Aside from practicing and teaching, Gabe is the executive director of The Phoenix Ensemble, an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based nonprofit arts organization dedicated to helping artists and the educational community. His debut solo album, This and That, was released in 2005 to critical acclaim (from his mother and others) and features both jazz and classical music. Other recordings include explorations of klezmer with Into the Freylakh (The Shape of Klez to Come), of the nuevo tango music of Astor Piazzolla (The Oblivion Project Live), children's folk music with the children's-music group Gemini (The Orchestra Is Here to Play), and contemporary music of composers such as Xenakis and Boulez (and slightly younger composers including Gabe) with his former group Non Sequitur (Non Sequitur).

Gabe has been a guest artist at schools and workshops across the country. These schools include Harvard, Dartmouth, Brandeis, and Princeton as well as other less fancy colleges and many Suzuki institutes. He has also taught workshops on improvisation and composition to nearly 5,000 students in Aspen, Colorado, and the Walden School in New Hampshire.

He previously served as assistant director for Strings Attached, an intensive string program for children in inner city Cleveland, and as assistant to Donald Weilerstein at the Cleveland Institute of Music. In Ann Arbor, Gabe teaches thirty private students. While away from his violin, Gabe enjoys sleeping, eating, and talking to Suzuki teachers.

Jenny has been a Suzuki violin clinician at over 100 workshops and institutes across the United States. She served 3-year term on the national board of the Suzuki Association of the Americas (SAA) from 1996-1999. She served as the Chair of the SAA Regional and Local Associations Committee from 1992-1995, during which she wrote a column about Associations in the American Suzuki Journal. Jenny presented on panels given at the 2002, 2003 and 2004 SAA Teachers Conferences. Ms. Burton is a Past President of the North Texas Suzuki Association (NTSA), which she helped form in 1994. Jenny was the Co-Director of the TCU Suzuki Institute Fort Worth from 1999-2000. Ms. Burton was awarded the Outstanding Violin Teacher Award at the Colorado Suzuki Institute in June, 2001 and was given the Distinguished Service Award by the NTSA in October, 2005. In 2006, she published Sharpen Your Tools, a practice companion for Suzuki parents and teachers. This book helps beginning students polish and refine techniques in Suzuki Book 1 through Etude. Copies of the book will be available at the workshop.

Ms. Burton enjoys walking, bird watching, gardening, softball, cats, SCRABBLE, writing, collecting shells and papermaking. Jenny has an extensive baseball card collection, including a 1970’s softball card of herself as an All-Star of the Stevens Point Softball Association. Ms. Burton is a member of the Order of St. Luke, a multi-denominational healing ministry and plays with the Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra.

Michele Higa George (violin)

Michele Higa George received early training in violin and piano from Juanita Cummins in Southern California. In 1977, she received a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Southern California (USC) where she was a student of Alice Shoenfeld. Michele received Suzuki pedagogy instruction from Dr. Phyllis Glass at USC and taught the Suzuki method in the USC preparatory division and at the University of California at Northridge.

After leaving California, she established a Suzuki string program in the Baltimore City Public Schools. In 1980, Mrs. George moved to Matsumoto, Japan to study at the Talent Education Institute with Dr. Shinichi Suzuki. She graduated from the teacher-training program there in 1982, and returned to the U.S. to teach at both the Preucil School of Music in Iowa City, and Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa.

In 1986, Michele George was appointed to the faculty of The Cleveland Institute of Music as Director of Suzuki Studies where she designed and implemented a Master of Music degree program in violin performance and Suzuki pedagogy. She served in that position from 1986 to 2003. Michele is a registered teacher trainer for the Suzuki Association of the Americas, and as served as a member of that association's executive board. She is also executive producer of the film, Nurtured By Love-- the life and work of Shinichi Suzuki. Ms. George is a frequent guest clinician at workshops for teachers and children throughout the world, and has taught in Africa, Taiwan, Costa Rica, Japan, Australia, and most states and provinces in the U.S. and Canada. She was the keynote speaker at the Suzuki Association of the Americas Leadership Retreat in 2003, and conference in 2004.

