​The Chapel Hill Durham Suzuki workshop is a result of the Chapel Hill Cooperative String Project and has
served thousands of Suzuki students in and around the Triangle since the idea was formed more than 40
years ago. The vision and effort of leading teachers Mary Ellen Bierck, Nancy Brooks, and Mary Frances
Boyce developed the annual fall workshop into the success it is today. Over the years, the Chapel Hill
Durham Suzuki workshop has sought to further the educational methods of Shinichi Suzuki’s Talent
Education method through renowned guest clinicians. 

Since its founding, students from many studios have attended the workshop!
Dr. Suzuki’s legacy thrives in the music of the thousands of children served.

Dr. Timothy (Terry) Durbin​

Dr. Cortney Combs Baker

Jessica Landes

Gabriel Pelli 

We are excited to welcome back Dr.Terry Durbin to the Chapel Hill Durham Suzuki Workshop. What a privilege it has been to have Dr. Durbin as our guest clinician for 26 years! Dr. Durbin holds a DMA in orchestral conducting from Claremont Graduate University in Los Angeles, California, a Masters in violin performance from the University of Illinois, an undergraduate degree in violin performance from the University of Alabama, and is currently the director of the Suzuki String Program at the University of Louisville. He is a registered teacher trainer with the Suzuki Association of the Americas. Dr. Durbin has taught at over 800 workshops and institutes across the country and the world!

Cortney Combs Baker is a native of Athens, Georgia.  She began her violin studies at the age of three at the University of Georgia Pre-College Suzuki program.   Her degrees include a Bachelor of Music Education from Furman University, and a Masters of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts in Violin Performance from the University of Texas at Austin. 
Dr. Baker has performed with the Austin Symphony Orchestra, the Brevard Music Center Orchestra, The Corpus Christi Symphony, the Abilene Philharmonic and the Victoria Symphony, where she served as principal second violin.  Currently she performs with the NC Opera Orchestra and the Pro Cantores Orchestra at Duke University.
From 1995-2002, she was Assistant Director of the University of Texas String Project, a teacher training program in Austin, Texas.  From 2002-2007, Dr. Baker was Co-Director of the Sunshine Suzuki Strings in Davie, Florida where she taught violin and viola.  She has taught Suzuki violin for over twenty years and has completed training in books 1-7 as well as Music Mind Games Level 1.  Her present studio, Pineland Suzuki Strings, is located in Cary, North Carolina. 

Jessica Landes holds a Master of Music Degree in Violin Performance from East Carolina University and a B.S. in Music Education from Goshen College, Indiana.  As an active performer and collaborator with the band Stray Local she performs regularly on stages in the coastal Carolina region, opening for bands such as the Infamous Stringdusters and Jordan Tice.  In June 2017 Stray Local was the only band chosen from the United States to participate in the Festival International de Musique Universitaire in Belfort, France.  A seasoned Suzuki student herself, Jessica studied Suzuki piano for 13 years and Suzuki violin for 11 years and completed her most recent Suzuki trainings with teacher trainers Martha Shackford, Linda Fiore and Joanne Bath.  Having spent 10 years of her career in Pennsylvania, from 2010 to 2012 she created and directed the Rhythm & Bloom music program at the Braddock Carnegie Library in Braddock, PA.  Jessica takes a special interest in composition for young people, music programs in libraries, parent support for weathering the ups and downs of music lessons, and fiddling.  On a daily basis she enjoys bouncing creative thoughts around the Suzuki triangle that she and her studio families create as part of her home studio, Landes String Studio.  Jessica lives in Wilmington, NC, with her husband David and daughter Harmony.

I started playing a box and stick violin in Switzerland at age 5.  After much Suzuki training, which I credit with developing my musical memory and laying the groundwork for improvisation,  I fell into playing Jazz when my friends told me I was going to be the new violin player in their band!

From there I discovered Gypy Jazz, various fiddle styles like Old Time and Irish, and even Rock and West African music.

I've toured the U.S., Canada, Europe, and South America with my bands
The Old Ceremony, Squirrel Nut Zippers, and Onyx Club Boys.

I've been teaching privately since 2001, and have taught many group workshops focusing on Jazz and improvisation.

