Suzuki Program

Faculty

Our Director

Vera McCoy-Sulentic (violin) Vera McCoy-Sulentic (violin) is Director of the Suzuki Program at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. . She has been a registered teacher trainer for the Suzuki Association of the Americas since 1991 and conducts long term Suzuki teacher training at SIUE. A frequent clinician at Suzuki workshops, she has traveled throughout the United States and Canada, and has taught in Bermuda, Sweden, Taiwan, and Brazil. She was the recipient of SIUE’s Excellence in Teaching award in 1996 and has been a faculty member and director of the  SIUE Suzuki Program since 1997. Additionally, she has ten years of  string teaching experience in the public schools of Edwardsville, Illinois and  Eugene, Oregon.

In 1988, Vera earned a  Masters in Music Education from SIUE which included long term  teacher training with John Kendall. Other Suzuki training has been with  Mihoko Hirata, Yuko Mori, Evelyn Hermann, and Doris Pruecil. Academic degrees include a B. M  in Music Education from the University of Oregon and a B. A. in French from the University of Iowa.

Faculty Teachers

Allison Huebner-Woerner (violin and viola) earned her BSEd in Music Education from the University of Missouri at Columbia and her MM in violin performance from SIUE. She did doctoral studies at the University of Missouri at Columbia, where she was John McLeod's doctoral assistant. She did long-term Suzuki teacher training with John Kendall and Carol Smith and has been a faculty member of the SIUE Suzuki program since 1994. She is Founder and Director of St. Charles Suzuki Strings, now called Ballwin Strings. She has played in numerous St. Louis-area orchestras and string quartets, including the St. Louis Philharmonic and the Florissant Valley Orchestra, for which she served as concertmaster and soloist. Allison is the esteemed and hard-working director of our Tour Group!

Clara Warren Binnington (violin and viola) has been an active Suzuki violin and viola teacher for fourteen years. Clara currently teaches violin and viola group classes for the SIUE Suzuki program. She has a degree in Music Education from Seattle Pacific University and a Masters in Music Education from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, where she studied Suzuki Pedagogy with Carol Smith and Vera McCoy-Sulentic as well as attending workshops given by John Kendall. She has taught and substitute taught in string programs for the public schools in both the Seattle region and the St. Louis region. To continue her music education, she has taken violin lessons with Yuko Fisher and attended the Japan-Seattle Suzuki Institute and St. Louis area Suzuki workshops. She currently free-lances with the Cahokia string quartet, sings and plays the violin for her church worship team, and plays the viola for the Belleville Philharmonic. Clara is the mother of four children ranging from age one to eight years old.

Linda Bristol (violin) is a much-loved orchestra teacher here in Edwardsville, IL. She has a BME from Lindenwood College and her MME from SIUE. Linda's three children all play violin. She studied Suzuki pedagogy with John Kendall and Carol Smith. Her daughter, Heather, is a Suzuki teacher in Montana.

Susanna Woodard (violin and viola) grew up in the Suzuki Program at SIUE and studied with many SIUE faculty and graduate assistants who are now renowned Suzuki teachers worldwide. Susanna graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University and SIUE with Bachelors and Masters Degrees in music performance. Her mentor is Winifred Crock, renowned string teacher and Suzuki teacher and her sister as well! Susanna plays the violin and viola frequently as a free-lance musician in St. Louis, Missouri, and Illinois, and can be seen every summer in  the Muny Orchestra. She has played with Ray Charles, Vince Gill, Smokey Robinson, and Manhattan Transfer.

Vicki Lottes (violin, viola) grew up in a Cincinnati musical family with 12 children and she graduated from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (BME) and Indiana University (MM studying with Josef Gingold). For 32 years Vicki taught orchestra and string classes in Massachusetts and Missouri public schools, most recently 20 years with the Parkway School District (St. Louis County) at the high school. middle school. and elementary levels. She helped Parkway grow their Suzuki program for all third grade students in 18 schools. Vicki trained with John Kendall and Vera McCoy-Sulentic at SIUE. She is a member of the SAA and taught Suzuki violin and viola students at her home studio in West St. Louis County for 6 years. In addition to teaching private lessons at SIUE since 2007, Vicki conducts the Edwardsville Youth Orchestra. She co-directed the SIUE Summer String Camp for eight years. Vicki is the mother of two boys who studied Suzuki violin and cello.

Erika Lord-Castillo (violin, viola) grew up in Iowa City, Iowa, and earned her Bachelor of Music degree in Violin Performance from the University of Iowa in 2005. She has done short-term Suzuki training with Michelle George, Moshe Neumann, and Judy Weigert Bossuat. She holds a Master's in Music Education from SIUE, and studied Suzuki pedagogy with Vera McCoy-Sulentic. After graduating from Iowa, she lived in Corvallis, Oregon for two years, where she taught privately and in the Corvallis Public Schools through the Corvallis Youth Symphony's Elementary Strings Program. Besides playing the violin and viola, Erika enjoys knitting, hiking, and reading.

Anita Kaimal (violin and viola) received her B.M. in violin performance as well as K-12 teaching certification from The University of Iowa in 2007.  Anita also had the opportunity to complete her student teaching experience in Sydney, Australia at Methodist Ladies College. Anita received her Masters in Music Education degree with Suzuki Pedagogy emphasis in 2010.

Stephanie Hunt is a versatile musician, performing on both modern and baroque cello. She plays frequently as a continuo cellist and was the continuo cellist for the Tanglewood Music Center’s Bach Festival.  Stephanie is a member of Trio Lumea, a piano trio that performs on historical instruments.  Trio Lumea has performed throughout the Netherlands and was recently invited to perform at the Royaumont Abbey in France.

Stephanie has attended a number of music festivals, some of which include Festivalensemble Stuttgart, the Meadowmount School, the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, and two summers as a Tanglewood Music Center Fellow.  She graduated with a Bachelor of Music in modern cello summa cum laude from the University of Miami's Frost School of Music and received a Master of Music in modern cello from Rice University's Shepherd School of Music.  She graduated with both a Bachelor of Music honours and a Master of Music in baroque cello from the Utrecht Conservatory (Netherlands).  Her teachers include Viola de Hoog, Norman Fischer, Hans Jørgen Jensen, Ross Harbaugh, and Monique Bartels.  After living five years in the Netherlands, Stephanie returned to the States in June and is teaching cello privately in St. Louis and through the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Suzuki program. 

Graduate Students and Group Teachers