Laura Barnette began playing viola in her school when she was ten years old. She majored in music and graduated with a degree in music education from the University of Kentucky. In 1972, she began teaching Suzuki violin with Lexington Talent Education under the tutelage of Kasue Baber and, in 1974, Mrs. B started the Suzuki program at Old Dominion University in Virginia with 38 beginners. After moving to Colorado in 1987, she audited Suzuki Pedagogy classes at CU with Dr. William Starr. Mrs. B has been teaching in the Denver area for over twenty-five years and began teaching with WDSS in 2014. Beginning in the fall of 2019, she became WDSS Lead Teacher, following in the footsteps of her daughter, Annie Barnette, who was the founder of WDSS. For thirteen years, Mrs. B was the director of the local Summer Strings music camp, and was co-director Arts Advantage Summer Academy. Mrs. B enjoys working with young beginning and intermediate students and her greatest joy as a violin teacher is unlocking the secret of her students’ learning potential. Mrs. B and her husband have five adult children and live in the west Highlands area of Denver.

Gill Kuroiwa has played the cello for over 20 years. She recently moved to Colorado from Phoenix, Arizona where she was an active teacher and performer. She has performed throughout Arizona with The Phoenix Symphony, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Arizona Opera, West Valley Symphony, and Tucson Repertory Orchestra, with whom she toured Japan for a series of concerts in 2015.

Gill is an active member of the Suzuki Association of Colorado the American String Teachers Association. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Denver and a Master of Music degree from Arizona State University. One of her favorite memories of her musical studies is studying abroad in London for a semester.

Gill's teaching style is nurturing and individualized to each student's needs. She stresses the Suzuki Triangle where the parent and teacher's role is to support the student in their learning and love of music.

Sandra Miller currently resides in Golden, CO where she has been teaching cello for over twenty years. Her teaching is informed by having experienced all three parts of the Suzuki triangle: teacher, parent, and student. She is currently certified to teach Suzuki Cello Books 1-6 and has trained with Dr. William Starr, Dr. Tanya Carey, Carey Cheney, Avi Friedlander, Blake Brasch, and Heather Hadley. She has also trained with Dr. Jeremy Dittus of the Dalcroze School of the Rockies. She holds a BA from Wesleyan University and a MM in cello performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder where she studied with Judith Glyde and members of the Takács String Quartet.

An active performer in the greater Denver area, she is a core member of the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado which has been recognized by Early Music America as having “a national reputation as a first-rate period-instrument ensemble.” She enjoys performing on both baroque cello and viola da gamba with the BCOC and has collaborated with nationally and internationally acclaimed early music artists as well as members of the Broken Box Mime Theater, local hip-hop artists, poets and writers. She can be heard on BCOC recordings including Corelli’s Circle (2018) and Resounding (2020).

A Suzuki parent for over 14 years, Sandy understands the critical importance of community and parental support in nurturing the whole child through their musical journey. She is pleased to be joining the West Denver Suzuki Strings team in the Fall of 2023.

Ms. Autumn Pepper has demonstrated a strong passion for teaching and performing. With over 10 years of teaching experience and nearly 20 years of playing experience, she hopes to use her qualifications to the betterment of others.

Ms. Autumn received her Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance (Magna Cum Laude) and Suzuki (Books 1-8) Certification from the University of Denver, Lamont School of Music under the tutelage of Mark Rush and Kathleen Spring. From the University of Colorado, Boulder, she earned her Master of Music in Violin Pedagogy and Performance where she studied with Margaret Berg, Harumi Rhodes, and Claude Sim. Throughout her training she has collaborated with world-class players such as the Takács Quartet, Brian Lewis, and Midori.

