Gail Seay : Co-Director
Gail grew up in the great state of Texas and graduated from the University of Houston with a BM in flute and a MM in musicology from the Univ. of Utah. She has taught flute privately since 1967, teaching the Suzuki Method for Flute since 1982. In 1993, Gail became the director of the Denver Suzuki Institute for its 17th and last year in Denver. Discovering that she was passionate about Institute organizing, she founded the Colorado Suzuki Institute in Snowmass Village in 1994, moving to Beaver Creek in 2006.
Carrie Beisler : Co-Director
Carrie Beisler began her violin studies at age four with Nancy Lokken at the Augsburg College Suzuki Education Program in Minneapolis. She received a Masters of Music with focus in Suzuki Pedagogy from The University of Minnesota studying under Professor Mark Bjork and completed her Bachelor of Music from The University of Iowa under the instruction of Dr. Scott Conklin. Carrie studied and worked with such teachers as Paul Kantor, Augustin Hadelich, Joan Kwon, and the Parker Quartet. She has also completed Suzuki training through the Preucil School as well as at the American Suzuki Institute. Carrie has been on staff of the Colorado Suzuki Institute for six years and currently lives in Edwardsville, IL where she teaches at the Southern Illinois University Suzuki Program.
Katie Horvath : Co-Director
Katie Horvath received her Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance and her long term Suzuki teacher training from the University of Minnesota under the instruction of Professor Mark Bjork. She is a violin instructor for St. Joseph’s School of Music in St. Paul, MN where she teaches private and group lessons. She has worked with MacPhail Center for Music in Minneapolis as an intern in the past and currently teaches weekly group lessons in the program. She now works full time with the Colorado Suzuki Institute. In her free time, Katie enjoys gardening, floral design and taking her pets Luna and Landry for a walk.
Meredith Vaughan : Co-Director
Meredith Vaughan is a Twin Cities based violinist and teacher. She is on the faculty of St. Joseph’s School of Music as a violin, viola, and Suzuki Early Childhood Education teacher, and performs actively in a variety of chamber ensembles. She holds a Bachelor’s of Music in Violin Performance from Vanderbilt University and a Master’s of Music in Violin Performance from the University of Minnesota. While at Vanderbilt and the U of M, she completed long term teacher training covering all ten books of the Suzuki violin literature with Carol Smith and Mark Bjork. Meredith currently serves as Secretary on the Board of Directors for the Suzuki Association of Minnesota (SAM) and as Volunteer Coordinator for SAM’s Graduation program.
Katie MacPhail: Staff Photographer
Katie MacPhail has been a Suzuki mom for 15 years. She loves to hear her two teenage sons play their violins and take pictures of them too! A graduate of Smith College, she went on to earn an MBA from the American University. Currently she is an Upper School Vice President of the Colorado Academy Parent Association. Over many years of work for various schools, she has written newsletters, run meetings, organized charity events and set up socials for students. Katie is delighted to work with the CSI staff this summer.
Victor Pokorny : Staff Teen Counselor
Victor Pokorny received his Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Wyoming in the spring of 2015 with an emphasis in classical guitar. While attending the University of Wyoming, Professor and CSI instructor, Kevin Hart, introduced Victor to the Suzuki method for guitar which immediately piqued Victor’s interest. He now lives in Minneapolis and works as a guitar instructor for the Virtuosos Music Academy. Additionally, Victor has taught guitar and songwriting classes for the University of Wyoming and acted as ensemble counselor for JHME’s Jackson Hole Rock Camp.
Rachel Butherus : Staff Teen Counselor
Rachel is from Colorado where she started playing Suzuki violin at age 5. She is currently getting her Masters Degree from Northern Arizona University in Suzuki Pedagogy where she studies with Louise Scott and Karin Hallberg. Rachel received her Bachelors Degree in Violin Performance from the University of Northern Colorado where she studied with Richard Fuchs and Margaret Gutierrez. She currently holds a position in the Flagstaff Symphony and enjoys playing with the orchestra when she isn’t busy with school work or teaching. Rachel is a trained pastry chef and enjoys baking when she is not teaching or playing her violin.
Henry Sondheimer : Staff- T-Shirt Guru
Henry Sondheimer is a retired pediatric cardiologist. After many years in Colorado, he and his wife, Judy, moved to Washington DC in 2008 for new jobs and to be closer to their children and grandchildren. In his semi-retirement, Henry is a consultant in medical education for projects across the county. Henry enjoys hiking, golf, reading and playing English handbells. He is now a docent at the National Archives in Washington so feel free to ask him about the Constitution.
Alan Seay : Staff
Alan grew up in Elk City, OK where he began musical training on piano and trumpet. He continued formal studies of piano and trumpet in college and medical school and performed as piano soloist with the Oklahoma City Symphony. In Denver, he continues to play piano and he accompanies Suzuki flute students. After medical school in OK, he trained in pediatric neurology in UT, CA, and at Johns Hopkins Univ. School of Medicine. He served for 10 yrs. as head of child neurology at The Children’s Hospital in Denver and currently is director of the pediatric neurology and headache clinic in Denver. Alan is committed to health, happiness, and joy for all children and to having music enrich all our lives.
Mark Roth : Piano Technician
Mark Roth is the proprietor of Mark A. Roth Piano Services in the Columbus, Ohio metropolitan area, providing high quality tuning, repair, regulation, rebuilding and restoration. He earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Ohio State University in 1992, where he studied piano, voice, piano pedagogy, vocal pedagogy, choral conducting, and string pedagogy. He was accompanist for numerous vocalists, instrumentalists and ensembles and has experience as church organist and theatre music director. Mark has been a piano technician since 1995, and estimates that he has done over 4,000 tunings.