Jennifer Curtis

The New York Times described violinist Jennifer Curtis’s second solo concert in Carnegie Hall as “one of the gutsiest and most individual recital programs.” She was celebrated as “an artist of keen intelligence and taste, well worth watching out for.”
Curtis navigates with personality and truth in every piece she performs. Jennifer is a member of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and founder of the group Tres Americas Ensemble. She has appeared as a soloist with the Simon Bolivar Orchestra in Venezuela and the Knights Chamber Orchestra; performed in Romania in honor of George Enescu; given world premieres at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York; collaborated with composer John Adams at the Library of Congress; and appeared at El Festival de las Artes Esénias in Peru and festivals worldwide.
An educator with a focus on music as humanitarian aid, Jennifer has also collaborated with musical shaman of the Andes, improvised for live radio from the interior of the Amazon jungle, and taught and collaborated with Kurdish refugees in Turkey.
Jennifer joins the Haw River Ballroom’s Culture Mill in Saxapahaw, North Carolina as artist in residence this spring, and will teach a course on the art of interpretation at Duke University next year. She plays on a 1777 Vincenzo Panormo.

Emily Russ
​

Emily Russ, praised for her sensitivity and responsiveness, is an active collaborative pianist in the Triangle and Triad regions of North Carolina. She performs regularly with music students at both UNC Chapel Hill and UNC Greensboro. In 2016, Emily was one of the collaborative pianists at the Richard Luby International Violin Symposium at UNC and collaborated at the Composers of Color Collective Conference at NCCU. Recent professional performances include a recital with cellist Samuel Magill at Carol Woods Retirement Community in Chapel Hill, NC and a chamber Young Artists Concert at The Cedars of Chapel Hill. As a collaborator, Emily has performed for a number of masterclass clinicians including Gil Shaham, Mimi Stillman, Kevork Mardirossian, Laurie Smukler, Aaron Berofsky, Kevin Lawrence, Fabian Lopez, and Nicholas DiEugenio. 
 
Emily has accompanied summer program Greensboro Light Opera and Song, as well as UNCG’s Touring Opera in the fall and Opera at the Carolina in the spring. A former Suzuki violin student, she also enjoys playing for local Suzuki group classes and recitals. Emily holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2013) and a Master of Music Degree in Piano Performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (2015).

Katie Brennan

Katie began studying ballet at age 8 and now enjoys helping children learn how to explore movement and embodied expression. She has sought to connect body and mind through earning her Master of Social Work from Baylor University and more recently, becoming a Registered Dance Movement Therapist. Katie has taught dance to students from age 3 to 60 in Kansas City and spent a season teaching creative movement and modern to elementary students in rural Costa Rica. Professionally, Katie has performed in the Kansas City area with 940 Dance Company, City in Motion, and Gurukul Indian Dance Company. She spent a season as an associate artist with Core Project Chicago before moving to NYC where she performed with Kinesis Project Dance Theater and led dance movement therapy groups with children in a Harlem family shelter and a youth drop-in center. Katie currently lives in Miami where she maintains a private mental health practice, performs with Momentum Dance Company and National Water Dance Project, and teaches ballet to preschoolers. She is excited to return to Carrboro where she facilitated dance workshops in conjunction with the Grow-A-Fiddler Suzuki studio and Hello Piano! Studio in 2011.

Rebekah Carlson

Rebekah Carlson is a Suzuki violin and viola teacher and freelance violinist. She plays with several professional music ensembles, including the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, the North Carolina Opera, the Carolina Ballet, the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, the Durham Choral Society, and the NC Master Chorale. Rebekah is also an active chamber music performer, presenting concerts at Duke University in their faculty series, as well as several area venues. Rebekah holds a degree in violin performance from Wheaton College (IL) and is a passionate music educator with extensive training in Suzuki pedagogy and advanced violin pedagogy. Rebekah is certified through the SAA through Volume 4, has participated in the Starling-DeLay Symposium on Violin Studies at the Juilliard School, and has also completed training in Music Together.®  She has taught at the NC Suzuki State-wide Play-in and is a frequent clinician at several regional workshops. Rebekah is the founder and director of the Chapel Hill String Ensemble, which has performed both regionally and internationally, with recent tours to Austria, Germany, and Italy. Her students have held leadership positions in their school orchestras, the Mallarmé Youth Chamber Orchestra, and the Greensboro Symphony Youth Orchestra, and have also been accepted to the North Carolina School of the Arts . Rebekah is proud to have students majoring in several different disciplines in prestigious colleges and universities across the U.S., with almost all of her graduates involved in music at the college level, whether they’re majoring in music performance, public health, history or applied math! Rebekah currently lives in Greensboro, NC, with her husband and two small children. When she's not teaching, she enjoys reading, cooking, and spending time outdoors with her family.