Suzuki Workshops

Friday Masterclasses

An afternoon dedicated to master classes with our innovative guest clinicians. These small-group lessons give students the unique opportunity to not only be coached by our distinguished guest clinicians, but also to be inspired by their peers.

All master classes are for HCD students only (note guitar exception) and are one-hour in duration.

Intermediate master classes (Violin mid-Book 1- Book 4, Viola/Cello/Guitar mid-Book 1- Book 3) will have 3 students per hour, and advanced master classes (Violin Book 5 and up, Viola/Cello/Guitar Book 4 and up) will have 2 students per hour. Students can expect to receive one-on-one coaching with a guest clinician as well as the opportunity to observe the clinician work with other students during this hour. Families will be notified in advance regarding their assigned time and should plan to attend the full hour.

Note: Friday Masterclasses are open to ALL Guitar students currently studying with a Suzuki trained teacher.

All master classes will take place at the University of Hartford's The Hartt School, 200 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford, CT.

Saturday Workshop

The Saturday violin, viola, cello, and guitar workshop is open to all students currently studying with a Suzuki trained teacher. Students should be at least 4 years of age and able to play the fourth piece in Book 1 to participate in the weekend workshop.

Saturday’s schedule consists of repertoire, technique, and enrichment classes of varying sizes and levels. Students are scheduled for three to four hours of classes (depending upon level/instrument), held from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. with a break for lunch*. A special HCD Spirit Week Play-in is also included in the day.

Schedules will not be available before the workshop. Please fill out your online registration carefully with complete information. Confirmation of receipt of registration will be sent by email.

Check-in and classes will take place at The Hartt School in the Fuller Music Center on the University of Hartford campus. Upon entering the Bloomfield Avenue campus of the University, continue until you reach Parking Lot D. Park in a non-designated spot in Lot D and enter The Hartt School, which is directly across the street. Signs will be posted to help you find the registration station.

Please arrive 30 minutes prior to your first class. Exact start time (9:00 or 10:00) will be listed in your informational email to be sent one week prior to the event.

Note: All classes finish by 3:30 p.m.

Free Time

Students may not be scheduled every hour.  It is suggested that during the student’s free time observation of more advanced students occurs. Feel free to observe any class as room allows. A craft room will be set up by the HCD teen volunteers,Y2C (Youth to Community). They will assist students with their crafting.

*There are no lunch facilities available on the University campus on the workshop weekend. Please bring a bag lunch and visit with friends. A space will be provided where lunch can be eaten.

The Saturday Workshop will take place at the University of Hartford's The Hartt School, 200 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford, CT.

Stephen Bondy is a passionate musician, guitarist and teacher. With successful concerts in Canada and the United States, teaching engagements across the US and rave reviews, Mr. Bondy is a performer and pedagogue in high demand. After completing his undergraduate and master’s degrees in guitar performance, he opened the Stephen Bondy Guitar Studio in 2001 and began teaching the Suzuki Guitar Method. He has brought two groups of students to perform at the Guitar Foundation of America, the preeminent guitar competition and festival in North America. His 2017 release Sunday Morning Guitar was widely praised as an organic and beautiful statement of Mr. Bondy’s artistry.

Mr. Bondy is also a teacher of the Music Together program, the gold standard in early childhood music education. He has also been the music director at Washington Park United Methodist Church for 20+ years. He brings humor and joy to all his musical endeavors. If we aren’t having fun, we’re doing something wrong!

Alicia Casey received her Bachelor of Music Performance and Pedagogy from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in Australia where she was a student of Elizabeth Morgan and her Masters in Violin Performance from the University of Massachusetts Amherst where she was a student of Elizabeth Chang.

Alicia studied chamber music as part of the Graduate String Quartet program at UMass and was a recipient of the Lark Chamber Music Award in addition to winning the Concerto Competition with the University Orchestra. Alicia performed with members of the Lighthouse Chamber Players in Cape Cod and is a founding member of the Bahn Quartet. Alicia has performed with orchestras, quartets and as a soloist throughout the United States, Australia and Europe.

Alicia is currently the Suzuki program coordinator, Tour Group Director and faculty member of the Suzuki program at the Upper Valley Music Center in Lebanon, NH, USA.

Alicia grew up as a Suzuki student starting at the age of 3 and has completed formal Suzuki teacher training with Allen Lieb, Jeffrey Cox, Roger Stieg, Kimberly Meier-Sims, Mark Mutter, Teri Einfeldt, Nancy Lokken, Doris Preucil, Edward Kreitman, Ann Montzka-Smelser and Mark Bjork and has registered training in all 10 units of the Suzuki violin repertoire.

