Teacher Biographies – North York Suzuki School of Music

In 1991, Seneca College decided to close the
Seneca Suzuki School of Music, which had been
in operation for over 15 years. A core of teachers
wishing to continue in a school-like environment
created the North York Suzuki School of Music
as a not-for- profit organization. Since that time
we have also received charitable status.

Teacher Bios

Jennifer Burford

Jennifer was introduced to the Suzuki Violin Method at age four. Since then she has completed a Bachelor of Music in Performance at the University of Toronto with Honours in 2004, where she studied with Mark Skazinetsky, Associate Concertmaster of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. In the fall of 2004, she completed a Career Development Residence at Banff Centre performing in a chamber music setting with Canadian and International artists Alain Trudel, Gwen Hoebig, and Marc Durance to name a few. She also holds an Artist Diploma from the Glenn Gould School and a Master of Music in Violin Performance from the University of Toronto, both completed through studies with Erika Raum. She feels privileged to continue educating children and parents with the Suzuki method that fostered her love of music. In addition to her teaching, Jennifer pursues an active career as a freelance musician in the Toronto area and beyond. Recently she has performed with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, New Brunswick Symphony Orchestra, and Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, Toronto Philharmonic Orchestra, Sinfonia Toronto, Canadian Sinfonietta, and Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra where she holds the position of Principal Second Violin.

Rebecca Hogeterp

Rebecca graduated with honors with a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from the University of Western Ontario in 2000. Her teachers included John-Paul Bracey and John Hess. Thereafter she studied with renown pianist/pedagogue Jean-Paul Sevilla in Paris. She continued her studies in the Netherlands completing a post graduate Artist Diploma in Piano Performance from Utrecht's Conservatorium, where she studied with Russian pianist Alexander Warrenberg. Over the years, Rebecca has attended many piano pedagogy and performance institutes. She has been teaching at North York Suzuki School of Music since 2004 and is a highly qualified RCM teacher of all levels.
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Liz Johnston

Liz graduated from University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Music in Performance degree. She started teaching at the Seneca College Suzuki Program from 1988 and has continued at the North York Suzuki School as one of its founding members. She has received Suzuki certification Books 1 - 8 with several teacher trainers including Michele George, John Kendall, William Starr, Alice Joy Lewis and Edmund Sprunger. Liz has been a member of the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra since 1994, and freelances with many other orchestras in the Toronto area. She also has an interest in period instrument performance, and received a Canada Council Grant in 2002 to pursue baroque violin studies at Oberlin College, Amherst Early Music Festival, and the Tafelmusik Institute, and has become a frequent performer with Aradia Ensemble.
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Orsi Lengyel

Orsi was born in Budapest. After completing a Bachelor of Music Performance degree in Vienna, Austria, she immigrated to Canada in 1995 and studied with Shauna Rolston and Simon Fryer at the University of Toronto. In 1996-97 she took part in a string quartet and studied with Paul Pulford and the Penderecki String Quartet. She studied Suzuki cello with Sally Gross, and received a Kodaly teacher's certificate at the RCM in 1998. She is teaching Suzuki cello and Kodaly musicianship at the North York Suzuki School of Music since 1999. Orsi is the co-founder and owner of Wellington Music performance group and agency, playing with Tapestry New Opera Works and other professional chamber groups.
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CT Lo

CT is a keyboard player and commercial music producer. She has composed music tracks for Bell Canada, Sprint Canada, TD Bank, Toyota, Coffee Time and many others. She is an in-house composer at the Hive Studios. She is an active studio musician, arranger and accompanist. CT did her Jazz keyboard studies at Humber College and took lessons from the late Brian Harris. She completed both Orff and Kodaly certificates from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. CT teaches piano, Musicianship classes, toddler programs and also performs with local artists in the GTA.
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Rob MacDonald

Sincere performances of bold and engaging repertoire have established guitarist Rob MacDonald as one of Canada's most exciting performers of new music. As both a soloist and chamber musician his persistent quest for fresh repertoire regularly leads to the creation of new works and the presentation of rarely heard pieces. He has performed with Soundstreams Canada, Madawaska String Quartet, Contact Contemporary Music, the Canadian Opera Company, Amadeus Choir, Queen of Puddings Music Theatre, and Talisker Players. Alongside virtuoso guitarist, Tracy Anne Smith, he is co-founder of ChromaDuo, an ensemble actively commissioning, premiering, and performing new repertoire throughout North America. A graduate of the Peabody Conservatory, the modern classical guitar's technical and pedagogical birthplace, Rob teaches actively throughout Toronto and has recently undertaken training to teach Suzuki guitar.
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Maureen McReynolds

