​Kelly Christ
Ms. Kelly has been teaching violin and viola for over 15 years and has experience teaching students aged 3-83.  She started playing the violin with the Suzuki method when she was 5 years old.  She has taken both violin and viola lessons with Margaret Shimizu, Samuel Goh, and Elisa Boynton.  She received a B.A. in Psychology from Lewis & Clark College (in Portland, OR), which she has found to be profoundly helpful in her teaching.  Her Suzuki training includes a 2 year apprenticeship with Martha Shackford (Violin Books 1-10 & Viola Books 1-3),  Oregon Suzuki Institute training with Betsy Stuen-Walker (Viola Books 3-4), and the Suzuki Principles in Action course with Susan Baer.  She performed professionally with dozens of groups in Portland, before relocating to her hometown of Sierra Madre.  In addition to private lessons, she also coaches the viola sections of the Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestras and is the Administrative Coordinator of the Los Angeles Suzuki Institute. She is a proud member of the Suzuki Association of the Americas, the Suzuki Music Association of California-Los Angeles, and the Pasadena Suzuki Music Program. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, taking walks with her puggle, watching TV shows with her husband, and playing games and music with her 2 sons.

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Suzuki Method
The Suzuki method is a music curriculum and teaching philosophy dating from the mid-20th century, created by Japanese violinist and pedagogue Shinichi Suzuki (1898–1998). The method aims to create an environment for learning music which parallels the linguistic environment of acquiring a native language. Suzuki believed that this environment would also help to foster good moral character.