Ms. Galina Jitlina

Galina Jitlina is a professional guitarist and guitar teacher with a Baccalaureate, honors, in classical guitar from the Mussorgsky College of Music in St. Petersburg, and is currently trained up to Book 5 in the Suzuki method. She has over 40 years of teaching and performing experience.

Galina was born in the cultural capital of Russia, the city of St. Petersburg. Inspired by her family, she started her studies in classical guitar at the age of 12. She began her performance career in St. Petersburg and has since played solo, in chamber music ensembles, as well as with the Ensemble of Early Music. She has won solo guitar competition in St-Petersburg and got the first prize in Vancouver Unplugged competition in 1996.

Since moving to Canada in 1994, Galina has continued teaching and developing her solo and ensemble repertoire. After meeting Frank Longay at New York Guitar Seminar at Mannes she found that ideas of Suzuki education are very much in tune with her own approach to music teaching. That meeting inspired her to start Suzuki training and use the Suzuki method in her teaching. Galina’s students have received many RCM Gold Medal and won multiple awards at the local, provincial and international festivals. Additionally, Galina has been an advocate of classical guitar music in Vancouver and is a founding director of the Vancouver Classical Guitar Society. Galina is an RCM Registered Teacher, as well as a member of Registered Music Teachers Association, Guitar Foundation of America and Suzuki Association of America.