Maureen received an Honours Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Ottawa in 1982. She was introduced to the Suzuki Method when she attended a piano institute let by Haruko Kataoka at the Eastman School of Music, Rochester N.Y. in 1988. She subsequently studied under Gail Lange, and has taken courses with many distinguished teachers such as Doris Koppelman, Bruce Anderson, and Caroline Fraser among others. Maureen taught at the Seneca Suzuki School of Music and is a co-founder and past director of the North York Suzuki School of Music. She has been a clinician at numerous institutes and workshops including the South Western Ontario Suzuki Institute, Montreal Piano Institute, Oakville Performing Arts Camp, Thunder Bay Piano Institute and the Royal Conservatory Suzuki Workshop. She has also served on the Board of Directors of the Suzuki Association of Ontario.
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Jeanine Noyes

Jeanine earned a Bachelor of Music degree from Queen's University in 1989. She studied the Suzuki method at several institutes and received a long term training with Gail Lange. Jeanine has been teaching piano at the North York Suzuki School since 1992. She also writes songs, has recorded two CDs, and performs regularly. www.jeaninenoyes.com
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Gretchen Paxson-Abberger

Gretchen holds a Bachelor's degree in Music Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, a Master's degree in Historical Performance from the Mannes College of Music, as well a 2 year Long Term Certificate in Suzuki training from the School For Strings in New York City studying with Louise Behrend. Further Suzuki studies have been short-term training courses with the following: Ronda Cole, Daphne Hughes, Allen Lieb, Carol Smith, Ed Sprunger, and Carey Beth Hockett. Gretchen has been teaching and freelancing in Toronto since moving here from New York City in 1994. She teaches all levels at the North York Suzuki School of Music, as well she is the artistic director for the Miles Nadal JCC Suzuki Program, and summer music camp. Gretchen founded "Thanks to Dr. Suzuki Concert Performances", a charitable organization whose mission is to create community among students and teachers of Toronto are Suzuki schools. She approaches the Suzuki philosophy from 2 sides of the Suzuki Triangle, as a teacher and also as a parent of 2 teenagers who have been learning violin by the Suzuki method since they were toddlers.
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Rebecca Sancton

Rebecca began studying Suzuki violin at age 4 ½ and received her BFA Honours in violin performance from York University in 2007. In 1998 and 1999 she was a member of the University of Western Ontario Symphony Orchestra and studied with Gwen Thompson. During her time at York University, she had the opportunity to study classical performance with Peggy McGuire, jazz with Al Henderson, Sundar Viswanathan and Lorne Lofsky, and contemporary improvisation with Casey Sokol and Matt Brubeck. She is a founding member of the fiddle group, Ninth Line, which grew from Saturday morning Suzuki group class around 1992. Ninth Line currently performs at various locations in the CTA. Rebecca completed her Book 1 Suzuki training with Paule Barselou in early 2010, and looks forward to continued training.
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Elizabeth Sherk

BA 1969; Ontario Teacher's Certificate, 1970; RCM Grd. 9 Piano 1999; RCM Early Childhood Music 1997; Suzuki Piano Teacher Training units 1a – 7 including Japanese pedagogy with Haruko Kataoka from 1985. She is also a co-founder of the North York Suzuki School of Music. Elizabeth came to the world of Suzuki through being a Suzuki parent. After seven years of daily listening and playing music with her own three children, she realized that she could use her piano and teaching skills to become a Suzuki piano teacher herself. She values highly the peer mentoring aspect of Suzuki education and is grateful for all she has learned by simply observing in other people's studios. She encourages new parents coming into her studio to foster the same respect for the great value of learning by observation. "Self-reflection is a supreme ability: Give your child life's handle bar".
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Elena Spanu

Elana has been playing the violin since the age of three. She started her studies at the Royal Conservatory of Music where she studied under both the Suzuki and the Royal Conservatory methods. She received her Bachelor of Musical Arts in Performance and Education from the University of Western Ontario. She has also attained an Artist Diploma in baroque violin performance from the University of Toronto, where she studied with Jeanne Lamon and various other Tafelmusik members. Elena freelances with various groups around the city. She also enjoys exploring different mediums, such as playing violin in rock and gypsy bands.
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Marianne Urke-Rapson

Marianne received her Bachelor of Music Degree in Performance Violin from the University of Toronto, Faculty of Music. She has been a member of the Edmonton Symphony and is currently with the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra and has been since 1991. She was concertmaster of the Nepean Symphony in Ottawa and played with the National Arts Center Orchestra and 13 String Chamber Orchestra of Ottawa. Other orchestras she has played with include Hamilton Philharmonic, Symphony Nova Scotia, National Ballet, Esprit, Hull Chamber Orchestra and Thunder Bay Symphony. Her chamber music activities include the Rossingnol Trio in Ottawa and the Cypress String Quartet in Toronto. She has been teaching privately since 1982.
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