Mrs. Kathleen A. Gallagher-McLellan

Kathleen Gallagher-McLellan has had a unique and ever-evolving journey throughout her violin career. As a “Suzuki Kid,” she began playing the violin when she was five after apparently running up to strangers announcing that she would “play the violin one day”; thankfully, her mother got the hint. After completing Suzuki Book 4, she moved to a more traditional pedagogical approach, eventually leading to her attending the Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, Michigan studying with Hal Grossman for her high school studies, where she had the honor of serving as concertmaster for the Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra and received the distinguished violin award. Following high school, she attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, studying with Frank Huang and participating in a quarter program coached by the Ying Quartet. She performed throughout Austria, Hungary, and most of the continental US during this time.

Her time at Eastman led her to question her relationship with the violin and what having music in her life looked like going forward. The memories and loving approach of her formative violin studies led her to seek training within the Suzuki method. From day one of her Suzuki Violin Book 1 training, it was clear that this was the path to a different way of teaching and learning violin. Since then, she has committed to pursuing lifelong learning through continuing her teacher training within the Suzuki Violin method and completing her bachelor’s degree in violin performance at the California State University Sacramento School of Music, studying and serving as the violin studio teaching assistant for Professor Anna Presler and concertmaster for the Symphony Orchestra. She has also presented research on “Fostering Self-Evaluation and Program Assessment” at the 2023 American String Teachers Association National Conference in Orlando, Florida, with her colleague Elena Bolha.

Her mission is to provide a violin studio that takes a holistic nurturing approach to developing confidence and ease in the playing of young violinists through listening, repetition, and artistic commitment. She strives to foster her student’s unique personalities through the art and discipline of learning the violin.

Kathleen currently accepts students in Sacramento, California, where she lives with her husband and chocolate lab Jemma. She serves as the Auburn Symphony’s assistant concertmaster and the applied violin instructor at Consumnes River College. She is a member of the Suzuki Association of the Americas, the American String Teachers Association, the National Association for Music Education, the California Music Educators Association, and the American Federation of Musicians Local 12. When she isn’t teaching or playing with local orchestras, Kathleen enjoys camping, gardening, and reading novels.