Outstanding Studio Teacher Award 2017-2018

Outstanding Studio Teacher Award 2017-2018

  • On June 9, 2018

Congratulations to Laura Tagawa, Outstanding Studio Teacher of the year.

Dr. Laura Tagawa is active as both a violin teacher and performer. Laura has extensive teaching experience and currently maintains her own teaching studio in Tucson, Arizona. She is an active adjudicator and completed ASTACAP training in 2010 at the ASTA National Conference. She has also served as the Arizona ASTACAP coordinator. Laura is a registered Suzuki Violin Teacher (Books 1-10). She completed long term Suzuki training in Violin at Northern Arizona University with Dr. Louise Scott. She has taken additional Suzuki training courses with Susan Baer, Ronda Cole, Bill Dick, Daphne Hughes, Susan Kempter, John Kendall, Laurie Scott, Kathleen Spring, Beth Titterington, Mimi Zweig, and attended Summer School in Matsumoto, Japan. She is currently the President of the Arizona Suzuki Association, Co-Founder and Director of the Chaparral Suzuki Academy in Prescott, and teaches at workshops and summer programs throughout Arizona.

Laura is a member of the Arizona Opera Orchestra, including performances of Wagner’s Ring Cycle in 1996 and 1998. She has previously performed in orchestras in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana and internationally with the AIMS Festival Orchestra (Austria), Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra (Japan), and Vancouver Island Symphony Orchestra (Canada). She currently freelances in the Tucson area where she performs with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Sierra Vista Symphony, Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra, and Tucson Repertory Orchestra. She serves as orchestra librarian for the Arizona Opera. In the summer she performs as concertmaster at the San Luis Potosi Opera Festival in Mexico.

Laura received a Bachelor of Music in Performance from Northern Arizona University, a Master of Music in Performance from Florida State University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Performance (Minor in General Education) from the University of Arizona. Her main violin teachers include Marla Mutschler, Louise Scott, Karen Clarke, and Mark Rush.

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