Ms. Elizabeth R. Hess

Elizabeth Reese Hess graduated magna cum laude from the Philadelphia College of the Performing Arts with a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance as a student of Robert de Pasquale. A growing interest in the Suzuki method of music education led Hess to pursue extensive Suzuki violin teacher training, including masterclasses with Shinichi Suzuki and training from Dr. John Kendall and Linda Fiore. She is a lifetime member of the Suzuki Association of the Americas and a member of the International Suzuki Association and the Greater Philadelphia Suzuki Association. She has been a clinician at Suzuki workshops and institutes in Pennsylvania. A Suzuki teacher for thirty years, Hess maintains an active private studio in Lancaster, PA. Her students have attended prestigious music schools and conservatories and pursued careers as music educators and professional musicians. In 2010, the Lancaster-Lebanon Music Educators Association honored her with the annual Private Teacher Award.

Elizabeth Hess began violin lessons at the age of nine in the public school system. She feels fortunate to have had teachers who were not only fine players and musicians but who also enjoyed nurturing young students. Hess hopes to pass on to her own students a love of, and an appreciation for, all types of music. Through individual and group lessons, her students learn a wide variety of violin music in addition to the Suzuki repertoire: other classical pieces, popular music, and folk and fiddling tunes. She wants her students to learn how to work for and achieve their goals and to have fun in the process.

A member of the Reading Symphony Orchestra for 25 years, Hess also freelances in Eastern Pennsylvania. She has performed with the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, the Allegro Chamber Orchestra, the Lancaster Chamber Singers, the Wheatland Chorale, and the Fulton Theater. She is a member of the American Federation of Musicians.

Elizabeth is not only a Suzuki teacher but a Suzuki parent as well. She and her husband have two grown daughters who grew up as Suzuki violin students.