cello, chamber music, and performing.
Mr. Keating holds a Bachelor of Music Degree in orchestral studies and cello performance from California State University Northridge, where he attended on a full merit-based music scholarship. While at CSUN, Mr. Keating was part of the Honors String Quartet, played with the American Youth Symphony, the Debut Orchestra, and studied with notable cellists David Aks and Diane Rosetti. He continued his studies in Trossingen, Germany at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik, where he studied cello performance under renowned Japanese cellist Sadao Harada and orchestral conducting under the tutelage of Herr Manfred Schreier.
After his time in Germany, Matthew traveled to Hawaii and began performing as cellist in the Honolulu Symphony. While performing with the Honolulu symphony, Matthew toured to the various Hawaiian Islands working with the community and bringing live orchestral performances to unique, non-traditional public venues. Matthew also served as a full-time director of the orchestra program at the Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii, working with over 500 students in eight different orchestras, 5th grade -12th grade. He also founded the elementary orchestra program in the Moanalua public school district, taught K-6th grade music at the Hanahau`oli School, and worked as an adjunct professor at Hawaii Pacific University.
After Hawaii, Mr. Keating returned to Los Angeles, where he continued to perform and teach cello, with a particular emphasis in chamber music. During his time in Los Angeles, Matthew has recorded albums, recorded with artists, acted as a guest lecturer at California State University Northridge and was invited to be guest conductor for the San Bernardino County Honors High School Youth Orchestra. Mr. Keating’s cello can be heard in movies and network television shows as well. He continues performing throughout Southern California as a soloist and chamber music artist and is currently the adjunct cello instructor at the University of La Verne. Mr. Keating is also the recipient of the prestigious 2018 CSUN Volunteer Service Award recognizing his contribution to arts and service in the community.
In 2013, Matthew Keating was hired as the Executive Director of the Claremont Community School of Music, where he has served for over 10 years. As the Executive Director, Mr. Keating not only has a private teaching studio for cello, but also teaches group cello classes, conducts the Prelude Symphonic Ensemble youth orchestra program, and assists in the musical development of the 1,000 students that currently attend the school of music. During his tenure with the school of music, Mr. Keating has cultivated a jazz program, a chamber music program and tirelessly fundraised tens of thousands of dollars for the School of Music community fund to allow every child that wishes to study music the opportunity to do so.
Mr. Keating lives in Claremont with his wife Jessica and their two daughters, Colette and Clara.
Sarah Koo
Cellist Sarah Koo is currently the visiting professor of cello performance at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music, continuing lecturer in cello performance and chamber music at the University of California, Irvine, and on the cello faculty of The Colburn School’s Community School of Performing Arts. Ms. Koo is known not only for her solo and chamber performances, but also as an avid educator and outreach advocate. Ms. Koo graduated with her Master and Bachelor of Music degrees from The Juilliard School where she was the recipient of the William Schumann Award.
Ms. Koo was recently named as one of the “Top 100 Most Influential People” by the Orange County Register for her efforts to utilize music as a means of outreach and fostering this within her teaching. Ms. Koo was recently featured in San Diego Magazine after performing with her students at the Mexico border in an effort to use music to unite families divided by the border. Ms. Koo appeared in the “Robb Report” magazine and a cover picture and story in the “Residential Systems” magazine for her interests in bringing classical music back to the home as a primary means of entertainment. Her avid desire to increase classical music interest has led Ms. Koo to become involved in many outreach and educational organizations. Her involvement with the Community Service Fellowship at Juilliard, bringing performances to confined groups of people (e.g. nursing homes, cancer wards, etc.), has allowed her to encourage the genesis of similar programs by proposing ideas to different organizations throughout the United States.
Ms. Koo toured Italy and Europe with the Symfonica Arturo Toscanini under the direction of Maestro Lorin Maazel. Following her time in Europe, she served as the Assistant Principal Cellist of the Phoenix Symphony. Ms. Koo, an outreach advocate, served as a teaching artist with the New York Philharmonic and brought music education to the public schools of New York.
In her free time, Sarah Koo enjoys exploring the world and creating memories with her husband, Bramwell, and her three children, Joseph, Derek and Jae.
Beth Goldstein-Mckee
Beth Goldstein-McKee 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 taught at International Conferences in Japan and Peru. Recently having moved to Western PA, Beth is delighted to be starting a new generation of cello students at Hope Academy in Pittsburgh, at the Hoyt Center for the Arts in New Castle, and in her private studio in New Wilmington.
