Faculty

Katie Carpenter is a dedicated violinist and teacher with a lifelong passion for music. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from Furman University and Masters degrees in Violin Performance and Suzuki Pedagogy from East Carolina University.

Katie teaches violin and viola to students ages 3 to 86. Many of her students perform with the Charlotte Symphony Youth Orchestra, Western Piedmont Youth Symphony, and the Youth Orchestra of Charlotte. Her students have earned scholarships to study violin and viola performance at the collegiate level. In addition to private Suzuki lessons, Katie also teaches violin at Belmont Abbey College.

Beyond teaching, Katie serves on the board of the Gaston Music Education Foundation. Her performances experience includes concerts in Sweden, France, Germany, and at Disney World, as well as local performances with the Heartstrings Strings Quartet and the Charlotte Civic Orchestra.

Katie lives in Belmont, North Carolina, with her husband, their three daughters (all of whom are learning violin), and their goldendoodle. She enjoys learning new things, plays bridge weekly with friends and is picking up Mahjong this summer.

Mrs. Betsy Fee is a native of Knoxville, Tennessee where she was a student of the Suzuki Method under the direction of William J. Starr, who is one of the founding fathers of Suzuki in the United States. She received her Bachelors of Music Performance from the University of Tennessee where she was a member of the Gamma Beta Phi Society. She then continued her graduate and Suzuki pedagogy studies with William Starr and Hiroko Driver.

After her graduate studies, she taught at Carson Newman University where she was an adjunct teacher and started the first Suzuki program at CNU. Betsy also taught as a Suzuki instructor at the University of Tennessee.

Betsy now lives in Greenville, S.C. where she has had a private studio for over 30 years and currently plays in many regional orchestras including the ASO, CO, GSO, HSO, and the KSO. Betsy was former principal second violin with the GSO and KSO. She has done extensive studio recording work and church music as well as performed with artists such as Rod Stewart, Smokey Robinson, Buddy Rich, and Mannheim Steamroller. As a sought after clinician for institutes and workshops, Betsy has taught in North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Virginia, Florida, Texas, Georgia, Kentucky, and Ohio. She also serves on the Board of Directors for SASC.

Betsy lives with her husband Charles and their rather active dog Rowdy.

Stacy Garner, violin, is a Suzuki Violin Teacher Trainer and a Suzuki Strings Specialist in the Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD in North Texas, where she teaches private and group Suzuki lessons and co-conducts the HEB Suzuki Strings Elementary Honor Orchestra.

Formerly the Faculty and Artistic Director of the Intermountain Suzuki String Institute, the Suzuki Program Director at the Gifted Music School in Salt Lake City, Utah, and President of the Suzuki Association of Utah, Stacy has a degree in Violin Performance from the University of Utah where she studied with Gerald Elias and Mischa Boguslavsky. Ms. Garner has completed hundreds of hours of Suzuki training, primarily with Edmund Sprunger, Jeanne Grover, Linda Fiore, Mark Mutter, Cathy Lee, Carey Beth Hockett and others, and is truly passionate about Suzuki Education. Stacy has presented educational sessions to both parents and teachers at state, national and international Suzuki conferences and conventions and is a frequent contributor to the Journal of the Suzuki Association of the Americas. Stacy is on faculty at Suzuki workshops and institutes across the United States and internationally, and has been featured presenter for the Suzuki Association of the America’s “Parents as Partners” series. Stacy is an active freelance performer on both violin and violin in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. 

In April of 2018, Stacy was awarded the Suzuki Association of the America’s Certificate of Achievement, an award given to teachers that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to excellence in their teaching, and in 2023, Stacy became a Violin Teacher Trainer with the Suzuki Association of the Americas. Stacy is a Suzuki mom to five children: a violist, a violinist, a pianist, and two double bassists, all of whom provide her most in-depth Suzuki training.

The Classical Voice of North Carolina described violist and violinist Kirsten Swanson as a “stunning musician with flawless technique combined with that unique ‘viola’ sound that can melt your soul.”  Feeling equally at ease with “new” and “old” music, in an orchestra or solo, Dr. Swanson enjoys a diverse career that has taken her all over the world.

A committed teacher, Kirsten has studied Suzuki pedagogy with almost too many amazing teachers to list (but I’ll try): Edmund Sprunger, April Losey, Sarah Montzka, Laurie Scott, Joanne Martin, Betsy Stuen-Walker, James Hutchins, and her beloved childhood teacher, Joanne Bath, and holds a Graduate Certificate in Suzuki Pedagogy from East Carolina University. During the summers, she teaches at the North Carolina Suzuki Institute in Greenville, NC and at various camps and festivals throughout the region.

Over the course of her career, she has started hundreds of children on the violin and viola, both privately, and as the head of the Suzuki violin and viola programs at both the prestigious Oakwood School in Greenville, NC, and the Friendship Day School for the Sciences and Math in Charlotte, NC. Equally at home teaching adults and young children, she has guest taught at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, Wake Forest University, and Elon College. She is currently an adjunct professor of viola, violin, and chamber music at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte and maintains a private studio out of her home.

An experienced chamber musician, Dr. Swanson has collaborated with such artists as Schlomo Mintz, Garth Knox, Jon Nakamatsu, and members of the JACK, Pacifica, and Ciompi String Quartets.
As an orchestral musician, Dr. Swanson held the position of Assistant Principal viola with the Charlotte Symphony from 2005-2007 and 2019-2020. She has won positions in the Winston-Salem Symphony and Greensboro Symphonies and has played full-time as a section member with the North Carolina Symphony in 2013, 2018-2019, and will do so again in the upcoming 2022-2023 season!

Music has taken Kirsten across the United States, Europe, and South America as a guest violist in festivals in Holland, England, France, Italy, Austria, Spain, Peru, and Chile.  Nationally, she participated in the Garth Newel Chamber Festival, Kneisel Hall, and, as a New Horizons Fellow, the Aspen Music Festival in Aspen, Colorado.

She holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, the Longy School of Music, East Carolina University, and the University of North Carolina in Greensboro. Her teachers include John Graham, Roger Tapping, and Scott Rawls.