Ryan Caparella serves on the violin and viola faculty of the Western Springs School of Talent Education and Naperville Suzuki School where he maintains a studio of students ages 3-18, leads the Viola Choir and co-directs the Summer Chamber Music Camp.  Prior to moving to Chicago, Ryan taught for the Elizabeth Faidley Studio in New York. 

Ryan holds Masters and Bachelors degrees in Violin Performance from the Hartt School of Music and University of Miami respectively, and has pursued extensive study in violin & viola pedagogy. Ryan completed his Long Term Training in Suzuki Pedagogy with Teri Einfeldt and has pursued additional pedagogy study with Edward Kreitman, Elizabeth Faidley, Thomas Wermuth, and Doris Preucil.  In 2013, Ryan was invited to present at the American String Teachers’ Association National Conference. In 2017, Ryan was a recipient of the Suzuki Association of America's Certificate of Achievement, a designation recognizing teachers with a commitment to life‐long learning and self‐improvement.

Dr. Derek Deakins is a violinist, fiddler, guitarist, banjoist, and National Board Certified teacher originally from Kingsport, Tennessee.

Derek's musical journey began with Suzuki violin lessons as a young child and has taken him around the world as a professional musician. He has performed with major recording artists including Blake Shelton, The Osborne Brothers, and Miranda Lambert. Derek graduated from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, with a Bachelor of Music degree in Instrumental Music Education. He also holds a Master of Music degree in Orchestral Conducting with a Suzuki pedagogy emphasis and a Doctorate in Music Education, where his research centered on aligning Suzuki instruction with bluegrass fiddle pedagogy.  

Derek performs regularly with Gravel Road Bluegrass Band and is a teaching artist and multi-instrumentalist for Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Recently, Derek played fiddle on the #1 bluegrass single, "Forever Young," featuring Dolly Parton and Paul Brewster. He holds the title of Fiddle Champion in the Coastal Carolina Fair's fiddle contest for both 2021 and 2023. Derek enjoys performing with his musician wife, Lisa, and his music-loving son, Kirby, and is proud to be experienced in all three points of the Suzuki triangle: student, teacher, and parent!

Lisa Deakins, a violinist and fiddler based in Charleston, South Carolina, is a versatile musician who performs and teaches nationwide. She has worked with country artists Pam Tillis and Whisperin’ Bill Anderson and performed on iconic stages like the Grand Ole Opry, Song of the Mountains, and the Crook & Chase show. A Suzuki-trained musician in Nashville’s “play-by-ear” culture, Lisa has recorded five albums and won the International Bluegrass Music Association’s “Recorded Event of the Year” award.

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As the owner of Deakins Suzuki Strings, Lisa teaches both classical and alternative fiddling styles. She has also compiled and arranged Fiddlin’ Favorites, a music book series for Suzuki violinists licensed by the International Suzuki Association. Her dedication to teaching excellence earned her the Certificate of Achievement from the Suzuki Association of the Americas.

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Beyond teaching, Lisa performs with her husband in their acoustic duo, Derek & Lisa, across the Southeast. Lisa loves embracing all three points of the Suzuki triangle—student, teacher, and now Suzuki parent to her young violin-playing son—reflecting her deep commitment to the Suzuki philosophy.

Anne Donaldson holds degrees in violin performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with David Updegraff, and from Northwestern University, where she was the teaching assistant of Blair Milton. She has held full-time positions with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra, as well as summer positions with the Britt Festival, the Eastern Music Festival, and the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.

Ms. Donaldson is a member of Sound Impact, an arts-education nonprofit with a mission for mentoring youth through music, and she also plays frequently with the Washington National Opera House Orchestra. She maintains a private violin studio in Washington, DC, and has been a faculty member of the Atlanta, Ithaca, Hartt, and Columbus (Ohio) Suzuki Institutes. Her primary training in the Suzuki Method has been with Carrie Reuning-Hummel and Ronda Cole. In her free time she enjoys hiking, salsa dancing, and playing traditional Irish music.

