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’s love for singing and acting began more than 20 years ago. As a student of vocal performance and music education 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. Throughout those years, she has studied privately with some of the areas most highly regarded vocal coaches and recently taught after school choir in some of Portland’s elementary and middle schools through the non-profit organization, Ethos, Inc.

Lori lives in Vancouver with her husband Patrick and their one-year old son, Quinn.

Kristen Chaudhary

With a background in both classical music and musical theater, Kristin has been singing professionally in concerts, church services, and
other community events since the age of 18.

Kristin is currently pursuing a Masters of Music degree in Vocal Performance at Portland State University. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from Arizona State University and
also has attended the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, where she studied German song repertoire.

Kristin discovered her love of teaching in 2003 as the voice instructor at Chandler Music in Arizona. Kristin moved to Vancouver in 2004 whereupon she joined the teaching staff at Musical Beginnings. Based on her teaching abilities and experience, Kristin was granted full membership to the National Association of Teachers of Singing in 2007. Kristin is available for lessons in voice and piano and also teaches classes in choir, musical theater, and Kindermusik.

Chris Heath

Playing the piano came very natural to Chris.  He first studied for 5 years with the late Jan Kryscowski who noticed his natural talent right away.  After playing for only 6 months, Chris was learning to
play by ear such Billy Joel classics as "Angry Young Man" and "New York State of Mind".  Although sight reading did not come easy, his ability to play by ear was astounding and his teachers pushed him to enhance that talent. 

Chris went on to study and receive a B.M. at the Berklee College of Music.  He chose to major in Songwriting and Film Scoring.  Having the chance to study with great songwriters and lyric writers, Chris excelled his knowledge of the music language and the craft of songwriting and composition.  He was fortunate enough to have private piano lessons with the amazing late jazz pianist Dean Earl and accomplished piano and Hammond organ player Dave Limina.  Throughout his Berkelee experience, Chris learned from and played with a vast array of musicians and performed on many studio projects.  Having learned many styles of music including Blues, Pop, Rock, Jazz, Funk, Fusion, Country, Bluegrass, Latin, Afro Cuban and New Age, Chris has had the chance to compose and perform with countless bands and musicians and has recently began to work as a solo artist.  Chris aspires to become a film composer in the future but has always and will continue to find joy in teaching his musical knowledge to all those willing to learn.

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.

Dee Hale

Introducing Dee Hale, a licensed Kindermusik Specialist. Dee is a California certified Pre-school teacher who worked in the field for over16 years. Her love of teaching music to children is what brought her to Kindermusik and wanting to live closer to her grandchildren is what brought her to Washington. Dee declared her retirement from Pre-school Education in 2004. She loves teaching Kindermusik because it offers her flexibility of time so she can balance teaching with writing picture books for children. She says it will be nice to put her BA Degree in Journalism back to work.

In addition to a career in Pre-school education and now teaching Kindermusik, Dee has been a voice-over talent, active in community theatre group called Off Broadway and has directed children’s musical plays for her church. She’s played trumpet, has had some piano and played the flute throughout Jr. and Senior high school in orchestra and solo competitions. Most recently, she directed a pre-school music program of 78 children at a private academy in Orange County, California.

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.