Miss. Wan Tsai Chen

Wan Tsai Chen has been passionately teaching Suzuki violin and viola with the Suzuki method for over 30 years and Suzuki early childhood education (SECE) for over 20. Wan Tsai was a faculty member of the Department of Music at Fu-Jen Catholic University, Taipei American School and Taipei Hwa Kang Arts School in Taiwan. She is currently the artistic director for the Suzuki Talent Education Society (STES) in Calgary, Alberta a position she has held since 2001.

Wan Tsai continuously strives to develop and promote the Suzuki ECE program for infants, toddlers, preschoolers and their parents at STES. She applies Reggio early childhood education concepts and Edwin E. Gordon’s Music Learning Theory into her teaching in both strings and early childhood classes. In addition to having been a presenter at several Suzuki Association of the Americas (SAA) conferences over the years, Wan Tsai was on the SAA conference team in 2004/2012 and served as SECE coordinator for the 2006/2014 SAA Conferences. Wan Tsai has been a clinician for National and International teacher workshops and Institutes. She has given numerous Suzuki ECE workshops for various universities in Taiwan/Thailand and has made presentations in Japan for teachers, parents and children. Wan Tsai was on the SECE faculty for the 16th Suzuki Method World Convention in Matsumoto, Japan, in 2013 and Violin/SECE for the Cellofest International in Ipswich, United Kingdom, in 2017.

Wan Tsai’s dedication and commitment to spreading the beauty and importance of the Suzuki Method continues. With full support ofthe Suzuki community in Calgary, she produced the video Suzuki Project Zero in 2013 and three Suzuki ECE videos in 2014: Shaping Character from the Start, From the First Heartbeat and Suzuki ECE-The Pillars of the Instrumental Journey.

Wan Tsai received her B.A. in Music Performance from the Chinese Culture University and her M.A. in Curriculum and Teaching from Michigan State University. She is a registered Suzuki violin, viola, ECE teacher with the SAA and became a SAA registered SECE Teacher Trainer in 2015 and ARSA in 2017. Wan Tsai is honored to be one of the founding members of the SECE committee and also, since August 2015, serves on the Board of Directors of the SAA.