Alicia has been a frequent guest clinician at Suzuki Institutes in the United states, both workshops and summer institutes, and at international workshops including locations in Indonesia and Australia.

Alicia currently lives in Lebanon, New Hampshire with her husband Ben and is the proud Suzuki parent to both her daughter Elizabeth and son Jack.

Natalie Coots, co-director of the Ithaca Suzuki Institute, began her Suzuki violin studies at age 7 in Manlius, New York, under the loving instruction of Nancy Fennessy. Natalie attended Ithaca College where she pursued a double Bachelor’s Degree of music education and violin performance, all with the intention of continuing at Ithaca College for her Master’s Degree in Suzuki Pedagogy. Sanford Reuning and Carrie Reuning- Hummel were Natalie’s mentors throughout her Master’s Degree. Natalie is currently living and teaching in Rochester, NY. Before Natalie had her three sons, she had the privilege of teaching at the Greenwich Suzuki Academy (Greenwich, CT), the Hartt School Community Division (Hartford, CT) and Ithaca Talent Education (Ithaca, NY). Natalie has taught in workshops in Hartford (CT), Fort Lauderdale (FL), Wilmington (DE), Syracuse (NY), as well as Auckland and Wellington (New Zealand). Natalie hopes to share the incomparable community, mentorship, friendship and musicianship that she received from her Suzuki upbringing with as many students and families as she can.

Kathryn Drake (they/them) is a Director and a full time Suzuki violin teacher at Ithaca Suzuki Music Education(formerly Ithaca Talent Education).  Drake’s work is focused on the use of violin mastery as a landscape for inner work from a very young age.

Drake began violin in the Suzuki Method at the age of four with Deanna Badgett, and later studied with Tim Washecka and Kristi Manno. They attended The University of Texas at Austin where they studied Violin Performance under the instruction of Sandy Yamamoto and the Miro Quartet while also completing dozens of hours of elective pedagogy courses with Dr. Laurie Scott and Dr. Robert Duke. While in Austin, Drake taught at Monarch Suzuki Academy and The University of Texas String Project, maintaining a studio of over 20 while also a full-time student.

They graduated with a Masters of Music in Suzuki Pedagogy and Violin Performance from Ithaca College. While undertaking long-term Suzuki training with Carrie Reuning-Hummel at Ithaca College, Drake lived in residence at the Ithaca Zen Center.

Their interests include mindfulness, unhindered self expression, equity in the music studio, the interplay of lea and culture, transparent leadership, and media as a teaching tool.

In 2024 Drake was honored with the Distinguished Young Teacher Award and Certificate of Achievement from the Suzuki Association of the Americas.

Nancy Hair enjoys a teaching and performing career on cello which has taken her to Europe, Asia, South America and across the United States. She is currently on the faculty of the New England Conservatory Preparatory School as well as Northeastern University and maintains an active home studio. Nancy is known for her work with the youngest beginners teaching through to the graduate level which she did for the past four years teaching pedagogy at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, Connecticut. As a performer Nancy has played with many of Boston’s leading orchestras and chamber ensembles including Boston Ballet and Boston Lyric Opera and as an advocate for music education, performs with Young Audiences of Massachusetts.

Nancy’s most influential teachers include Janos Starker, Raya Garbousova, David Wells, Yehuda Hanani, and Timothy Eddy. She attended Indiana University and the Hartt College of Music as well as graduate studies in Suzuki Method at Ithaca Talent Education.

Ann Montzka Smelser

In between receiving her Bachelors of Music Education and Masters in Performance and Pedagogy at Northern Illinois University, Ann studied with Dr. Shinichi Suzuki at the Talent Education Institute in Matsumoto, Japan.

Ann loves to share music through teaching and performing. Ann currently performs with Camerata Chicago and Rockford Symphony and is Concertmaster of the Kishwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Ann co-teaches  a Suzuki Pedagogy course at Northwestern University and is Director of the NIU Suzuki Strings Program at Northern Illinois University. Ann maintains a studio of about 35 violin and viola students through the  NIU program.  Ann enjoys working with Suzuki families at Festivals in Lima, Peru, Singapore, Mexico City, San Jose, Costa Rica and throughout the United States.

Ann lives with her husband, Linc, in DeKalb, Illinois.. Their Suzuki-raised children, Benjamin and Genevieve are now professional musicians and members of the US Air Force Band of the West and The Cleveland Orchestra respectively. Ann’s greatest joy is being together with family. Her favorite pastimes include traveling, hiking, reading and improving her Spanish through Duolingo.