Well established in Colorado, she has taught for Boulder Suzuki Strings, Castle Rock Music, Denver Musical Arts, Denver Young Artists Orchestra, El Sistema Colorado, Lamont School of Music Summer Academy, CU Boulder Summer Academy, and Primavera Place. She has performed with the Boulder Philharmonic, Cheyenne Symphony, Denver Philharmonic, Englewood Arts, Fort Collins Symphony, Greeley Philharmonic, Longmont Symphony, and Pueblo Symphony (not to mention OPIUO, Evanescence, and at Red Rocks!).

Ms. Autumn hopes to never stop honing her craft or developing the passion for life that music inspires, and she knows she can pass that wonderment and excitement on to her students. She is happily welcoming new students into her studio from age levels four-and-a-half through adulthood on both violin and viola. Ms. Autumn is especially passionate about honing the craft of intermediate and advanced students.

Zachary Ragent is a violinist based in Denver, CO. Originally from San Mateo, CA, Zach now maintains an active and varied career as a performer and educator. He is currently a member of the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, the Britt Festival Orchestra (OR), and the Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra (WI), and was formerly a member of the New World Symphony.

While embracing his role as a performer, Zach is also a dedicated teacher and a firm believer that music should serve and strengthen the community around it. He has completed Suzuki training with both Andrea Yun and Mark Mutter, and has taught for el Sistema based programs in both California and Michigan. Zach loves working with students of all ages and abilities, and hopes to guide them to be curious and adventurous on their journey with the instrument.

Zach holds both a Master’s and a Specialist’s degree in violin performance from the University of Michigan, and a Bachelor’s in violin performance from the University of California, Santa Cruz. When not playing the violin, Zach enjoys running, cooking, reading, and most anything related to the outdoors.

A native of Golden, Colorado, Crystal Schneckenburger is a classically trained violinist. She has a great love of orchestral music. She loves historical playing and has experimented with period instruments. She enjoys chamber music and has played with numerous types of ensembles. This includes string quartets, violin quartets, string trios, piano trios and violin piano duos. In addition, she has performed and premiered new music at the Pendulum New Music concert series, a concert series designed for up-and-coming composers. After seeing her cousin, a professional fiddler perform in New England, Crystal begged her parents for a violin and began playing at age seven.

A love of kids has led her to teach private music lessons to students of various ages and Crystal has been teaching violin since the age of sixteen. She has taught students from the age of three through adult. She has completed Suzuki Training in Levels 1-4. In addition to Colorado, Crystal has performed in Chicago as well as in Italy with the Florentia Consort Program. She often plays with the Cheyenne Symphony, the Boulder Symphony and the Colorado Korean Chorus.

She received her Master of Music from DePaul University where she studied with Ann Setzer. For her Bachelor of Music at University of Colorado at Boulder, she studied with Harumi Rhodes and Lina Bahn. Previous teachers include Allegra Wermuth, Robyn Sosa and Laura Barnette. In addition to playing the violin, Crystal enjoys reading, knitting, hiking, and spending time with friends and family.

Ms. Lannie is a contemporary violinist from Denver who performs at 80+ private events annually and has been a teacher at West Denver Suzuki Strings since it was founded. Ms. Lannie specializes in “alternative styles,” which means she has extensive training and experience with performing and teaching non-classical styles of music. She received training in this domain from a summer program at Berklee College of Music in 2009 and continues to receive regular guidance from Christian Howes who is a top jazz violinist in the world and is known as the leading educator for alternative styles on strings. Ms. Lannie deeply enjoys teaching musical improvisation to students to bring laughter and creativity into the classroom.

Ms. Lannie credits a lot of her abilities as a versatile violin performer to her own Suzuki upbringing which gave her very strong technical ability to then be able to explore other genres more easily. In high school Lannie toured internationally twice with the Denver Young Artists Orchestra and went on to perform with the Lamont Symphony Orchestra in college. Her non-classical career highlights include being a long time member of Denver's Westword-award-winning band the Pinkhawks; performing at the Five Points Jazz Festival 2023, recording for numerous local bands, and performing at Dazzle Jazz multiple times.