Beth maintained thriving cello studios on the west coast for over thirty years, most recently in Ashland, OR where she performed with the Rogue Valley Symphony and previously in Berkeley, CA where she was also on the faculty of Holy Names College’s Suzuki Program and East Bay Center for the Performing Arts. As the cellist in contemporary music ensembles in Boston, NYC and London, Beth premiered cello and chamber music works, and received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Polaroid Foundation to bring new music to wider audiences. A native of NYC and graduate of Brandeis University, she trained in Suzuki pedagogy at the School for Strings, NYC.
Julie Newton
Julie Newton is an alumna of the National Cello Institute, having attended herself as a young student. Her professional journey included serving as Co-Chair of the Suzuki Strings Department at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music, collaborating closely with her mentor, Rick Mooney. She was also a faculty member at the Pasadena Waldorf School.
Julie’s passion for teaching extends to her love for working with students at workshops and institutes. Alongside her teaching endeavors, she developed her playing through freelance performances with notable artists in the popular music scene.
Julie’s orchestral experience includes having served as principal cello with the Orchestra at Temple Square and Utah Chamber Artists in Salt Lake City, where she also took on leadership responsibilities for the Suzuki Association of Utah.
Currently based in Arizona, Julie operates a private studio, still enjoying nurturing the next generation of cellists. She also serves as principal cello with Millennial Choirs and Orchestras, providing her with ongoing performance opportunities.
Julie graduated from Brigham Young University and followed up with graduate studies at California State University, Long Beach. Beyond her musical endeavors, she finds joy in playing tennis, traveling, and spending quality time with her husband, children and grandchildren.
Melissa Solomon
Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Melissa Solomon grew up in a family of professional musicians where she developed an early passion for both performance and teaching. She immigrated to the United States to study at Interlochen Arts Academy and later graduated from the Juilliard School. Ms. Solomon completed her Suzuki training with Pamela Devenport, Nancy Hair, Sally Gross, Carol Tarr and Jean Dexter, and Rick Mooney. She now serves as faculty throughout the US at Festivals, Workshops and Institutes.
Melissa believes the joy of creative expression is inherent in every child. Awakening and cultivating this joy is her vocation. In addition to teaching, Melissa has a love of playing. She has performed solo and chamber music throughout the United States, Europe and South Africa. Melissa lives and teaches in Austin, Texas where she has her private cello studio, directs her South Austin Cello Choir and plays chamber music. When she is not teaching or playing the cello, she loves to wood-carve, write, draw, hike, camp, play games, ride bikes, chat and laugh with family, friends and her two delightful children ages 12 and 10.
Barbara Wampner
Barbara Wampner is active as a registered Suzuki cello teacher trainer and has a private studio of approximately twenty cello students, age four to adult, in the San Francisco Bay Area and teaches at the Suzuki School of Music at Dominican University of California in San Rafael . Currently, she collaborates in cello pedagogy sessions at the SF Conservatory of Music. An active clinician for summer institutes and workshops in the US and abroad, she serves on the SAA Cello Committee. She holds a B.M.E. degree from Northwestern University and an M.A. degree from San Francisco State University with cello studies with Margaret Rowell. In 1976 she received a teacher certificate from Dr. Suzuki at the Talent Education Institute in Matsumoto, Japan. For thirteen years she taught instrumental music in the San Francisco Unified School District middle schools.
Nancy Yamagata
Nancy Yamagata began her cello studies in Los Angeles with internationally renowned pedagogue Eleonore Schoenfeld. She received a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music where she was awarded the Outstanding Graduate in 1978.
Ms. Yamagata has concertized extensively as a chamber musician with the Young International Trio, winning prizes in the 1974 and 1975 Coleman Chamber Music Competition. She is a founding member of the Marina Ensemble who in 2014 celebrated their 30th anniversary by performing a commissioned work by composer/pedagogue Michael McLean.
In 1986 Ms. Yamagata was awarded the SHAR Distinguished Young Teacher Award by the Suzuki Association of the Americas and has served as a presenter and Cello Coordinator of the biennial SAA Conference.
Ms. Yamagata is the cello coordinator of the Suzuki String Program at the Colburn Community School of Performing Arts. She has directed the Chamber Music Workshop at the Los Angeles Suzuki Institute and has served on the Board of the Suzuki Music Association of California. In addition, Ms. Yamagata has taught at numerous institutes and workshops throughout the United States and Canada and is on the faculty at the National Cello Institute at Claremont.