About Suzanne

Suzanne Smith has been a teacher, a job she loves above all others, for over 29 years. She has had extensive experience teaching young players as well as very advanced high school cellists and adults. Several of her students have gone on to major in cello. She formerly taught cello at the Center For Creative Studies in Detroit, Emerson School for the gifted in Ann Arbor MI., Musicmakers Learning Center in Farmington, MI. (which she co-founded,) The Princeton Public Schools in Princeton, NJ., Merrywood Music School for gifted young string players in Lenox, Mass., and has had three years of Suzuki Training. While in Princeton she directed The Suzuki Cello Program at Westminster Choir College for two years. Ms. Smith has always also maintained a private studio and has been a judge for the well known Zerounian and Louis Potter competitions held in Michigan. She has performed in many different contexts over the years, a few of which are, as member of the Detrois Piano Trio, the Trenton Symphony Orchestra in New Jersey for seven years, as a frequent performer of new music as is reflected in her premier of Joseph Hayes's Two Soliloquies for solo cello at Orchestra Hall in Detroit Michigan. She has performed at both the University of Michigan in solo recital with William Rothstien Pianist and at Princeton University, where she played faculty composers' new works on the Princeton concert series. She has also played as chamber musician with the Michigan Chamber Players. In addition to many solo recitals over the years she has done extensive free lance performing throughout the US. In addition to music, Ms. Smith has a strong interest in philosophy, religion and politics. She is a serious Zen Buddhist and has attended many seven and ten day Ch'an retreats. These retreats have greatly added to her ability to convey methods of concentration, self acceptance, and self control in the context of playing the cello. The newly created cello retreat/camp "CelloChanWoods" opened in July 2008. * See more about this on this site.

Ms. Smith has a Bachelors of Performance from Oberlin Conservatory and a Masters of Music from the State University of New York at Stonybrook, NY. She has studied with the following teachers: Primary teacher * Bernard Greenhouse of the Beaux Arts Trio. * Richard Kapuscinski, former member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, at Oberlin conservatory. * Gilda Barston, a leading pedagogue of the Suzuki method at the Music Institute of Chicago, for one year. * Jules Eskin, former principal of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in master class. * Lynn Harrell in master class. * Rya Garbosova in master class * Francis Clarke Rehel her beloved first teacher at Lawrence College Conservatory in Appleton, Wis. Music Fellowships include: The Berkshire Music Festival ~Tanglewood for two seasons. The Sarasota Music Festival, The Rome Festival, The Scotia Festival and Sarasota Festival among others. This summer she has participated in several small cello classes taught by Janos Starker at Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana.

...Suzanne Smith is a very gifted cellist. Very sensitive, extremely intelligent, and a most pleasant character. She deserves a place in the music world either as performer or teacher and I recommend her most highly."

~ Bernard Greenhouse ~ Formerly of The Beaux Arts Trio.

"Ms. Smith was my student at Oberlin Conservatory for four years. During this time I was able to observer her growth as cellist in solo, chamber music and orchestral performance. She is a very gifted musician and very developed cellist. Extremely bright, intense, and sincere she is a good person to work with. The qualities that one looks for in a professional cellist as well as teacher, a very good sound, fluent technique, musicianship and reliability, are all there, and makes it very easy to recommend Ms Smith most highly."

~ Richard Kapuscinski ~ Past Professor of cello at Oberlin Conservatory and former member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

"A special note about the cello classes ( in Princeton, N.J. 1980's) I was really quite excited about what I saw and heard. I noted that your young cellists, in general, have unusually good positions and i was especially please with there freedom of motion. As you know , the fluidity of motion has so much to do with the beauty of the sound, especially with the cello, I felt that Claire and Suzanne must be unusually sensitive to this. I have the distinct impression that they are doing beautiful work and that they are to be prized highly."

~ Phyllis Young ~ Author of "The String Game" and respected author, former president of the American String Teachers Association, and professor of cello and string pedagogy at the University of Texas at Austin.

"Suzanne Smith is a wonderful asset to the Ann Arbor, Michigan Cello scene. I have found her Cello students to be well set up, serious and dedicated. They all really enjoy making music at the Cello and that is a rare quality indeed. Ms Smith is a very "pro active" teacher that sets up classes, performances and other creative projects that contribute to her students' growth. She is very generous with sharing her efforts with other Cello teachers and musicians. More Cello teachers should use her open and inviting methods in their teaching philosophies."

~ Bruce Uchimara, professor of cello at Western Michigan University