Recently, Michele George has devoted her energies to developing Suzuki string programs at both Chambers Elementary School in the inner city of East Cleveland and in Arusha, Tanzania near the great Serengeti National Park. She spent a month in Zimbabwe 2004 beginning a Suzuki program in Harare. Her most recent pursuit is teaching pre-school at Laurel School in Shaker Heights, Ohio, where daughter, Emiko, is a third-grader.

Carrie Reuning-Hummel (violin faculty and teacher training course)

Carrie Reuning-Hummel began the study of violin at the age of five with her parents, Joan and Sanford Reuning in Ithaca, New York. She was one of the first Suzuki students in the U.S. and studied with Shinichi Suzuki on numerous occasions. Carrie is very active as both a Suzuki teacher and as a registered Suzuki Teacher Trainer. She has taught at hundreds of institutes and workshops throughout the continental U.S. as well as in Canada, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Mexico, and Israel. Carrie received a B.A. in psychology from the University of Iowa and is now a professional violist. She served on the national Board of Directors of the Suzuki Association of the Americas for six years. Carrie homeschooled her two children and is especially interested in exploring parent/child practice partnerships with families. Her book about practicing is called Time to Practice: A Companion for Parents.

Edward Kreitman (violin, Every Child Can!© An Introduction to Suzuki Education)

Edward Kreitman is the founder and Director of the Western Springs School of Talent Education. Mr. Kreitman received his undergraduate degree from Western Illinois University where he studied Suzuki Pedagogy with Doris Preucil and Almita Vamos. In 1986, he studied at the Talent Education Summer School with Dr. Suzuki in Matsumoto, Japan.

Mr. Kreitman has served the Suzuki Association of the Americas in many capacities including a member of the Board of Directors, Violin Committee, and Coordinator for several Suzuki Method Teachers Conferences. Presently he is a member of the SAA teacher development team. He is well known throughout the United States and Canada as a guest clinician at Suzuki institutes and workshops. Mr. Kreitman is a registered Teacher Trainer of the Suzuki Association of the Americas. Mr. Kreitman is the author of Teaching from the Balance Point - A Guide for Suzuki Parents, Teachers, and Students. (more details) (ordering information)

Pamela Martin (piano accompaniment)

One of our workshop accompanists, Pamela received her undergraduate degree in piano performance from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, her Master's from the University of Maryland and was fortunate indeed to do her post-graduate study with Irwin Freundlich in New York City. Since 1991, Pam has been a private studio instructor in piano, music theory, chamber music, and piano ensemble. She is a founding member of the music group Cirrus and member of Latzanich-Martin Piano. The founding president of Coweta-Fayette Music Teachers Association, Pam is married to Christopher Martin. They have two grown sons and two dogs.

Rick Mooney (cello)

Rick has served on the Board of Directors and on the Cello Committee with the Suzuki Association of the Americas. He has authored several pedagogical books including “Double Stops for Cello,” and “Position Pieces for Cello.” Mr. Mooney is also founder/director of the National Cello Institute, which holds workshops each summer, an annual Winter Suzuki Cello Workshop and has a Publications division, which specializes in arrangements and original compositions for cello ensemble. A founding member of Quatracelli!, Rick has had several solo appearances with the Claremont Community Orchestra and the Claremont Chamber Orchestra. He has performed with the Inland Empire Symphony Orchestra, the Claremont Concert Orchestra, and he freelances throughout the Southern California area.

Kimberly Meier-Sims (violin)

Director of Sato Center for Suzuki Studies, Kimberly Meier-Sims received a Bachelor of Music degree in education and violin performance from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and a Master of Arts degree in violin performance from Western Illinois University. Her teachers have included John Kendall, Allen Ohmes, and Almita Vamos. She has taken long term Suzuki training with John Kendall, Almita Vamos, and Doris Preucil. The summer of 1986 she studied violin and pedagogy with Dr. Shinichi Suzuki. Ms. Meier-Sims was a full time violin instructor at the Preucil School of Music (1984-1996). At The University of Memphis Scheidt School of Music (1996-2004) she was a member of the music faculty conducting the graduate Suzuki pedagogy program, coordinating the Suzuki String Prep Program, and directing the Suzuki String Summer Institute. She held positions in the Cedar Rapids Symphony (1984-1996) and was a frequent sub in the Memphis Symphony. She has published articles in the American Suzuki Journal and the Tennessee Musician. In 2001 she won Tennessee's ''Outstanding Teacher Award'' and the ''Tennessee Governor's School Award.'' She has taught at Suzuki institutes and workshops throughout the U.S. and Ireland. In 2002 she was the violin coordinator for the American Suzuki Conference in Minneapolis. She was appointed to the Cleveland Institute of Music faculty in 2004.