Dr. Eugenio Figueroa is a registered Suzuki teacher in violin, viola, and piano with the Suzuki Association of the Americas. He currently serves on the faculty of the Hartt Community Division and the New England Conservatory Preparatory Division. A member of the Azul Quartet, he has performed with HICO and various local orchestras in Connecticut, including the Waterbury and Hartford Symphony Orchestras.

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Dr. Figueroa’s commitment to the Suzuki philosophy brought him to Connecticut, where he completed his Master’s Degree in Performance with an emphasis in Suzuki Pedagogy under the guidance of Teri Einfeldt at the Hartt School. His dedication to Suzuki education has led him to teach throughout the United States. He later continued his viola studies, earning a Doctorate in Performance with Rita Porfiris.

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Before moving to Connecticut, he received his Bachelor of Music degree in Viola Performance from the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico, where he also taught in the Pre-College Division and at Puerto Rico’s first Suzuki school, Kids and Musik. Dr. Figueroa has performed with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Bayamón and the Orquesta Filarmónica Arturo Somohano. He has also had the honor of performing with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Santo Domingo and traveled to Iceland in 2015 with the contemporary chamber ensemble Foot in the Door.

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Dr. Figueroa loves teaching the Suzuki method and philosophy, playing in orchestras and chamber ensembles, and accompanying his students on the piano.

Tamara Gonzalez began her musical studies at age 4 as a Suzuki Violin student, and later began viola at age 14. She is a graduate of DePaul University holding B.M & M.M degrees in violin performance with honors. She was an avid freelancer in Chicago, and played regularly with the Chicago Sinfonietta, Rockford Symphony, Classical Symphony & Sphinx Festival Orchestra in Detroit. She was a faculty member at DePaul Community Music, Music Institute of Chicago and Sherwood Community Music School, where she coordinated the Pre-Collegiate and Suzuki programs. 

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Tamara relocated to the Twin Cities in 2014 and has since been a teaching artist at MacPhail Center for Music, working in the Suzuki and School Partnerships departments. She was a Classical MPR ClassNotes artist in 2015 and ClassNotes Conductor 2017-2020. She was appointed as the inaugural conductor for GTCYS Concertino East in 2020 and has served as a guest clinician for school programs and honors festivals across the state. Tamara is currently the strings teacher at The Blake School Upper Elementary, where she runs a Suzuki in the Schools inspired program.

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Tamara has extensive Suzuki training on both violin and viola, having completed all units in both instruments along with many supplemental courses. She has earned a Certificate of Achievement from the SAA on both instruments. Tamara is a sought after clinician and has taught at Suzuki workshops and summer camps in Madison, Colorado, Chicago, Western Springs, Memphis, South Dakota, Austin, Rochester Minnesota and Puerto Rico. She looks forward to teaching at the Oregon Suzuki Institute and Atlanta Suzuki Institute in the summer of 2027. She is also a Suzuki mom to her two sons who play violin and cello. In her free time, Tamara enjoys cooking and baking and loves to learn new languages.

Teresa Hakel has been teaching Suzuki violin and viola since 1996 in public and private schools, the University of Houston and in a private studio. She currently teaches Suzuki violin at Parker Elementary, Houston’s music magnet elementary school. She has had Suzuki teacher training classes with teachers from across the nation, as well as long term teacher training with Judy Offman in Houston, TX, and has served as director of the Waterford Community Talent Education program, president of the Houston Area Suzuki Strings Association (HASSA), and founding president of the Richmond Area Suzuki Strings Association (RASSA).

Her principal teachers include Yitzhak Schotten and Lawrence Wheeler. A graduate with honors of the University of Michigan (BM) and the University of Houston (MM), Teresa has performed with orchestras and chamber ensembles in Michigan, Texas, and Virginia, enjoys playing Irish and other folk music, and performs throughout Texas with contra dance bands. Her husband, Steve, is a performing violinist and she has two children who also love to play and listen to music. When she is not teaching or playing, Teresa loves to travel, cook and eat.

