Teaching Artist Statement

Hannah believes music is a powerful art form that can bring love and joy into people’s lives. She is guided by Dr. Shinichi Suzuki’s philosophy that every child can learn music, and aims to create a positive environment where children and adults can grow as artists and people.

Hannah believes music education is important because it gives people the empowering skill of being able to create something beautiful. Making music is creation, which contrasts the consumption commonly found in modern society. Playing music activates many neural pathways and sharpens the brain. It is also a ticket to new life experiences and a unique way to meet people and be a part of a larger community. Teaching, learning and creating music leads people to step into a rich tradition that goes as far back as humanity. Hannah aims to continue this tradition of passing down music to people so it can become a part of their lives, and they can, in turn, share it with others.

Teaching Bio

Hannah has taught since 2017, first in her hometown of Walla Walla, teaching private lessons and assisting Holly Carpenter with her Suzuki program in Walla Walla. During the 2021–2022 school year, Hannah taught violin and piano at Peace Music Academy in Khon Kaen, Thailand, and taught private lessons in San Francisco 2022-2025. She was a camp counselor at Center Stage Strings at the University of Michigan in 2024. In 2025, she led orchestra violin sectionals and assisted in an introduction to violin class at the Summer String Institute at Western Kentucky University. In addition to teaching at Music Center of the Northwest, she also teaches viola, piano and Music Funtime at Shoreline Academy of Music and Dance and brings piano and ukulele classes to elementary schools with the New Bach Music School.

Hannah is passionate about studying pedagogy so she can be best equipped to give students the skills and knowledge to play their instrument with ease and musicality. She regularly observes Jan Coleman teach violin in Bothell and has completed Suzuki teacher training in violin Units 1 through 10 with teachers including Cathy Lee, Allen Lieb, Ed Sprunger, Kirsten Marshall and Daniel Gee Cordova. While in Thailand, Hannah studied piano pedagogy with Heather Mariano. 

Performance Bio

Hannah plays in Candlelight Concerts in the greater Seattle area and plays with the Olympia Symphony and Seattlemusic Inc. She has appeared as a soloist with the Spokane Symphony, Coeur d’Alene Symphony, and Grande-Ronde Symphony, Walla Walla University Symphony Orchestra and Inland Northwest Musicians. In 2021, she recorded an album of hymn arrangements with her trio, Rejoice Trio, titled Be Still My Soul. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in violin performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she studied with Simon James.