Kelly Quesada

Kelly Quesada is a cellist and certified Suzuki teacher based in Chicago who has been teaching private lessons and group classes for over fifteen years. She wears many hats, including co-directing orchestra at Urban Prairie Waldorf School, running a private cello studio at South Side Suzuki Cooperative, and teaching group classes and lessons at Merit School of Music. Kelly’s teaching experience ranges from 3 year old beginners to college-level music majors. Her ultimate goal is to teach students how to practice and learn on their own, which empowers them to be independent musicians, and makes playing music more fun!

In addition to teaching, Kelly is very active as a performer, currently performing throughout the Midwest as cellist of the Tuuli quartet. She is a founding member and secretary of the board for Unsupervised, Chicago’s conductorless orchestra, and previously served as principal cello of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. Kelly received her Bachelor’s in Cello Performance from the University of Alabama and her Master’s in Cello Performance from the University of Oregon.