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Maeve O'Hara
co-founder & teacher
Maeve O'Hara, co-founder and co-owner of Suzuki Early Childhood Chicago, has been a violinist since the age of 7, and is a passionate Suzuki educator. While earning her bachelors in violin performance from Ithaca College, she realized that her Suzuki upbringing was responsible for many of her musical assets that made her successful. Upon studying the pedagogy more, she immediately fell in love with the philosophy of the Suzuki method; that every person is born of great ability and brilliance, and that it is our job as human beings to feed and nourish this ability, so that we can create a better society. After completing her Masters' degree in violin performance from SUNY Purchase, Maeve turned her musical energies toward the Suzuki world; completing as much training as she could. She has completed long term training with many of the country's Suzuki luminaries: Most recently her SECE training with Sharon Jones, with Allen Lieb and Ekaterina Gerson at the School for Strings, with Sandy Reuning at Ithaca College, and with Ed Kreitman, Nancy Jackson, and Thomas Wermuth at WSSTE. She is currently violin faculty at the Naperville Suzuki School, and prior to her position at NSS, she worked in the NYC area, serving on the Suzuki Faculty at the Brooklyn Conservatory, Queens College, as well as maintaining a private studio. She is happy to have recently started an improvisation group class program at our Naperville school, and has recently rekindled a love for web design, serving as the webmaster of SECChicago.com.
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Vicki Szczepaniakco-founder & teacher
Victoria Szczepaniak, co-founder and owner of Suzuki Early Childhood Chicago, began violin studies at age 5 at the Western Springs School of Talent Education. Through her development as a violinist, she found a love for music, and has dedicated her life to teaching children Suzuki method violin. After studying violin performance at Illinois State University, Ms. Vicki continued on to Ithaca College to pursue her love of teaching, and received a Master’s of Music degree in Suzuki Pedagogy. For the past decade she has been on violin faculty and Associate Director of the Naperville Suzuki School, developing young children to play the violin and enriching their lives with music education. Having been deeply connected to the Suzuki method since a child, Ms. Vicki is now bringing her passion for this incredible philosophy to infants and toddlers. As a mother of two young children, she truly believes that ability development can start from birth, and hopes to bring the Suzuki Early Childhood Education method philosophy to families throughout the Chicagoland area.
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Melissa Zindel
teacher
Melissa Zindel is the collaborative pianist and coach at the Western Springs School of Talent Education and the Naperville Suzuki School, as well as the Oak Park String Academy. In addition, Ms. Zindel is a registered Suzuki piano teacher, and maintains a private studio. She is comfortable in a wide variety of musical styles, and has held staff positions in many strings programs, such as the Preludio Violin Program at Ithaca College, SIUE Suzuki, University of Houston Suzuki, the Colorado Suzuki Institute, and the American Suzuki Institute, as well as vocal coach positions at Elmhurst College, Georgia College and State University, University of Central Arkansas, and Opera in the Ozarks. She has performed internationally with the Chicago Consort and Allegro!!! music ensembles, and as a recitalist with many artists, including Julie Albers, Katharine Gowers, Helen Kim and Allegra Wermuth. Ms. Zindel earned her bachelor of music degree in keyboard performance at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, where she studied with Linda Perry. She completed her master of music degree in accompanying and chamber music at the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston with Timothy Hester, where she held full assistantships.
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