Alyssa Hardie Beckmann directs the Kansas City Suzuki Academy, where she teaches violin, viola and chamber music. Alyssa attended Boston University, Vanderbilt University and the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Switzerland. She was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, a performer for Music Master Course Japan, the Britten-Pears Music Festival in England and the Youth Orchestra of the Americas for tours of Latin America, including a joint performance with the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel. Alyssa is a substitute with the Kansas City and St. Louis Symphonies and a member of the Fiama String Quartet.

Alyssa was raised a Suzuki student and has taken many units of long and short term training with William Preucil Sr., Louise Behrend, Teri Einfeldt, Carol Smith and her mother, Julia Hardie. Alyssa has written articles for the SAA journal, recorded for Parents as Partners, presented at the SAA National Conference and served on committees for the SAA and chapter affiliates. She has taught at music festivals and institutes across the country, including the American Suzuki Institite at Steven’s Point, the Colorado Suzuki Institute, Point Counterpoint and Heartland Chamber Music. Alyssa enjoys yoga and gardening with her husband, cellist Matt Beckmann and their two children.

Cellist Maia Cook performs regularly as a soloist, orchestral, and chamber musician. She began her studies at the Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts where she studied with professor emeritus Olive Shaw and Ifan Williams. She continued her education in cello performance at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah and 
Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. 

Maia has a passion for teaching music to children both young and old. She has studied string pedagogy and the Suzuki Method extensively with David Evenchick, Pam Devenport, and Wan Tsai Chen. Most recently she worked to develop Suzuki cello programs at the Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts as well as the Scotia Suzuki School of Music. 

Stephanie Littlejohn is a graduate of Amarillo College, where she studied guitar and received an associate’s degree in music. Stephanie went on to attend West Texas A&M University, where she received a bachelor’s degree in Music Education and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Orchestral Conducting.

Stephanie has attended guitar master classes taught by the internationally renowned Romero Guitar Quartet and was privately instructed by Celin Romero. Stephanie has played guitar with the Amarillo Chorale and various other music groups in the Texas Panhandle. Formerly the Orchestra Director at Fannin Middle School, Stephanie currently directs the Amarillo High Orchestras.

Michele Sheffield-
Piano
Masterclass Clinician    

Michele Sheffield holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance and a Master of Arts degree in Music from West Texas A&M University, and has over 25 years teaching experience, most of it here in the Texas panhandle. Mrs. Sheffield has been a member of the Amarillo Music Teachers Association since 1999, receiving the group’s Teacher of the Year

award in 2006 and 2016, and currently serves as the group’s Student Affiliate Chairman. She is an experienced accompanist and collaborative pianist with performance experience both as a soloist and within chamber ensembles, and has taken a number of AMTA ensembles and chamber groups to the Texas Music Teachers Association Convention to encourage the same varied experience in the next generation of pianists. Mrs. Sheffield has previously held positions teaching private piano at Odessa College, and class piano at WTAMU, and currently operates a private studio in Canyon, Texas where she lives with her husband, Mike.

Katie Greenwell Worsham, from Paris, Texas, is a master's student of Helen Blackburn's in the flute performance program at West Texas A&M University and holds a bachelor's in flute performance from Brigham Young University, where she studied with Dr. April Clayton. Katie has received several awards in acclaimed competitions, including first place in the 2018 Utah MTNA Young Artist competition, woodwind division. Katie is currently the TA for the WTAMU flute studio and teaches private lessons and sectionals at several schools in the Amarillo area. She also enjoys performing as a solo artist and with the WTAMU Symphonic Band. When she's not playing flute, Katie loves to spend time with her husband and son.

Jill Bradford - Additional Violin and Viola Masterclasses

Jill Bradford is a product of the Amarillo ISD Orchestra program, beginning on the violin in the 4th grade. Her first teacher, Betty Roller, recommended switching to the viola in her 6th grade year.  That turned out to be a great move as she was a 2-year All-State Orchestra member on the viola in high school. Bradford went on to study music at West Texas A&M University, majoring in Viola Performance and Music Education.  She taught a total of 33 years in the public schools in Amarillo and Canyon until her retirement in 2017.   The bulk of her career was spent teaching orchestra in Amarillo, mainly at Austin Middle School.  Under her tenure, the orchestra program grew and improved, consistently earning Sweepstakes awards at UIL Competitions

and Outstanding awards at other festivals. In 2014, Bradford was named a finalist for Teacher of the Year for Amarillo ISD.

In addition to teaching, Mrs. Bradford has served as a clinician for area schools, and for All-Region and All-City orchestras. She also served for 10 years as a conductor for the Amarillo Symphony Youth Orchestras. Currently, Bradford teaches the orchestra classes at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Amarillo and is a proud 45-year member of the Amarillo Symphony Viola section.