Faculty Bios:

Kenny Blacklock

Kenny Blacklock enjoys playing a variety of fiddle styles, including old-time, Celtic, and Bluegrass. He has been teaching fiddle and other instruments for over thirty years. In addition to the fiddle, he plays mandolin, guitar, piano, fife, pennywhistle, recorder, and musical saw. He is a member of two local bands, Sugar Moon, a Western Swing band, and the Chaos Wranglers, a contra-dance band. Kenny has been a regular competitor and judge at fiddle contests throughout California. He is the grandson of musical saw player, Charlie Blacklock, who was inducted into the American Old-Time Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999. Kenny studied violin performance and music composition at Berklee College of Music and San Francisco State University.

Susanne DiVincenzo

Susanne DiVincenzo, Bass and Cello, is a founding member of Alive!, the women’s jazz quintet active in the Bay Area in the 1970’s and 80’s. For 20 years she lived in New Jersey, playing in the Atlantic City Casinos for Andrea Bocelli, Tony Bennett, Natalie Cole, Sarah Brightman and others. She returned to the Bay Area in 2016 and has been freelancing in classical orchestras and jazz ensembles. She has been teaching jazz bass in workshops at the California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley. She currently plays bass with City Swing Big Band and cello in Sven’s Masterful Orchestra.

Carlyn Kessler

Carlyn Kessler, cellist and pedagogue based in San Francisco, earned her Master of Music and Bachelor of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music. She is certified to teach Suzuki cello from Every Child Can through Books 1-10. Carlyn currently maintains a private studio in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco and at Holy Names University Preparatory Division in Oakland. Previously residing in Cleveland, OH, Carlyn has also served on the faculty of The College of Wooster and the Music Settlement, where she was the Department Head of Strings.

Carlyn has performed extensively both internationally and locally. An avid chamber musician, Carlyn has performed in a weeklong residency with the Chamber Music Society of Detroit, in venues such as Carnegie Hall and the Chautauqua Institution, and in numerous alternative settings including popular jazz clubs and art spaces across the Bay Area. She was recently selected to be an Emerging Artist Fellow in Chamber Music Silicon Valley's 2018-2019 season, which will include numerous performances of seasoned and contemporary ensemble works throughout the Bay Area, a tour with contemporary world music ensemble Common Sounds, and summer residency in Tijuana, Mexico. She has performed at several summer music festivals including the Banff Chamber Music Residency, Chamber Music at Domaine Forget, Toronto Summer Music Festival and the London Master Classes, among others.

Diane Egli

Diane Egli was a recipient of the California Arts Council Grant for the school year 1987-88, teaching strings for the San Jose Unified School District in the Almaden Valley. She is a past president of Suzuki Music Association of California and past president and past Treasurer of Suzuki Association of Northern California. As a Sanc member she has directed many Graduations, playins, and teacher workshops. She has been Chairman of the Sanc Family Overnight since 1990. Diane earned her Master’s Degree in music, Suzuki specialist and was graduate assistant to John Kendall. Her BA degree in music is from San Jose State University where she was a violin student of Dr. Gibson Walters. She is a former violinist of the San Jose Symphony, Santa Clara Philharmonic, Minneapolis Orchestra and St Paul Civic Orchestra. In the fall of 1983 she was fortunate to be able to spend time in Matsumoto and have violin lessons with Dr. Suzuki. Diane has been teaching Suzuki Violin and viola in her private studio since returning to California in 1985. Her students participate in the MTAC, Certificate of Merit and are always eligible for the Honors Recitals. She has been the string coordinator for the Certificate of Merit in the Santa Clara branch for over ten years. Her students also participate in the Sanc graduations. In the 70’a she was teaching all string instruments at six elementary schools in Minnesota where she also directed the Honor's Orchestra which was chosen to play at the MENC convention. In the 70’s she performed at Henri’s Cafe in St Paul, Mn in two different groups. The Double E’s and Green Egli and Ham. They played classical, semi pops and bluegrass. Diane loves to play Chamber music and spends one week each summer at adult workshops playing chamber music all day every day and plays in the concert each day.

