Music academy adds new programs

The Charleston Academy of Music has announced two additions to its program: Beginning Suzuki Violin for mothers and children under the direction of Kay Wheeler and private voice instruction from Maria Antunez and Mary Hubbell.

Wheeler is an early childhood Suzuki specialist, and has been a registered Suzuki teacher since 1980. She began playing violin at age 6 and has studied with James Caesar, Alan Grishman and Roger Shermont.

Wheeler graduated cum laude in Music Education with a major in violin from the University of New Hampshire.

The Beginning Suzuki violin classes stimulate the musical ideas of the participants, and offer a shared creative experience for mother and child. Classes are limited to five children and mothers and meet on Mondays and Thursdays for 30 minutes. The first three sessions are for the mothers alone, who will learn some basic skills. During the first year, the children learn five variations on "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and perform in a recital.

The academy offers private instruction in voice. Vocal instructors are Maria Antunez and Mary Hubbell. Antunez is pursuing an artist certificate at the College of Charleston, and has performed in numerous recitals and operas since moving here from her native Uruguay. Hubbell holds music degrees from Boston College, the University of California, and the Royal Conservatory in The Hague in the Netherlands, where she studied both singing and vocal pedagogy.

Studying voice offers a student the chance to work on expression using the whole body and is a great way to explore one's musical imagination. Instructors tailor lessons to suit individual needs and set achievable goals for each student.

The academy, founded in January 2003, is a nonprofit music preparatory school whose goal is to be recognized as the premier music preparatory school in South Carolina.