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Faculty:

Göran Berg

Artistic Director/Owner

Mr. Berg holds a Bachelor's Degree in Violin Pedagogy from the Royal Swedish Music Academy at Stockholm University, and a Master's Degree in Music Performance and Suzuki Pedagogy in the String Development Program at the Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.

He is strongly dedicated to the teachings of Dr. Shinichi Suzuki, and his own teacher, Professor John Kendall. He has 36 years of music teaching experience, the last 30 years including the Suzuki Method. He conducts parent and teacher education training classes throughout the United States and Europe.

Mr. Berg teaches violin, and viola, both Suzuki and traditional methods. He conducts orchestra and coaches chamber music. Among other music styles, he likes to utilize fiddle tunes as part of his teaching as a complement to classical instrumental studies.

Besides his time with SSA, he is also director of the Suzuki Program at the Crowden Music Center in Berkeley. He teaches violin at Crowden and conducts the Crowden Summer Suzuki Workshop, formerly the SSA Suzuki Workshop.

Mr. Berg has a long background in voice and singing. He has an educated barytone from many years of voice studies in Stockholm. As a member of several choirs and choruses in Sweden his repertoire streches from medivial music to contemporary works. As a member of the Stockholm Motet Choir he can be heard on the BIS CD "Scandinavian Choir Music." He also performs on the Erato recording of "Figure Humaine" by F. Polenc, with the Stockholm YMCA Chamber Chorus. Well-known chorus conductors of great importance for him are Dan Olof Stenlund, Professor at the Copenhagen Music Conservatory, and Eric Ericsson, Professor emeritus at the Royal Swedish Music Academy in Stockholm.

Goran Berg writes original arrangements of Scandinavian fiddle music, both for violins and orchestra/string quartet. His "Fiddle Heart" books are used by educators internationally.  See website www.fiddleheartmusic.com. He also has published string arrangements in the new Eclectic Strings Series, Book 1, at Alfred Publications, see another page.
gberg@sycamorestringsacademy.com

Christina Berg

Guitar Teacher and Kindermusik Educator/Co-Owner of SSA with husband Goran.

Mrs. Berg completed music studies at the Royal Music Academy in Stockholm. She was a music and elementary school teacher for fifteen years in Sweden, and has taught guitar in the Tri-Valley Area for over a decade. She is a certified Kindermusik Educator, Montessori instructor, and author of music education materials used to train other music educators.  At SSA, she teaches her own guitar program, called Guitar with Christina. It emphasizes chord play as accompaniment to own singing. Her Kindermusik classes are organized under the auspices of Livermore Area Recreation and Park District (LARPD).

Christina and Goran Berg are parents of three children, now adults, and to one grand child. All three children took Suzuki violin and cello throughout their childhood. While the children still lived with their parents, the Berg family furnished a family string quartet, The Berg Quartet. It performed at numerous church events at the Swedish Church in San Francisco. The quartet can be heard on the Fiddle Heart CD recordings, complement to the books with the same name.
cberg@sycamorestringsacademy.com

 Marcie Brown

Cello Teacher, Suzuki and other methods. She has a Master's Degree in classical cello from the Manhattan School of Music. She has played with professional symphonies throughout the US and her last big appointment was with Cirque de Soleil's "O" show in Las Vegas for two years. She has produced several CD recordings with own compositions. She has taught private lessons and workshops to students of all ages and levels, and she was the head of the strings department at the Oakland School for the Arts recently. As well as teaching classical music, Marcie specializes in improvisation, which she likes to bring into her teaching as a supplement whenever she can.

She has started her Suzuki teacher training at the Colorado Suzuki Institute last summer and have earned her first teacher certification. She currently takes regular Suzuki teacher training from the renowned cello teacher trainer Barbara Wampner in San Francisco.

Marcie resides in Alameda and is mother of Isabelle who takes cello at the Suzuki program at Crowden Music Center in Berkeley.

KC Still

Violist and violinist KC Still recently moved from the New York area where she divided her time between performing and teaching. She maintained a private teaching studio and after teaching in the Suzuki program at Elizabeth Morrow School in Englewood, NJ, KC took Suzuki teacher training with Allen Lieb. She become certified in Violin Books 1, 2 and 3. She has been a member of the Suzuki faculty at the Spring School in Tenafly, NJ, since 2001, and was also member the faculty of the Hudson River School of Music in Dobbs Ferry, NY. With her colleagues at Spring School she, for the 5^th year this year, conducts The Spring Violin Camp, a three week Suzuki violin workshop in Tenafly, NJ.

KC Still is a California native. She attended California State University at Long Beach as a violin performance major before attending Manhattan School of Music as a viola performance major studying with Arianna Bronne and Raphael Bronstein. As a scholarship and fellowship recipient, KC attended numerous master classes with notable viola teachers including Donald McInnes, Karen Tuttle, Walter Trampler and Gerald Stannick.

KC was active as a New York freelance orchestral and chamber music performer appearing in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Metropolitan Opera House, Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall and the State Theater, the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Her performance work included everything from major symphonic work to Broadway shows.  In 1995 and 1997 KC toured Japan with both The New York Pops and the New York Symphonic Ensemble.  In the spring of 1998 she performed in two concerts with the American Symphony Orchestra in Sao Paulo, Brazil.  KC was a member of the orchestra of the Sarasota Opera Association during the 2000 and 2001 seasons.

As a member of the Fairfield Orchestra, KC can be heard on the ECM recording of internationally known pianist and composer Keith Jarrett.  She can also be heard on the Nonesuch recording of The Desert Music by Steve Reich with the Brooklyn Philharmonic.

KC currently resides in Richmond. In addition to teaching violin and viola at SSA, she also teaches at the Crowden Music Center in Berkeley and in the Napa Suzuki Program.

Ying Quan