Emlyn Ngai follows an active career as both a modern and historical violinist, performing in Canada and the United States with the Adaskin String Trio. As concertmaster of Tempesta di Mare, he has performed in the US and Europe, most notably at the Mendelssohn-Remise Berlin, Magdeburger Telemann-Festtage 2022, Internationale Zerbst-Fasch Festtage 2023, and Berliner Philharmoniker Kammermusiksaal.  With Tempesta he has recorded twelve releases on Chandos. Other recording credits include Centaur, MSR Classics, New World Records, and Telarc. His recordings for the label Musica Omnia have received acclaim in American Record Guide, BBC Music Magazine, Gramophone, and The Strad. 

Emlyn holds degrees from McGill University, Oberlin College Conservatory, and the Hartt School.  His teachers have included Frona Colquhoun, Sydney Humphreys, Thomas Williams, Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer.  While studying with Marilyn McDonald at Oberlin he won first prize on baroque violin in the 1995 Locatelli Concours Amsterdam, leading to performances in Bergamo and Berlin.  Emlyn  is passionate about teaching, having taught at Boston University, Mount Holyoke College, and McGill University as well as Amherst Early Music, Madison Early Music Festival, the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute, and the Hartt Suzuki Institute.  As someone committed to supporting upcoming talent, he has also served as a panelist for Astral Artists and ensemble judge for the Jurow International Harpsichord Competition.

Currently he teaches violin, orchestral repertoire, chamber music studies and performance practice at the Hartt School, where he also co-directs the Collegium Musicum and serves as co-Chair of the Chamber Music Department.  

Student Registration Deadline: February 23, 2026

Early Bird Discount: Register by January 31st, 2026 and receive $20.00 off tuition.

VIOLIN, VIOLA, CELLO, AND GUITAR MASTER CLASSES

Advanced Master Class Tuition all instruments: $100

*Please note that intermediate master classes are only available in the bundle

VIOLIN, VIOLA, CELLO, AND GUITAR WORKSHOP

SATURDAY WORKSHOP ONLY

Tuition (all levels): $140

BUNDLE: FRIDAY MASTER CLASS + SATURDAY WORKSHOP

Intermediate Bundle Tuition:  $185

Advanced Bundle Tuition:  $200

Teacher Development Session: “Building Mastery and Motivation through the Three’s: in Tune, in Tone, and in Time”

Clinician: Ann Montzka Smelser, SAA Violin Teacher Trainer

Title: “Building Mastery and Motivation through the Three’s: in Tune, in Tone, and in Time”

Description: Whether working on Twinkle or Tchaikovsky, these "three T's" are where we spend most of our focus. I will share creative and user-friendly ways to build awareness and reliability in these areas for the student and practice partner. This course is violin-specific, there will be playing excerpts of pieces in the Suzuki repertoire as well as supplementary pieces and exercises so instruments are encouraged!

Ann Montzka Smelser

In between receiving her Bachelors of Music Education and Masters in Performance and Pedagogy at Northern Illinois University, Ann studied with Dr. Shinichi Suzuki at the Talent Education Institute in Matsumoto, Japan.

Ann loves to share music through teaching and performing. Ann currently performs with Camerata Chicago and Rockford Symphony and is Concertmaster of the Kishwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Ann co-teaches  a Suzuki Pedagogy course at Northwestern University and is Director of the NIU Suzuki Strings Program at Northern Illinois University. Ann maintains a studio of about 35 violin and viola students through the  NIU program.  Ann enjoys working with Suzuki families at Festivals in Lima, Peru, Singapore, Mexico City, San Jose, Costa Rica and throughout the United States.

Ann lives with her husband, Linc, in DeKalb, Illinois.. Their Suzuki-raised children, Benjamin and Genevieve are now professional musicians and members of the US Air Force Band of the West and The Cleveland Orchestra respectively. Ann’s greatest joy is being together with family. Her favorite pastimes include traveling, hiking, reading and improving her Spanish through Duolingo.

Tuition: $50

Were you in marching band in school or do you play a brass or woodwind instrument? Get together with a group of friends and strangers to play the music of The March King, John Philip Sousa! You won’t want to miss being a part of the band or seeing the performance! All are welcome to join. Please register below.

Bring your own music stand (a limited number will be available). Some chairs will be provided. Audience members are welcome to just enjoy the music!

This event is coordinated by the Greater Hartford Arts Council.

• Nobles of the Mystic Shrine
• King Cotton
• Manhattan Beach
• Irish Tune from County Derry
• El Capitan
• The Liberty Bell
• Fairest of the Fair
• The Stars and Stripes
• The Thunderer

Flute/Piccolo | Oboe | Bassoon | Clarinet | Bass Clarinet | Alto Saxophone | Tenor Saxophone | Baritone Saxophone | Trumpet/Cornet | French Horn | Trombone | Euphonium BC | Tuba | Percussion