Marguerite Jayasimha

Marguerite recently returned to San Diego after living in Singapore and the San Francisco Bay Area the past many years. While in San Francisco, Marguerite was the Director of the Advanced Suzuki Institute at Stanford University and the director of the Bay Area Suzuki School of Music. Marguerite also taught strings in the Mountain View school District at the elementary and middle school level. She enjoyed developing viola and cello skills and working with students of all ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds truly bringing to life Dr. Suzuki’s vision that “Every Child Can!”. Marguerite is excited to return to San Diego where she co-founded and served as a director of the San Diego Suzuki School of Music (www.sandiegosuzukischool.com). She has returned to the San Diego Suzuki School team and is a member of the San Diego Suzuki Institute administration and faculty.

Marguerite began her training as a violinist at age five, developing a lifelong love of music. She is a trained Suzuki Early Childhood Education Teacher and Suzuki Violin Teacher. Marguerite also has training and experience in Kodaly and Music Mind Games. Marguerite performed with the La Jolla Symphony, Redwood Symphony and numerous string quartets. She developed a love of Indian classical music and plays East/West fusion with her husband, an accomplished Tabla player. During her two-year stay in Singapore in between San Diego and the Bay Area, Marguerite taught children from many different countries and backgrounds and enjoyed being a student herself, learning the Sitar! She was an active member of the International Women’s Choir of Singapore singing, playing violin and serving as a substitute director.

Marguerite loves meeting and collaborating with other Suzuki teachers. She attended the 2013 Suzuki World Convention in Matsumoto, Japan, the birthplace of the Suzuki Method. She is a member of the Suzuki Association of the Americas and served on the board of the Suzuki Music Association of California, San Diego Branch and Northern California Branch.

Marjorie Lin

Marjorie Lin received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Wichita and her Master’s degree in Violin Performance from the University of Illinois where she studied with Paul Rolland. She has attended Tanglewood and performed with the Chicago Little Symphony, the Chicago Chamber Orchestra, the Wichita Symphony, the Syracuse Symphony and the Peninsula Festival Orchestra, Wisconsin. Ms. Lin became interested in Suzuki Talent Education in 1965 and has been teaching in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1970. She received her Suzuki training at numerous institutes in San Francisco, San Diego and Palo Alto with Dr. Suzuki and other prominent teachers. She has taught at the Stanford Advanced Suzuki Institutes and LA Suzuki Institutes. Through the Music Teachers’ Association of California, she has been state evaluator chair north and Certificate of Merit Strings coordinator during the past 30 years. Marjorie has had violin students who have pursued studies in violin at University of Michigan, University of Miami, and Juilliard.

Julie Mellon

Julie Mellon is a professional violinist and Suzuki teacher in Marin. She has a studio in Sausalito and at Dominican University. She started playing violin in the Suzuki Method when she was 4 years old and continued on to receive her Bachelors of Music in Violin Performance at the University of Colorado and her Masters of Music in Violin Performance with an emphasis in Suzuki Pedagogy at the Hartt School of Music. Her long term teacher trainers include William Starr, Linda Fiore and Teri Einfeldt. She has continued to keep up her education by attending many institutes and workshops in the area.

Julie plays classical, rock, jazz and fiddle in many musical groups in the bay area. She is Concert Master of her orchestra, the Lucas Valley Chamber Orchestra. You can find her on several albums on Itunes including Lyra Stars new album, A thousand Dreams. She leads the string section of an 18 piece jazz band that performs in San Francisco.

She has been very involved with the Suzuki Music Association of Northern California in her time here since 2004 and has served many years on the board.

Tina Najibi

Tina Najibi is a software engineer with 30+ years in the Electronic Design Automation industry. She was one of the original founders of the Analog Division at Cadence Design Systems and is currently working at Mentor Graphics, a Siemen's Business in the Analog Mixed-Signal division. She volunteer teaches 2nd grade Sunday school for 18 years and has held a number of volunteer roles at her student’s elementary, middle and high school over the course of 13 years, including holding major roles in one of the main school fundraisers. Tina is a Suzuki violin parent of 16 years (two kids, age 3 and 4 until graduation) and has attended almost every Suzuki event and volunteered at several during that time. At Camp, Tina volunteers with the art classes and free time activities along with handling registration and maintaining part of the main Nor Cal Suzuki website.

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