Lauren Whittaker
Lauren holds the Bachelor's Degree in Music Education from Boston University, having studied piano with Ina Pihlman, Kiki Barley, and Rachel Goodwin. She is not only a Suzuki-certified teacher, but is also an experienced Music Together teacher. In addition, she has participated in workshops for Dalcroze Eurhythmics and Music Mind Games.
Lauren comes to us with previous experience teaching in the Wellesley Public schools and a number of youth choirs. She served as Suzuki piano teacher and Music Together Teacher at the South Shore Conservatory from 2013-2020.
"Watching young children learn and grow has been a source of perpetual joy and wonder to me. Children “just do it” and learn! While I “always” knew I would be a music teacher, my path to Suzuki Piano teaching wasn’t always straight. I’d studied piano from age 5 with an aunt and by late elementary school was able to get into the coveted studio of Ina Pihlman in Chatham, New Jersey.
In High School, I knew I really wanted to study music in Boston and chose Boston University to get a degree in Music Education in 1971. Teaching Elementary School Music in Wellesley, MA was always a joy, and the elementary music staff was eager to run to every seminar within driving distance to learn more and more about the Orff Schulwerk (Children learn by doing!) that was sweeping the country. We must have attended a workshop at least once every year that I taught there.
Through this time, I wanted to keep my piano playing growing so studied with Rachel Goodman in Boston, MA. I also directed a Children’s Choir and a Teen Choir at the Church of Christ in Millis, MA
I moved to the Pittsburgh area (to be near new grandchildren!) in 2005 and opened The Music Room in Irwin, PA. I taught piano there by myself at first. But The Music Room* grew to include a dozen teachers who provided instrument lessons on multiple instruments and voice and included 3 full-time piano teachers.
At the same time, I studied Suzuki Piano in an apprenticeship with Kiki Barley and Sue Vasquez in downtown Pittsburgh through 2005 and 2006 to earn Suzuki Certifications. In the summers of 2009 and 2010, I traveled to Princeton, NJ to study Music Together – a very Orff-like program for newborns through 7 year old’s.
While in Irwin, I also directed the Children’s Choir at the First Presbyterian Church. The Choristers’ Guild was a great source of support for this endeavor and I studied Children’s Choral Directing at their facilities in South Carolina over the summers of 2011 and 2012.
But the call of grandchildren was so great, I moved back to the South Shore (MA) area again in 2013. I immediately started teaching Suzuki Piano and Music Together at the South Shore Conservatory in Hingham and Duxbury. I also directed the Children’s Choir at the Eliot Church in Newton, MA.
During that time, I was able to take the Suzuki Principles in Action course in January of 2016. This helped solidify Suzuki principles in my day-to-day teaching. My piano studio grew rapidly and in 2017 I devoted all of my time to Suzuki Piano Teaching. But of course, I’m not finished with learning. I have been so fortunate to learn Music Mind Games by spending time in the summer of 2017 and 2018 in Kensington, MD with Michiko Yurko.
It is with great pride that I now (in 2020) teach Suzuki Piano at South Shore Piano School with piano teachers of the highest quality. Of course, my life has been filled over these years. I am certain that my students’ lives and their families’ lives are also enriched because I’ve been fortunate enough to have had such a rich, varied education!"