A lifelong musician who began violin lessons at the age of 7, Miss Sharon added the viola to her musical life at the age of 13. She holds a Master of Music in Viola Performance from Rice University's Shepherd School of Music in Houston, TX; a Bachelor of Music in Viola Performance from Oberlin Conservatory in Oberlin, OH; and attended The High School for Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, TX. Her early training as a student, and later as a teacher, was with Master Suzuki Violin Teacher Judy Offman in Houston.

Miss Sharon has had almost 20 years of experience teaching violin and viola in public schools, music centers, and privately in her home. Her teaching methods are centered on The Suzuki Method, specializing in working with young children (age 3 and up). She incorporates scales, basic music theory & history, and ear/rhythm training into each child's musical education, and more advanced students are challenged with advanced scales, etudes and repertoire. All teaching is tailored to each student's individual strengths and learning style(s).

Miss Sharon has enjoyed extensive ensemble performing experience in different contexts and locations around the country and the world, including chamber music groups and orchestras in Massachusetts, Ohio, Texas, Oregon, Washington, Russia, and now here in the Four Corners! She plays in the viola section and serves as Personnel Manager/Librarian of the San Juan Symphony, and enjoys collaborating with other area professional musicians to bring great chamber music to the Four Corners region. Additionally, Miss Sharon has developed a beginning string program in Cortez, coaches the viola section of the Durango Youth Symphony, directs the Durango Chamber Music Academy and the Kids with Strings Attached program of the Conservatory Music in the Mountains, and is beginning a Kindermusik program in Durango.

In her spare time, Miss Sharon loves cooking, gardening, projects around the house, watching movies, and playing with her Golden Retrievers!

She continued her studies at San Jose State University, earning her Masters Degree in Piano Performance. There, she studied with Dr. Laurel Brettell.

Kristen began teaching young piano students in 1987 and is a certified Suzuki Piano Instructor. She especially enjoys working with the littlest students who have been as young as three years old.

In addition to teaching, Kristen has been active performing in chamber music concerts while in California and currently in the Four Corners area. Most recently, she has enjoyed collaborating in the concert series, The Dead Composer's Society, based out of Farmington, New Mexico. Her favorite collaboration, however, is sharing parenthood with her husband of 14 years, Stan. Their repertoire includes three children: Kacey (9), Libby (7) and Johnny (3). In the event that there might be some spare time, she enjoys biking, books, cooking, knitting and art.

Ms. Kiefer was in the honors string quartet program at Yale-Norfolk, has played concerts in Germany, Italy, and New England, and is the director of Copley Chamber Players. She is currently a member of the Rhode Island Philharmonic, the Rhode Island Civic Chorale, and Young Audiences of Massachusetts. Under their sponsorship she gives about 100 performances a year in schools. Ms. Kiefer has also played with the Boston Ballet, Hartford, and Portland (ME) Symphonies, and has played in back up orchestras for Judy Collins, Peter Paul and Mary, and Barry Manilow.

Fun facts: Over the last 20 years Ms. Kiefer has swum 3,000 miles at the YMCA, taken bike trips in Ireland and Germany, and gutted and rebuilt a house.

Before he began his teaching career, Lech was the bass player and co-manager of the progressive, award-winning acoustic band "The Hot Strings." Through marketing, accounting, and personal-relations responsibilities, he helped the group get to Nashville to record the album Uncharted with bluegrass legend Pat Flynn (former member of New Grass Revival).

Lech graduated with honors in Music Education and Music Business from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. He performs regularly with the San Juan Symphony, and has taught strings privately for more than eight years.

Lech received his Level 1 Orff Schulwerk certification at the University of Oregon in 2009. Inspired by the experience, Lech started a drum class for upper-elementary students, appropriately named Discipline, Respect, and Unity through Music (D.R.U.M.), originally founded by master Orff teacher Jim Solomon. Lech and professor Kenneth A. Hunt, PhD, published A Case History of Electrical and Musical Industries (EMI) in Journal of Business Case Studies (Volume 5, Number 1, January/February 2009).

After 15 years in Denver, where he worked in church music, served the Arvada Center Chorale as principal accompanist and conducted the semi-professional Rocky Mountain Ringers handbell choir, Scott returned to the Four Corners area in 2004.

In his roles as Minister of Music and Arts at St. Mark's Episcopal Church and Executive Director of the non-profit 3rd Ave. Arts in Durango, Scott created and continues to produce the St. Mark's Recital Series, the Durango Bach Festival, the Durango Chamber Music Festival, the Durango Salsa Festival, the Sacred Arts Festival and more. He directs the choirs and plays Durango's only tracker pipe organ at St. Mark's, and is Associate Conductor of the Durango Choral Society.

He has played for numerous musicals around the area, played for the Diamond Circle Melodrama for two summers, and music directed and accompanied last summer's smash hit Always...Patsy Cline at the Durango Arts Center.