Meet the Teacher
A native of Japan, Kaori Matsui completed her undergraduate and graduate degrees at the Shepherd School of Music under the legendary pedagogue Paul Kantor. An avid orchestral musician, she has won the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen fellowship, toured Japan with the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra, and appeared at Carnegie Hall with the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra and New York String Orchestra Seminar Orchestra. An enthusiastic performer of contemporary music, she has participated in various world premiers, including the American stage premier of Philip Glass' *Kepler* at the Spoleto Festival USA.
Kaori found her love for teaching when she served as a chamber music faculty in the Michael P. Hammond Preparatory Program at the Shepherd School of Music. This experience inspired her to began her Suzuki trainings under Suzuki trainers Carrie Reuning-Hummel, Marilyn O'Boyle, and Rolando Freitag. In 2015, Kaori founded The Heights Violin Studio in Houston, Texas, where she utilizes the Suzuki Method to nurture and support children of all ages through weekly private and group classes. She is also on the faculty of AFA Houston since 2016.
“I believe in being kind. I think that I have to do my job and I have to do it in a kind way and a constructive way. Even though the basic message is the same, they way it is presented is what is really important. You can tell somebody the same thing in two, three, or four different ways. One way, they can listen to you and feel terrible, and another way they can listen to you and feel wonderful.”
