Susan Ferrell

Susan is the owner of Musical Beginnings. She has been a licensed and practicing Kindermusik Educator since 1997 and has also taught piano for many years. She has 11 years experience teaching Special Education children ages 2 - 10 years in the public school system. She is the mother of two school-age boys. Susan has a background in piano, oboe, and choir. She has combined her love for children with her love and appreciation for music in her growing business.

Lori Edenfield

Lori has taught private voice, Kindermusik, choir and musical theater classes since 2004 and loves the opportunity to expose students of all ages to many different aspects of music education. As a vocal performance and music education major in college, she performed in numerous concerts and musical theatre productions. Lori was a featured soloist with her college jazz band, lead singer in various local bands, and has performed in over 15 musical theater productions in the Portland area since 1989.

Lori lives in Vancouver with her husband Patrick and their 3 children.

Kristin Chaudhary

Kristin has been singing professionally since the age of 18 and has performed with Opera Theater Oregon, Vancouver Children's Opera, Washington Chamber Orchestra, Bravo Vancouver, Cantores in Ecclesia, and the William Byrd Festival.She was a winner of the NATS competition and the Arizona Contemporary Chamber Music Competition and recipient of the Miriam Wolfe and Autenreith voice scholarships.

Kristin holds an MM in vocal performance from Portland State University and a BM in vocal performance from Arizona State University. She has completed additional training at the American Institute of Musical Studies (Austria) and Early Music Vancouver (Canada).

Kristin has been teaching since 2003 and is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. In addition to her work at Musical Beginnings, Kristin teaches voice at Clark College and directs the Touch of Class Chorale.

Phyllis Ernsberger

Phyllis Ernsberger has a Bachelor's in Arts and Science with a major in music (piano as the primary instrument) from the University of Washington/Seattle and a Master's in church music (organ and choral directing) from Westminster Choir college in Princeton, New Jersey. She began her violin studies in 7th grade and was a member of the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra. She is currently director of music/organist at Saint Andrew Lutheran Church where she directs several choirs, rings in a bell coir and plays fiddle in a Celtic band. Her other instruments are recorder and accordion.

Steve Jackson

Steve Jackson has been playing music actively for the last 20 years. He began taking lessons at age 7, and by 15 was studying guitar at the University of Texas. At age 19, he began studying at Central Washington University under classical musician and guitarist James Durkee and jazz vocalist Vijay Singh. Steve still performs locally with a variety of artists, including nationally acclaimed Christian group Hyper Static Union. He is passionate about music and enjoys helping others to have enriching musical experiences as well.

Becky Gregory

Becky Gregory began teaching herself to play piano at the age of thirteen and began taking private lessons at the age of fifteen. Piano and theory came easily to her and within a year of beginning lessons she began to play weekly for her church worship team. Through our High School Becky was very active in the music department, doing accompaniment work for choir and drama productions, singing in various choirs, serving as choir president and even being part of the auditioned Nevada All-State choir.

After High School Becky studied at the university of Nevada for two years, then transferred to Central Bible College in Springfield, MO where she studied music and Bible and graduated in 2005.

Becky moved to Vancouver in 2006, with her husband David to serve at Bethel church as children's pastors and in June 2007 Becky also began serving as Minister of Music for Bethel. In September 2007 Becky joined the staff at Musical Beginnings as a piano teacher and licensed Kindermusik educator.

Gary Duckworth

Gary has been producing and directing musical theater with youth of all ages for 18 years. Audiences from 100-900 people are usually left asking “How did they get those young people to act and sing on that level? Gary loves to teach life skills and values in a humorous way while teaching music and drama. He feels this is why many students return year after year.

Students grow in self confidence as they learn to overcome insecurities that are common to all of us. Gary works to draw out or bring into focus what each individual child needs to reach their full potential. Students are able to watch and listen to themselves on camera which helps them to act and sing with a maturity beyond their years. Many youth theater teachers know acting but they could be better at knowing how to motivate the youth to go beyond the ordinary and create something special in the role they are playing. Gary knows that “we are all acting all the time”. We tend to learn a lot about ourselves in a good acting class that effects us in a good way.