April Pettus (pre-orchestra for Book 1 students)

Doris Bogen Preucil (teacher seminar/violin)

Doris is the founder and Director Emeritus of the Preucil School of Music. An honors graduate of the Eastman School of Music, she was a violinist with the National Symphony and the Rochester Philharmonic. She has served on the faculties of Western Illinois University, the University of Northern Iowa, and Interlochen Arts Camp, and performed and presented workshops throughout the United States and in Canada, Europe, Australia, Japan, and Korea. A Suzuki teacher since 1963, she is the author of the Suzuki Viola School, and a Past President of the Suzuki Association of the Americas. She was named "Teacher of the Year" by the Iowa String Teachers Association in 2005 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Eastman School in 2004.

Aaron Wunsch, (piano accompaniment)

Praised for his bold interpretive skills and communicative sensitivity, pianist Aaron Wunsch appears regularly on concert stages throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia. He has performed in Avery Fisher and Alice Tully Halls at Lincoln Center, Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, and as soloist with the Yale and Colonial symphonies, among others. A ten-city solo recital tour of China garnered critical acclaim and enthusiastic audience responses. Lauded for his “masterful” chamber music performances (Hartford Courant), he has appeared at the Norfolk, Bowdoin, Sarasota, Great Lakes, and Yellow Barn chamber music festivals, collaborating in performance with great artists including cellist Lynn Harrell, clarinetist Charles Neidich, violinist Rolf Schulte, and the New York Woodwind Quintet. Also a vigorous proponent of contemporary music, he has worked closely with many renowned composers, including Charles Wuorinen, Fred Lerdahl, and Kaija Saariaho, and has performed recent works by Saariaho and John Adams during Tanglewood’s Festival of Contemporary Music. These performances and others, including many world premieres, can be heard on major radio stations, including WGBH in Boston and WQXR in New York. In January, 2004, he performed Charles Ives’ monumental Concord Sonata during the Lincoln Center Focus! Festival and was subsequently invited to perform it at the Salle Cortot in Paris, France. While in London he performed and recorded for commercial CD six exciting new works by young composers inspired by Anton Webern’s Concerto for Nine Instruments, op. 24.

A native of Wisconsin, Mr. Wunsch began his studies at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, which awarded him the school’s First Prize for five consecutive years. Afterwards he studied with many renowned pianists, including Peter Frankl, Andras Schiff, Claude Frank, Emmanuel Ax, Steven Kovacevich, Seymour Lipkin, Jerome Lowenthal, and Joseph Kalichstein. Mr. Wunsch received his Bachelor’s degree cum laude from Yale University, which granted him the Henry Hart Rice Prize for the best essay in International Studies, entitled “The Impact of Ideologies upon the Formation of Music.” He then received a Fulbright Grant for further studies at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, where he studied piano under renowned pedagogue Karlheinz Kämmerling, and he later completed his Master’s and Doctoral degrees at The Juilliard School under pianist Robert McDonald. He also performs on the harpsichord, having studied it under Lionel Party at Juilliard.

An accomplished teacher, Mr. Wunsch is currently a faculty member at both Juilliard and at William Paterson University. He also frequently lectures about American music, most recently at the Schola Cantorum in Paris. In the summer of 2004 he gave six weeks of master classes at conservatories and universities throughout China, including those in Beijing, Guangzhou, Nanning, and Guilin, and in the summer of 2007 he was a guest artist and faculty member at the Jakarta International Summer Music Festival in Jakarta, Indonesia.