The Instructor
Valerie has over seventeen years experience teaching private music lessons. The daughter of a gifted Suzuki piano teacher, she began piano at age four and Suzuki violin at age ten. She grew up in Wichita, KS and participated in the Wichita Youth Symphony Orchestras for six years winning the prestigious Youth Talent Award her senior year of high school. For college, she went on to study at the Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri at Kansas City with the Kansas City Symphony Concertmaster Tiberius Klausner and later studied at Wichita State University with pedagogy expert Nancy Luttrell. Teaching experiences include teaching high school English, homeschooling her four children, tutoring for Classical Conversations, and teaching Sunday School. She also practices daily with her own children and understands the real life elements involved in teaching children music. As a member of the Suzuki Association of Americas, she has received specialized training in the Suzuki method and will continue learning through yearly training opportunities.