Photo credit goes to Anna Hall - U of A student, cellist, educator and former student of String Coalition led by Ms. Holly

We are very proud of Annie Austin who is a senior at Bentonville High School! A member of the top music ensembles, Annie performs with both the Bentonville Chamber Orchestra and the Bentonville Chamber Choir. She is an exemplary music student who also teaches private violin lessons.

Tara Mueller is the Assistant Principal Second Violin of the Alabama Symphony in Birmingham. Tara has also performed with the Sarasota Orchestra and the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, FL. She has served as the Assistant Concertmaster of the Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra while also pursuing a performance diploma at Indiana’s well known Jacobs School of Music. Tara has also performed with the Phoenix Symphony, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, the Discovery Ensemble, Symphony of Northwest Arkansas, and Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra. Tara holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s of Music degrees in violin performance from the New England Conservatory of Music. She is a student of Luc Chapman, Bayla Keyes, Jorja Fleezanis and Kathleen Winkler.

Tara is a native of Fayetteville, Arkansas and studied with Holly Smardo as a young child. Her parents, Tess Delaplain and Bob Mueller are both music professors at the University of Arkansas Music Department.

Ashley Whittle is a native of Springdale, Arkansas and began her musical journey at age 4. Through great dedication and persistence, she has traveled many places studying and performing the violin in a pursuit of excellence. We are very proud of her accomplishments! Ashley currently serves as a member of the Nashville Symphony.

Ashley graduated with a Master of Music in Violin Performance and Suzuki Pedagogy at the Cleveland Institute of Music where she studied with Dr. Olga Dubossarskaya Kaler and served as Pedagogy Assistant for Kimberly Meier-Sims. Ashley is registered to teach Suzuki Books 1-10 with the Suzuki Association of the Americas.

While in Cleveland, Ashley won positions in the Akron, Canton, and Firelands Symphonies and taught violin at the Cleveland School of the Arts and Thrive Arts Center. Other recent accomplishments include her Carnegie Hall debut with the McDuffie Center for Strings Ensemble; performing chamber music in Rome, Italy; working as a studio musician on the Orange Mountain Music label album “Concerto for Violin, Rock Band and String Orchestra;” and performing Vivaldi’s “Spring” from The Four Seasons as soloist with orchestra.

Ashley graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University where she studied with Philadelphia Orchestra Concertmaster David Kim, St. Louis Symphony Concertmaster David Halen, and former Oregon Symphony and Florida Orchestra Concertmaster Amy Schwartz Moretti. At Mercer, Ashley was a full-tuition Presidential Scholar and received the General Excellence in Music Award and Plunkett Scholarship upon graduation. Ashley enjoyed academic life at Mercer, choosing to be a Great Books student where she studied Homer through Emerson in a Socratic seminar setting.

Ashley began playing violin in the Suzuki Method at age 4 with teacher Holly Smardo. At age 15, she moved from her hometown of Springdale, Arkansas, to study with Sarah Johnson at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Ashley graduated 6th in her high school class and received a Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts Fellowship to attend the Aspen Music Festival School.

In the summertime, Ashley has performed in the Aspen Music Festival and School, Sarasota Music Festival, Rome Chamber Music Festival (Italy), Chautauqua Institution, Innsbrook Institute, and the Montecito International Music Festival, among others.

We are very proud of the accomplishments of Dr. Hannah Monk, DMA, a native of Bentonville, Arkansas!

Hannah fell in love with the violin the first time she heard a live orchestra perform and has been pursing music ever since. She graduated with a D.M.A. in violin performance from the University of Memphis where she wrote her dissertation on chamber music for middle and high school violin quartets and trios. She holds an M.M. in violin performance from the University of Memphis and a B.M. in violin performance from the University of North Texas where she graduated summa cum laude.

Hannah currently plays and teaches throughout the mid-south. Passionate about sharing her love of music with children, she has received extensive Suzuki teacher training from teacher trainers such as Libby Armour, Charles Krigbaum, and Teri Einfeldt. She spends her summers teaching young musicians from around the world at Interlochen Arts Camp in Interlochen, MI.

Dr. Hannah Monk Truehart is a Suzuki violin teacher and performer in Memphis, TN. She runs an active violin studio of students ages 4-18 out of her home in Cordova, TN and also teaches in midtown Memphis with the Midtown Suzuki Cooperative.

Caroline Irwin is a graduate of Bentonville High School and studied privately with Ms. Holly during high school. We are very proud of her for studying music education at Oklahoma University in Norman. She is currently studying with Dr. Gregory Lee and will be a sensational music teacher!!

Miranda Burns is an accomplished violinist who is currently teaching K-4 music classes at Floyd Knobs Elementary School in Indiana. Miranda received a bachelor's degree in music performance from the University of Arkansas under the mentorship of Dr. Er-Gene Kahng. and currently is working towards a master’s degree in music education. Miranda was born and raised in West Fork, Arkansas. Miranda was five years old when she first began taking violin lessons with Ms. Holly who is very proud of Miranda for becoming a teacher of our youngest musicians and inspiring them to fall in love with music.

Olivia Steiger Heston has returned to Northwest Arkansas after extensive studies in both Texas and Hawaii. Ms. Holly is delighted that she is home to share her experiences and teaching skills with young people. Olivia is currently teaching in her private studio in Pea Ridge, Arkansas.

Personal experience and educational opportunities inspire Olivia’s passion to share her love of music, learning and character development through violin teaching. Olivia was first inspired by her violin teacher, Diane Halliburton and later became a student of Ms. Holly. Following graduation from Bentonville High School, Olivia studied at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas where she completed a Bachelor of Arts in Music and Mandarin Chinese. Combining music and language through a liberal arts education instilled in Olivia the importance of music in culture and music’s role in forming identity. This inspired her to study music through an ethnomusicology related master’s degree in Asian Studies from the University of Hawai at Mānoa where she researched classical orchestral music and identity in modernizing China. She also learned to play the violin’s Chinese cousin, the erhu, as a solo instrument and in a traditional Chinese music ensemble. Since then, Olivia has lived and taught violin in Honolulu, Chiang Mai Thailand, and Northwest Arkansas. She strives to regularly expand her understanding of music and identity and loves to perform with local ensembles. She is a member of the Suzuki Association of the Americas and is committed to being a lifelong learner. To that end she is so far a registered Suzuki teacher in book 1-4.