Kelly McLean

Kelly is a licensed Kindermusik educator who brings an artistic, creative and humorous approach to the Kindermusik class. She has been working 10+ years with children, ages newborn to 10 years, in before-and-after school programs, and developed and supervised curriculum for art activities, plays and talent shows. She has a degree in Art and studied Early Childhood Education. Kelly likes to spend each day singing and dancing with her two daughters, as if life were a musical.

Sarah Kim

Sarah is a native of Vancouver and has been classically trained in voice for over 10 years, performing opera, musical theater, and sacred music.

Sarah was recently a Young Artist for Portland Opera To-Go’s Outreach program, playing Musetta in their production of La Bohème and also an Apprentice Artist for the Astoria Music Festival, being featured with the Festival Orchestra. Concurrently, she was a soloist with Oregon East Symphony, Henderson Symphony, a finalist for Rimrock Opera’s Margaret Kimball Operatic Competition, and Coeur d’Alene Symphony’s Young Artist Competition. She is also the recipient of Opera League of Northern Arizona Artist Scholarship.

Sarah received her Master of Music in Voice Performance from University of Nevada Las Vegas, where she had a Teaching Assistantship and taught privately. She also received her Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from Northern Arizona University, where she was awarded an Opera Scholarship and began teaching at that time as well. Sarah has been teaching since 2003 and immensely enjoys teaching when she isn’t performing.

Kattie Coffman

Kattie Coffman has studied piano for twelve years. She has the equivalent of a Bachelor's Degree in piano performance and music theory through the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM). She is currently working on her performance diploma through ABRSM and studies with Dr. Lena Vozheiko-Wheaton of Vancouver, Washington.

A Yacolt Washington resident, Miss Coffman has been teaching piano since 2003 and has served as church pianist for Amboy Baptist Church for four years.

Luke Doss

Luke has been playing music for fifteen years, attended Vancouver School of the Arts, and is currently pursuing a Bachelors degree in music. He enjoys writing music, producing and conducting. He is also very passionate about history and the classical era and spent a year working at Fort Vancouver Historical site, giving interpretations on the rich history of our area.

"I love all parts of art and music and I feel that teaching is the most rewarding part. I am a very patient teacher, and very enthusiastic about learning in general. Life long learning is a motto for me. I had my first child who is now eight months old, and watching him figure everything out for the first time fascinates me. It lets me appreciate how little we all know, and how much potential we all have."

Sarah Rumrery

Sarah has been playing violin for 10 years and viola for 8 years. She also plays piano.

Throughout her music education she has at attended Suzuki camp, YMA camp and was a part of the Metropolitian Youth Symphony in Portland, OR. Viola is her main instrument which she plays in the Clark College Orchestra.

Music is a very important part of Sarahs life.

Heidi Ames

Heidi Ames is equally proficient in piano and voice, having begun her music studies at age 13 in Tigard, Oregon. She has performed throughout the United States, the Caribbean and in Europe.

Ms. Ames has attended Johanna Meier Opera Theater Institute, Oberlin Piano Institute, Colorado College Vocal Arts Institute, Charles University in Prague, and completed an apprenticeship in opera accompaniment at The International Institute of Vocal Arts in Chiari, Italy. While living in Italy, she held the position of Assistant Musical Director for the Teatro Comunale in Bolzano for the 2004/2005 season. She recently completed her M.M. in vocal performance at The University of Montana, where she performed the title role in Puccini's Suor Angelica and was a soloist in Bach’s Magnificat. In 2008, she won a singing competition that awarded her the opportunity to perform in a star-studded gala accompanied by Grammy winner David Foster. Ms. Ames has appeared as a guest soloist with the Oregon and Mid-Columbia Sinfoniettas and will be performing operatic arias with the Columbia Gorge Symphony in December 2009.

Her teachers have included David Cody, Pamela South, Martile Rowland, Dean Kramer, and Sedmara Rutstein. Ms. Ames has performed in master classes with Alan Monk, Trish McCaffrey, Bruno Ragacci, Jean-Philippe Collard, Leon Bates, Loren Hollander, and Pamela South. She has coached with Lydia Brown, Judith Blegen, Raymond Gniewek, John and Jolly Stewart, and Charis Dimaris.

With over 10 years of experience as a music teacher, Ms. Ames enjoys teaching children and adults of all ages and abilities and in all musical styles. Her varied and interesting career has given her a unique, holistic approach to teaching, focusing on each student’s individual strengths and learning styles while instilling a sense of responsibility in each student to become his or her own musician.