Annual Meeting 2009
The 2009 Annual Membership Meeting was broadcast live on the web on April 4th, 2009 from the SAA office in Boulder, Colorado. It features the new teacher development video “A Suzuki Teacher’s Pledge”, a tour of the SAA office, and lots of news and trivia.
Broadcast correspondents: Diane Schroeder, Teri Einfeldt, Christie Felsing, Lamar Blum, Ruth Engle Larner, Mark George, Marilyn Kesler, Carol Ourada, Beth Titterington, and Pam Brasch
Tags: Membership, Video, Virtual Leadership Retreat 2009
Date: April 4, 2009
A Suzuki violin teacher for over 30 years, Lamar Blum was introduced to Suzuki Method in 1963. Since that time, she has established a Suzuki studio in Elgin, Illinois for violin, viola, cello, bass and flute. As director and teacher, Lamar organizes, administrates and teaches in the Elgin program. Lamar has served a three-year term on the board of directors for Suzuki Association of the Americas. She has also served the SAA as a committee chair & co-chair for the National Conference, speaker for the Leadership Conferences and has contributed several articles to the American Suzuki Journal, the summer Minijournal and Suzuki World magazines. She hastaught at institutes across the country (both summer & weekend) and has directed the Montana Suzuki Strings Institute since 2005. As a member of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra for three decades, Lamar served on the players’ council for ten years of those years.
Pam Brasch served as Executive Director/CEO of the Suzuki Association of the Americas for 30 years. Her involvement with the Suzuki method began in 1977 as a parent. In addition she served on the Board of Directors of the International Suzuki Association for many years. Pam and her husband Fred are the proud grandparents of four young Suzuki musicians.
Ruth Engle Larner has been a part of the Suzuki world since 1968: as a Suzuki violin student growing up in Iowa, as a Suzuki violin teacher in Iowa, Illinois, Arizona and Colorado, and as a Suzuki parent to her son. Ruth earned her MM degree and completed her SAA long-term teacher training with John Kendall at Southern Illinois University and was also fortunate to spend a summer observing and studying with Dr. Suzuki in Matsumoto. She served a term on the Suzuki Association of the Americas board from 2007-2010, and as the SAA Conference Coordinator for 2014. She maintains a private studio in Fort Collins, Colorado, has been a free-lance violinist with numerous orchestras in the area, and has taught at workshops and institutes in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado.
Mark George, pianist, president of the Music Institute of Chicago, and past chair of the Board of Directors of the Suzuki Association of Americas, has enjoyed a unique career making music and connecting people of all kinds to the performing arts.
Dr. George has held faculty positions at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Case Western Reserve University, Mount Union College and the Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music. He received a master of music degree from Indiana University in 1985 and a doctor of musical arts degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1989.
Mark George also led the resurgence of the 2006 Grammy award winning Cleveland Chamber Symphony, an orchestral ensemble completely dedicated to the music of our time. His board level leadership, striking performances as a pianist, and inventive programming ideas have re-established the ensemble as a major force in contemporary music.
Marilyn Kesler has recently retired after 42 years as a teacher in the Okemos, MI, Public Schools, teaching seventh and eighth grade strings and three high school orchestras. She is continues to be the director of the Community Education Suzuki program where she teaches Suzuki cello lessons.
Ms. Kesler earned a master’s degree in music education at Southern Illinois University where she specialized in the adaptation of the Suzuki violin method for the cello with John Kendall. Her undergraduate degree in music education was from Indiana University where she studied cello with Janos Starker and Leopold Terraspulsky.
She is past chair-elect of the SAA Board of Directors. Past offices include president of Michigan Chapter of ASTA, secretary of the SAA, chairman of the SAA Cello Committee, Public School Committee, and Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association vice-President of Orchestra Activities. In 1990, she was the first recipient of the ASTA National School Educator.
*Carol Ourada is on the faculty of the Wheaton College Community School of the Arts, teaching primarily Suzuki cello, and also violin, viola, bass, music reading, Creative Ability Development improvisation and cello choir. She has taught early childhood music for 25 years. In addition, Carol teaches and coordinates in the Wheaton College Community Outreach for Developing Artists, CODA, an initiative that began in 2006, which has grown to offer early childhood and Suzuki violin and recorder classes to over 1,000 at-risk children, including 100 violinists, 40 recorders in connection with two school districts. Carol was the 12th SAA Conference Coordinator and served on the SAA board of directors. In 2007 she was awarded ASTA Outstanding Studio Teacher of Illinois. Carol is a clinician at workshops and institutes around the country. She studied violin with Dr. Suzuki in Matsumoto in 1985.
Diane Schroeder, Past Board Chair, has been a violist with the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra for 19 years and is Past President of the EPO Board and Chair of the Advisory Council, which started the Evansville Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. Diane has an extensive history in volunteer service and leadership. In addition to her work with the SAA, she is a trustee at the Methodist Temple, a member of the Board of Friends of Music at the University of Evansville and member of the Board of the YWCA.
Diane is an organist and member of the American Guild of Organists. She is mother of three and grandmother of one and is an accompanist for the University of Evansville Suzuki program.
Beth Titterington has been involved in the Suzuki Method since 1972 when she first heard the Japanese Talent Education Tour Group. She has studied with many people in the field, including Dr. Suzuki. Mrs. Titterington is a Violin Teacher Trainer for the Suzuki Association of the Americas and served on the SAA Board of Directors from 2006-2009. She founded an SAA regional affiliate, the Heart of America Suzuki Association, in 1979. From 1978 to the present, she has taught at hundreds of Suzuki Institutes and Workshops in the United States, Canada and in England. She received her M.M. from the University of Missouri ( KC) Conservatory in 1977 and then studied with Marilyn McDonald at Oberlin and Michaela Comberti in London. Mrs. Titterington has been adjunct faculty at both the University of Missouri (KC) and the University of Kansas.
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