Institute Faculty
Alyssa Beckmann (RYT RCYT) is the Founder and Director of the Kansas City Suzuki Academy and Institute. Ms. Beckmann holds degrees from Vanderbilt (BM), and Boston Universities (MM), in Viola and Violin Performance and completed post-graduate studies in viola with Bruno Giuranna in Lugano, Switzerland at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana. She was a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center for three summers, where she worked closely with members of the Juilliard, Takacs and Guarneri String Quartets and has performed and presented at the International Viola Congress.
Ms. Beckmann has served on the faculty of the American Suzuki Institute, the Colorado Suzuki Institute, the Ithaca Suzuki Institute, Point CounterPoint, and the Heartland Chamber Music Festival. She has presented at the American Viola Society International Congress, and Suzuki Association of the Americas Conferences. She was raised a Suzuki student and has been an active teacher for the last two decades, studying with many teacher trainers including her mother Julia Hardie, William Preucil, Teri Einfeldt and Carol Smith. She was the Upper Strings Coordinator of the Greenwich Suzuki Academy, where she taught violin, viola and chamber music for many years. Ms. Beckmann is a frequent substitute with the Kansas City Symphony. In her spare time, she enjoys teaching yoga and spending time with her cellist husband Matt Beckmann and their two children. Alyssa is a registered Yoga Teacher and Children’s Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance.
Dr. Julia Hardie is a Suzuki Association of the Americas viola teacher trainer. Julia was the founder and director of the Central Texas String Academy in Waco, Texas for forty years. Her background includes a DMA in Viola from the University of Iowa under William, Preucil, Sr. and study with violists, Bruno Giuranna and Paul Doktor. Julia has served on the faculties of NM St. U. and Baylor U, as conductor of the Waco Youth Orchestra, and is past president of the North Texas Suzuki Association. Julia served as principal and assistant principal violist of the Waco Symphony for forty years. She often presentsat workshops where she is an advocate for starting viola study at an early age, and she teaches at Suzuki Institutes throughout the country.
Dr. Lani Hamilton is Assistant Professor in Music Education at The University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory where she teaches string techniques and undergraduate and graduate music pedagogy courses. An active teacher, Hamilton taught elementary and middle school strings in Florida and Texas. She has served on the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin String Project, one of the finest programs for the training of teachers and the development of young string students within the U.S., where she taught ensemble classes, private lessons, and early childhood classes. She has also served as coordinator for the UT String Project outreach program at UT Elementary School, and co-founded the Suzuki violin program at Austin Montessori School in Texas.
Hamilton completed her doctoral work in Music and Human Learning at The Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin. An active performer, teacher, and researcher, Hamilton also conducts research and presents on topics related to music learning, classroom education, and music practice. She has been invited to present her work at numerous meetings of regional, national, and international organizations, including The Neurosciences and Music Conference at Harvard Medical School, The International Symposium on Performance Science, The American String Teacher’s Association Conference, and The National Association for Music Education Conference. Prior to completing her doctorate, Hamilton was a violinists with the Southwest Florida Symphony and served as principal second violin of Opera Naples. She has performed at festivals throughout the United States, including the Sunflower Chamber Music Festival and the Brevard Music Center as a chamber music fellow.
Violinist and pianist Michael MacLaughlin is an active teacher and performer in the Kansas City area. He received both a Bachelor’s Degree (2011) and Master’s Degree (2019) from Baylor University, and has since established himself as an active member of Waco’s music scene. As an orchestral musician, Michael has performed with the Baylor Symphony Orchestra, Temple Symphony Orchestra, the Waco Symphony Orchestra, the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra, and the Abilene Philharmonic.
An avid chamber musician, Michael has also organized and performed in several chamber music concerts including the inaugural Clear Lake Chamber Ensemble performance in 2015, as well as serving as the founder of the annual Academie Musique Scholarship Fundraiser concert series, which has raised thousands of dollars in scholarship funds for students who are otherwise unable to afford private instruction. Michael has also been invited to participate in numerous summer programs, including the prestigious Heifetz International Music Institute, the Round Top Festival Institute, and the National Orchestral Institute.
In addition to an active performing schedule, Michael is also deeply involved in music education, maintaining a studio of over 30 private students from ages 3 to 18. Michael is finishing his doctoral studies in violin performance under the instruction of Professor Benny Kim at the University of Missouri Kansas City, including a Master degree in Music Theory.
Dr. Nicholas Hardie teaches cello, chamber music, and advanced performance techniques at the Greenwich Suzuki Academy, which he directs hand in hand with his wife, Heather.
