Kimberly Meier-Sims

Kimberly Meier-Sims is a registered Violin Teacher Trainer through the Suzuki Association of the Americas. She is on the Violin Faculty of the newly organized Cleveland Center for Suzuki Studies and the Cleveland Institute of Music Conservatory Violin faculty, where she is Head of the Suzuki Pedagogy Degree Program. From 2004-2022 she was the Director of the Sato Center for Suzuki Studies at CIM.

Ms. Meier-Sims received a Master’s degree in performance from Western Illinois University, studying violin and Suzuki pedagogy with Almita Vamos. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in performance and education from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville under the guidance of her mentor John Kendall, the first American teacher to travel to Japan to study and observe the teaching of Shinichi Suzuki.

From 1996-2004 Ms. Meier-Sims was a full-time faculty member at the University of Memphis, teaching the two-year Suzuki Pedagogy teacher training program, coordinating the Suzuki String Program and directing the Memphis Suzuki String Summer Institute. In 1984-1996 she was on the violin faculty of the Preucil School of Music in Iowa City where she developed her teaching skills, became one of the youngest registered Suzuki Teacher Trainers in the US, and developed her administrative skills as Program Assistant and Chamber Music Coordinator. The summer of 1986, Ms. Meier-Sims traveled to Japan for a six-week study with Dr. Suzuki.

 

In 2015 Ms. Meier-Sims was awarded the CIM Excellence in Teaching Award in recognition of outstanding teaching, service and continued devotion to the education of young musicians. In 2002 she was the Violin Coordinator for the 10th SAA National Conference in Minneapolis. She was recognized as one of Tennessee’s outstanding educators by the Tennessee Governor’s School of the Arts in 2001. Her published articles can be found in the American Suzuki Journal, Strings Magazine and the Tennessee Musician.