Private Lessons
Suzuki Education
Group Classes
Master of Music, Northwestern University
Bachelor of Music in Viola Performance, The Cleveland Institute of Music
Awards and achievements:
Sarah is a registered Suzuki teacher trainer and former chair of the Board of Directors of the Suzuki Association of the Americas (SAA).
She is on the faculty of the Suzuki Pedagogy program at Roosevelt University and the Music Institute of Chicago.
She is also the founder and director of MIC's annual viola workshop and a frequent clinician at workshops and institutes from Duluth to Tanzania.
Ms. Montzka received a Suzuki Association of the Americas (SAA) Certificate of Achievement in 2012.
My dream is for every child to receive the research-proven cognitive, mental health, and character benefits of long-term music engagement. My priority is to help families simply stick with it. Together, we set high expectations and create structures for working toward goals with joy! With younger musicians, creativity, imagination, play, and humor are essential to lessons. As students progress, I use more questions and evidence-based, neutral self-assessment, guiding them toward greater independence and away from negative self-talk. Guided by a vision of artistry, communication, self-expression, and human connection, my hope is, through studying an instrument, young people will gain the skills to make a positive and meaningful difference in the world.
Previously, Sarah taught in the Jacksonville Symphony Youth Music Program — designed to reach economically-challenged children. She has also worked in the administrative field as Coordinator of Education Programs for the Jacksonville Symphony and Associate Director of the Colorado Suzuki Institute.
Sarah has performed as a section violist in orchestras including the Jacksonville, Charleston and Savannah Symphonies.
What do you love about playing your instrument?
I love playing viola because violists are a tight-knit community and we get to play pieces like Sonoran Storm by Nokothula Ngwenyama (born June 16, 1976), which features the viola and evokes images of an Arizona desert landscape.
Nature has long been a favorite source of artistic inspiration for artists of all mediums. In music, we find no shortage of storm-inspired pieces. From the Summer Presto in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons to Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, music can be shaped to mimic an unexpected downpour, a thunderclap, and more. Written in a perpetual motion style, the Sonoran Storm soloist is challenged to coax the melody out from the surrounding “storm” of a technical, percussive accompaniment.
In earlier musical eras, viola was often valued for its role as an inner voice in chamber music and orchestral repertoire. The casual listener might not immediately discern the viola line in a Beethoven symphony, but like an important recipe seasoning (salt, cinnamon, bacon), its absence would be noticeable. Composers including Dvořák, Mozart, Paul Hindemith, and Rebecca Clarke all played the viola. Happily, the viola now enjoys the spotlight as a solo instrument in its own right with an exciting and ever-expanding repertoire.