An avid chamber musician, Nick was a founding member of the Satori Quartet with whom he held a residency at the University of Colorado at Boulder and an apprenticeship with the world-renown Takacs Quartet. He has also been heavily influenced by both current and former members of the Juilliard Quartet with whom he worked extensively, including mentorship through the exclusive Juilliard String Quartet Seminar and multiple years attending Kneisel Hall. His wide range of professional chamber music engagements have included the Aspen Music Festival’s Winter Chamber Music Series, the Marsh Chapel Cantata Series regularly broadcast on WBUR, Boston’s NPR station, and faculty chamber concerts at Boston University and Peabody Conservatory. He has also soloed with orchestras across the country, from Connecticut to Minnesota to Texas, and performs locally as principal cellist of the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra and the Greater Bridgeport Symphony.
Nicholas Hardie holds a Doctorate in cello performance from Boston University, a Master of Music degree from Peabody Conservatory, and a Bachelor of Music from Baylor University. A dedicated and passionate teacher, Nick has previously served on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory’s Preparatory Department, and has taught for Manhattan School of Music Precollege division as a long-term substitute. He has taught for the David Einfeldt Chamber Music Seminar, and the Baylor University intensive String Quartet Seminar. He has also been hired to assist the cello sections of Dartmouth College and the Siew Toh Conservatory of Music at the National University of Singapore, and held a graduate assistantship, conducting and teaching both graduate and undergraduate cellists at Boston University through the Orchestral Program. He attended the Juilliard Quartet Seminar, Takacs Quartet Seminar, Kent Blossom Music Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival through Yale, Round Top Festival Institute, and spent three wonderful summers at Kneisel Hall.
Jeremy Martin is a native of Olathe, KS and started playing at the age of 9. As a high school student he worked with Trilla Ray-Carter, performed concertos with the Olathe Youth Symphony and the Olathe Community Orchestra, and was a member of several select ensembles. He studied Music Education at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music where he took lessons from Carter Enyeart. Following his undergraduate degree, he continued his cello studies with Kurt Fowler of Indiana State University and then went to the University of Illinois where he completed his Masters in Music Education and worked with Louis Bergonzi and cellist Ani Aznavoorian.
Currently, Mr. Martin teaches middle school orchestra at Mission Trail in Olathe where he has been teaching since its opening in 2010. He has taught private cello lessons for 25 years and has worked with students in grades 5-12. His favorite moment of his educational career was getting to see his students perform with the Piano Guys on stage in downtown KC. He lives in Merriam, KS with his wife and two kids.
Beth Titterington has been involved in the Suzuki Method since the autumn of 1972 when she first heard the Japanese Talent Education Tour Group. She has studied with many people in the Talent Education field including, most importantly, Dr. Suzuki. She traveled to the American Suzuki Institute in the summer of 1973 to study the Method. She went back each summer thanks to the encouragement of the director, Margery Aber. Mrs. Titterington is currently a Violin Teacher Trainer for the Suzuki Association of the Americas and served on the SAA Board of Directors from 2006-2009. She founded an SAA regional affiliate, the Heart of America Suzuki Association, in 1979. From 1975 to the present, she has taught at hundreds of Suzuki Institutes and Workshops in the United States, Canada and in England. She received her M.M. from the University of Missouri ( KC) Conservatory in 1977 and then studied the baroque violin with Marilyn McDonald at Oberlin and Michaela Comberti in London. Mrs. Titterington has been adjunct faculty at both the University of Missouri (KC) Conservatory and the University of Kansas. She continues to maintain her private studio, Kansas City Talent Education. As a baroque violinist and gambist, she and her husband John directed the Kansas City Period Orchestra for 20 years. She continues to enjoy teaching children to play the violin and training new Suzuki teachers ………..both of them equally!
Patti Leddy, Zumba & Yoga
At the age of four, Patti started taking classes in creative movement and has been “creatively moving” ever since. She attended tap, jazz and ballet classes until college when she became a member of her university’s dance company. A career in education kept her busy teaching high school Speech, Drama, English and Journalism, but she continued to keep moving taking various aerobics and dance classes when possible.
She received her Zumba license in 2006 training with the Zumba creator Beto Perez. Shortly after that, she became licensed to teach Zumba Kids and Zumba Kids Jr. She is an ACE and AFAA Certified Group Exercise Instructor and 200-hr registered yoga teacher. She currently provides Zumba Kids programs at elementary schools and teaches yoga in early childhood, elementary and middle schools. At least once a week, you will find her traveling around Kansas City presenting her themed kids yoga programs in many branches of the Mid-Continent Public Library System. She also teaches adult Zumba, Zumba Gold and Zumba Toning classes.