Ms. Susan M. McDonald

SAA Registered Training

(Violin)

Core Units

• Every Child Can!
• Suzuki Principles in Action
• Violin Foundation 1A
• Violin Foundation 1B
• Violin Unit 2
• Violin Unit 3
• Violin Unit 4
• Violin Unit 5
• Violin Unit 6
• Violin Unit 7
• Violin Unit 8
• Violin Unit 9
• Violin Unit 10
• Violin Practicum

Supplementary

• Violin Overview Units 1-6
• Violin Kreisler Course

Susan Montzka McDonald is the Program Coordinator for the Suzuki Program at the Community Music School of Webster University (formerly St. Louis Symphony Music School and St. Louis Conservatory and Schools for the Arts), where she has taught for over 35 years. She is a registered Violin Teacher Trainer for the Suzuki Association of the Americas, and has served on the SAA Board of Directors.

Susan has taught at numerous Suzuki workshops, and for the American (Stevens Point, WI) Chicago, Colorado, Education for Happiness (MI), Florida, Green Mountain Chamber Music, Los Angeles, Louisville, and Peaks to Plains (CO) Institutes. In 2000, she was the recipient of the Byron Hester Award for excellence in teaching, and has earned the Suzuki Association of the Americas Certificate of Achievement. She is also the mother of two Suzuki violin graduates.

Susan began her study of the violin as a Suzuki student of Kazuko Numanami in Oberlin, Ohio. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from Lawrence University Conservatory, and her Master’s Degree in Violin Performance from Western Illinois University, where she studied violin and Suzuki pedagogy with Almita Vamos. She continued her long-term pedagogy study with John Kendall at Southern Illinois University—Edwardsville. Susan has also participated in multitudes of short-term courses, reflecting her commitment to life-long learning.

Susan currently performs with the Metropolitan Orchestra of St. Louis, and is a former member of the Washington University Symphony, the Knox-Galesburg Symphony, and the Fox Valley Symphony.