| 2004 Institute Faculty
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Meet the Faculty Loren Abramson has taught instrumental strings for the Parkway School District Shenandoah Valley Elementary School in West St. Louis County for thirteen years and has also has assisted at the middle and high school levels. She maintains a private violin studio and is an active performer in the greater St. Louis area. Ms. Abramson, a nationally recognized Suzuki clinician, has served on the faculty on many summer institutes and winter workshops. She has a Bachelor of Music Degree from Ithaca College and a Master of Arts Degree from Lindenwood College. She received her Suzuki training from Sanford Reuning and John Kendall. Loren enjoys running with Molly, her golden retriever, swimming, and eating chocolate in whatever spare time she can find. Suzanne Brookes Rickman grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, and started playing the violin at age 10. She received her undergraduate degree in violin performance at DePaul University in 1989, where she was introduced to Suzuki Pedagogy. She has studied under Mark Zinger, Hilel Kagan, Gilda Barston, Yuko Honda, Craig Timmerman, Alice Joy Lewis, Allen Lieb, Ed Kreitman, Tom Wermuth, and Linda Case. She is a frequent guest clinician at weekend workshops in the Chicago area, and has taught at the American Suzuki Institute, the Memphis Suzuki Institute, and the Atlanta Suzuki Institute. Suzanne teaches at the Western Springs School of Talent Education, and runs her own Suzuki program in Chicago’s south suburbs. She also enjoys playing in the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra, and freelancing throughout the Chicagoland area. She is married to violin maker, Gary Rickman, and plays a violin made by him in 1994. She also has two very cute cats named Michaelangelo and Lorenzo. Lorraine Fink started playing violin at age 3, and went on to earn her Bachelors at San Francisco State University and her Masters in Violin Performance at West Virginia University. She teaches at the Colburn School of Performing Arts in Los Angeles, and is a Suzuki Association Registered Teacher Trainer. Kevin Horne studied with Jascha Brodsky at the New School of Music in Philadelphia and with Linda Cerone at the Cleveland Institute of Music. After performing in several and orchestral ensembles in Philadelphia he attended the American Suzuki Institute at Stevens Point with Ed Kreitman. He then continued his teacher training up to book 7 with Linda Fiore, Martha Shackford, and Cathy Lee. He became a sought after Suzuki teacher in Philadelphia teaching at the Darlington Fine Arts School, the Sibelius Academy and his home studio. From 1999-2002 Mr. Horne was the Suzuki Department Head at the Wilmington Music School, in Delaware. Currently he maintains a full studio as a member of the Ann Arbor Suzuki Institute, and teaches at the Great Lakes Suzuki Institute in Canada. Alison Lawson is president of Corda Entertainment, an entertainment company that book professional musicians for any occasion. She is also founder of the Corda Quartet. Mrs. Lawson is Assistant Principal Second Violin of the Greensboro Symphony. She has performed many years with the Winston-Salem Piedmont Triad Symphony and the Carolina Chamber Symphony. She has freelanced with the Charlotte Symphony and the North Carolina Symphony with which she toured to Carnegie Hall. She has been teaching violin for many years and is an active guest clinician for area workshops and the American Suzuki Institute in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Mrs. Lawson received her BM and MM in performance from the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, NC where she studied with the late Elaine Richey. Carolyn Mead holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the University of Michigan, and Western Illinois University, where she studied long term Suzuki teacher training with Dr. Tanya Carey. She has taught public school strings, orchestra and private studio in Nebraska, Wyoming, and California. She currently has a private cello studio in Rochester, Minnesota. Kimberly Meier-Sims is the Suzuki String Program Coordinator at the University of Memphis and Director of the University of Memphis Suzuki String Summer Institute. A registered Suzuki Teacher Trainer since 1988, she conducts long-term teacher training classes at the University of Memphis. 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 Masters 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 to 1996 Ms. Meier-Sims was a violin instructor at the Preucil School of Music in Iowa City. An active performer, Ms. Meier-Sims plays with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and has held the positions of associate principal second violin and first violin in the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra. She was the Violin Coordinator for the 2002 10th SAA National Conference in Minneapolis. Ms. Meier-Sims traveled to Cork, Ireland in February 2000 to do a one week workshop. In April 1999, she attended the Thirteenth World Suzuki Method Convention in Japan. She has taught Suzuki workshops throughout the U.S. and has taught summer institutes in Atlanta (GA), Columbus (OH), Denver (CO), Fort Worth (TX), Hartford (CT), Ithaca (NY), Louisville (KY), Memphis (TN), Spartanburg (SC), Stanford (CA), and Stevens Point (WI). Shelley Weiss was born in Elmhurst, Illinois and started playing viola at age 9. She studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music under Heidi Castleman, receiving a Bachelors Degree in viola performance in 1989. She received a Masters Degree in viola performance from Rutgers University, where she studied with Michael Tree. Rutgers was also a place to stretch out and try new things, so Shelley began experimenting with playing different styles of music and learning jazz improvisation. After receiving her Masters Degree, she followed her dream to live in Europe. Shelley spent two years studying and playing with several professional ensembles in Vienna, Austria. She also had a chance to perform a newly composed work at the International Viola Congress, which was held in Vienna in 1992. Shelly left Vienna in 1993 in order to become acting assistant principal viola of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic (in Indiana) for their ‘93-‘94 season. Summer of ’94 saw her back in Europe, however, playing at the prestigious Spoleto Festival in Italy. She then moved back to Chicago, where she became a very busy freelance violist and took Suzuki Teacher Training with Ed Kreitman. She then took a teaching position at DePaul University, teaching violin and viola in their Suzuki Program from 1998 until 2002. She continued to seek out non-mainstream ensembles and was the violist for the Third Coast String Quartet (a jazz string quartet) and ensemble noamnesia, a group dedicated to presenting new and improvised music. She also began writing music; a string trio of hers was performed in Chicago on a program which also included music by Schubert and Brahms! Shelley now lives in Tallahassee, Florida with her new husband, who is pursuing a graduate degree in statistics. She started her own Suzuki teaching studio and performs with the Tallahassee Symphony, as well as the Jacksonville, Albany and Valdosta Symphonies on occasion. Since moving to the south, she has steeped herself in bluegrass music, joining a folk band called Panhandle String Band, in which she plays bluegrass fiddle and sings. She is excited to be here at ASI! >Back to top |
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