Kristen Harris is a violinist, fiddler, and educator currently residing in Columbia, SC. She is the Violin Coordinator and violin instructor at the Suzuki Academy of Columbia, and adjunct professor of Violin Pedagogy and String Methods at the University of South Carolina.

Kristen began her musical career as a Suzuki violin student and became passionate about performing and collaborating with musicians of various genres at a very young age. She received her Bachelor of Music degree with honors at the University of Oregon, where she studied with Fritz Gearhart, and earned her Master of Arts in Teaching from the University of South Carolina, where she studied with Dr. William Terwilliger and taught at the USC String Project under the direction of Dr. Gail Barnes. Kristen has been teaching Suzuki violin since 2008, and has taught grades 6-8 orchestra in the public schools. With a current studio of about 20 students ranging in age from 4-18, her students regularly participate in regional and all-state youth orchestras and have won prestigious fiddle competitions such as the SC State Fiddling Championship, Galax Old Fiddler’s Convention, and Mount Airy Bluegrass & Old-Time Fiddlers Convention.

When not teaching, you can find Kristen performing with her Americana group Boomtown Trio, or the Hot Club Jazz band Flat Out Strangers. A multi-instrumentalist and improvising string player, she is an active freelance musician around the Southeast and performs and records regularly as a solo artist and with ensembles ranging in style from classical and jazz, to old time, bluegrass, pop and rock, and has toured across the United States and in the United Kingdom. She is the two-time South Carolina State Fiddle Champion (2013, 2019), the Jasper Magazine 2019 Artist of the Year, and was featured in the Summer 2020 Edition of Fiddler Magazine for the release of her solo old time fiddle album “Borger Wiggle.”

Wayne Krigger began playing cello in the Louisville Public Schools at age 13 and began teaching cello to inner-city youth under the tutelage of Virginia Schneider. He holds Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in cello performance from the University of Louisville School of Music.

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Wayne Krigger joined the University of Louisville Preparatory Department Community Music Program as a cello instructor in 1983, teaching both traditional and Suzuki methods. He developed a creative movement program for young students and has taught cello through the Oldham County Schools Art Center, as well as violin at Kennedy Montessori School and Brandies Elementary School. He conducted the Governor’s Scholar and All County Middle School Orchestras and was a member of the Louisville Orchestra Apprentice Program.

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Wayne is a founding member of the Highland Chamber Players and has performed solo cello on the albums Line and Landscapes and Six Memories by Andy McLeroy. He composed and performed live music for Kentucky Shakespeare productions of Cymbeline and Frankenstein in 2025.

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His classical cello training includes Guillermo Helguera, Susannah Onwood, Neila Hunkins, and Paul York. His Suzuki cello training includes Tanya Carey, Nancy Hair, Carol Tarr, Neil Novak, Rick Mooney, Jean Dexter, and Rodney Farrar.

Jim Van Reeth, violinist, remembers marching around his elementary school gymnasium playing Twinkle rhythms at his first concert. His violin journey began with lessons in the public-school program in New Concord, OH that was greatly influenced by Suzuki pioneer John Kendall, violin professor at Muskingum College. Though Jim did not come to know and study the Suzuki method formally until he was teaching after college, he was hooked during his first teacher training class and has enjoyed a rich career as a Suzuki student and teacher.

Jim is Director of the Denison University Suzuki Program in Granville, OH and teaches violin. Additionally, he enjoys teaching music appreciation and violin at Denison. Jim holds a BM in violin performance from the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College-CUNY where his principal teacher was Ruth Waterman, and a MMEd with Suzuki Talent Education emphasis from UW-Stevens Point having completed long-term Suzuki training with Patricia D’Ercole.

Jim is married to composer Ching-chu Hu, and they are Suzuki parent/practice partners for their four kiddos (2 violinists, a pianist and a flutist). He is a member of the Newark-Granville Symphony Orchestra, and his favorite food is ice cream, so he makes a point of sampling the local creameries whenever possible.