Faculty

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With more than 15 years teaching experience, Debbie brings together the Suzuki philosophy of teaching with her own flair and love of all music.

Debbie holds two degrees in Violin Performance from the University of Toronto and the University of Michigan. Her primary teachers are Geri Arnold, Dr. Robert Skelton, Mark Fewer and Yehonatan Berick. 

Debbie began her pedagogy training with Robert Culver at the University of Michigan. Debbie continued her training in Suzuki pedagogy with noted trainers Edmund Sprunger, Mark Mutter, Thomas Wermuth, Dorothy & Sharon Jones, Alice Joy Lewis, Carol Dallinger & Dr. Timothy (Terry) Durbin.  

Debbie is a frequent guest clinician and adjudicator for festivals and workshops throughout Ontario. Debbie is currently serving the greater Suzuki community as the Chair of the Suzuki Association of Ontario. She is also the proud Suzuki parent of two wonderful girls!

A Taiwanese-Canadian pianist and collaborative musician, Paula earned a master’s degree from the University of Ottawa following her studies at the University of Calgary. She worked with Marilyn Engle and Dr. Stephane Lemelin during her studies in piano performance. More recently, she finished her pedagogy degree in neuroscience research, at the University of Ottawa School of Music Piano Lab, supervised by Dr. Gilles Comeau. 

As a collaborative pianist, Paula worked at the Conservatory at Mount Royal College and Calgary (now Mount Royal University) Academy Program. She has accompanied the opera workshop as a Teaching Assistant at the University of Ottawa and performed with various chamber music groups and choirs in Ottawa. She taught music at the International School in Shanghai, China for four years prior to her research on piano pedagogy and music cognition.

In addition to teaching piano, Paula enjoys being involved with various music endeavors, including auditions, recitals and the Kiwanis Music Festival.​